Night Fishing?

[ESipes_89]

Hi,

I was just wondering what kind of baits and techniques you guys use for early morning night fishing. Ive chosen a pond near by that is relatively shallow but with great structure. I can only fish from shore and keep in mind that Cordell, Ok (my home town) had flooding rains on August 1st.

Thanks,
-Eric

[BigBassin144]

I'd use topwaters. That what I fish with in my pond. Make sure it's something that'll make a ton oif noise. My favorites are buzzbait, HulaPoppers, JitterBugs, and soft plastic toads. They are great for bringing over shallow structure as long as its not weeds or slop, which isn't really structure, its cover... anyways if it is weeds and slop, T-rigged toads still work great along with Bronzeye frogs or Scum Frogs.

Hope this helps ya out.

[FlyRod]

Black/Blue Swirl 5" Tiki Stik. T-rigged on Gamakatsu 4/0 EWG hook. No additional weight (unless you know how to SKILLFULLY and PROPERLY insert a tiny rattle.) Cast to target, let fall naturally. Be alert for possibly very subtle bite. Best fished on braid with a 6-8 foot leader made of purpose-made fluorocarbon leader material, attached with a J-Knot.
If no bite on initial drop, begin SLOW retrieve...maybe just SLOWLY winding rather than pumping. If rattle is inserted, make VERY short little twitches during retrieve.
Repeat as needed.


FR

[JB]

How many hours of dark light conditions-fishing do you get in on a typical morning outing flyrod?

[FlyRod]

Originally Posted by JB

How many hours of dark light conditions-fishing do you get in on a typical morning outing flyrod?

Well, JayBee, it all depends on whether there is cloud cover and the time we start. On a typical day, we launch at 0500 and enjoy perhaps an hour and a half of "night fishing" IF there is cloud cover. This is where (so far) the Black/Blue 5" Tiki Stik has been most productive.
Frankly, were it possible, I'd like to be on the water even earlier, perhaps at 0400, especially in the heat of Summer.
Back in the day, I did a LOT of night fishing. This was in the era when Calaveras (means "Skulls") Lake, just south of San Antonio, was a highly productive bass fishery, both as to numbers and average size.
We'd usually began night fishing around late April or early May and stay with it through September. We'd begin at around Ten PM and hang in 'til about 0400 OR until 0900 (either way, to avoid traffic on the cross-city return run.)
There were two basic venues for us. One was the dam with it's rip-rap made up of large rocks. It was well-lighted, BTW.
The most effective lure, for me anyway, was a 4" curly-tailed black worm, fished T-rigged with a 1/8 oz weight. We broke off a lot, but the rewards were huge. NOTE: This was not a 4" worm as produced, but the last 4" of a 7 or 8 inch worm, carefully amputated. This made for a thicker, and therefore more visible 4" worm, and the proportionately larger tail made for a slower fall.
The other productive areas were also rip-rap at a couple of other locations on the lake. These were not lighted, however.
The worms worked well in those locations too, as did single-Colorado-bladed spinner baits in white or black. These were especially deadly when the wind was blowing onto the rocks and when cast so near the rocks as possible. I can recall several nights when the wind was up to 15-20 MPH and the bass were in a feeding frenzy.
One can only wonder what it might have been like had soft sticks, ala Tikis or Senkos, been on the market in those days but in any event we often enjoyed 25-50 bass nights.
I hope this give some folks a better appetite for night angling.

FR

[ESipes_89]

That pretty much answers my question. I've tried with 7" worms but have yet to catch anything and cutting them down to 4" might help. I have also yet to try topwater thinking that the fish would need to have a visual to be able to accuratly strike.

I'll try some things you guys suggested and get back w/ the results.

Thanks,
-Eric

[bassfisher02]

Fish can very easily see topwater lures on any night other than a no-moon night. The silhouette of the lure to the sky makes it very easy for a fish to see, and with the added water displacement/noise topwater can be deadly. Try the jitterbug and see what happens.

[basschamp4]

a devils horse works well at night

[Jonesey]

Spinnerbait or Pop R

[csob3]

I have always use big bulky cranks. Norman Little N's and Deep Little N's in Black w/ White dots and Black with Blue Belly. These colors are unreal. Check out my Custom Painted Lures.

Casey Sobczak
www.PaintYourBait.com