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Old 07-04-12, 10:25 AM   #1
b.a.s.17
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Default night tournaments

Our bass club has an all night tournament at the end of July, and I was wanting to get some advice because I've never fished one. The tournament will be from like 8:00 PM till 7:00 AM. The water on the lake is clear and could be really clear if we don't get any rain before the end of July.

I've had people tell me to fish black lures and I've had someone tell me to just fish what you normally throw so I don't know what to think.

Should I tie some rattles to my jigs?

What other techniques would you guys use?

Any advise or idea would be appreciated!
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Old 07-04-12, 10:52 AM   #2
bassboogieman
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I don't like all night tx - I can't stay awake - but I help run a weekly evening tx, 6 - 10 PM. After dusk I like dark (black) lures. Bass see better in low light than we do and I believe bass start moving shallower, as night approaches and the moon gets up, to start feeding. I also think they use the available moon light to sillhouette prey above them and hunt less for bottom prey until they get very shallow. Depending on available moon light I throw dark top waters in shallow water out to about 8' in depth and I love a black wacky rigged Senko, letting in sink to the bottom then repeat in water from shallow to deep. A dark spinnerbait (single large Colorado blade) is also good, having a large sillouhette and the large blade gives off good vibration and some flash, again depending upon available moon light.

Last edited by bassboogieman; 07-04-12 at 11:03 AM.
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Old 07-04-12, 12:16 PM   #3
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Black spinnerbaits, black buzzbaits and black crankbaits. I've also had good luck on 10" worms and tube jigs with rattles in them. If this tournament is around a full moon you may just have some BIG bags of fish. Good luck and have fun.
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Old 07-04-12, 01:49 PM   #4
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Based on the moon calender looks like the moon will be 68% visible... I'm gonna have some jigs custom tied before the tournament would you guys get solid black or would you mix in some blue, red, or chartreuse strands?
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Old 07-04-12, 02:26 PM   #5
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I've found a few black norman crankbaits, but they dive a little deeper than I was looking for. Any recommendations on where to find some other black cranks?
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Old 07-04-12, 03:00 PM   #6
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1/4 or 1/2 oz. Black Jitterburg. That use to be all we threw when fishing in Florida, Clear and stained water at night. Steady, slow retrieve worked best for us. If I had to fish that lake at night that is what I would throw. (Sometimes we couldn't find a black jitterburg so we bought whatever color they had and used a black marker to paint it.

Good luck, ought to be fun.
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Old 07-04-12, 04:43 PM   #7
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I night fish quite a bit and I used to fish a lot of night tournaments, now don't fish as many night tournaments but I still fish a few now and then. One conclusion I came to with night fishing is don't over think it. Yes black baits will work well in the dark, but so will green pumpkin, watermelon, and any other color that works during the day. One time I fished a jackpot night tournament on Table Rock with a member of the club I was fishing at the time. I gave way too much consideration to the fact I was fishing at night when choosing baits and colors. I spent most of the night fishing black jigs and worms, spinnerbaits with big colorado blades, and other dark and bulky baits. I flat out got whipped by him with a watermelon shaky head LOL. From that point on I started focusing a lot more on the places I fished and less attention to using the perfect color.

Now days my favorite night fishing baits are not much different than the baits I will use if I were fishing a day time tournament. Buzzbaits, jigs, spinnerbaits, shaky heads, 10" Powerworms, and any other baits that you have confidence in during the day will also produce for you at night. You color selections really don't need to be much different either, try to pick your baits based on water clarity and forage and forget the fact that your fishing in the dark. You might have to make subtle color or presentation changes to dial in exactly what the fish will want but if you make your decisions based on the same facts that you base your decisions on in the day time usually you won't be far off.
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Old 07-05-12, 04:43 AM   #8
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before anyone can give you any good advice, need to know what lake. is it clear or colored. what is the depth of visiblity? how deep is the thermocline if present? i noticed you are from ok. i used to night fish grand lake quite a bit. is the lake you are fishing similar to grand?

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Old 07-05-12, 06:48 AM   #9
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I agree with using whatever's currently working in the daytime, except I tend to just bump up the size a little.
I would advise you to see if you can get them patterned on some kind of reaction bait, fishing a contact bait in the dark can be tough.
*disclaimer* Reaction baits are usually full of sharp trebles(spinnerbaits being an obvious exception), so the odds of getting a treble impaled in a hand go way up at night.
Bottom baits (worms/jigs) with a single hook are lots harder to hurt yourself with, but unless you've got many many hours of experience and have developed mad skills/confidence using them in the dark.....well.....
Either way just have fun and stay focused!
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Old 07-05-12, 09:54 AM   #10
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I usually use 8 to 10 inch worms when its totally dark, as far as color experiment with it. One trip they were hitting on 10" with 1" pinched off (9" worm) with a red tail, tryied same thing with different color tails and no hits. I think the color depends on how much light hits the bait after penetrating the water (clarity of the water) also used translucent worms with a lot of good results in brakish water with rattles.
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Old 07-05-12, 02:40 PM   #11
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Thanks for the advise guys think I'll just take a few different things out there and see whats workin... I'll have 11 or 12 hours to figure it out!!

Merc we are on Tenkiller don't know much about it right now I haven't been on the lake since our first tournament in Feb. Of all the lakes we fish on this trail we are the least familiar with Tenkiller.
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Old 07-05-12, 05:21 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by b.a.s.17 View Post
Thanks for the advise guys think I'll just take a few different things out there and see whats workin... I'll have 11 or 12 hours to figure it out!!

Merc we are on Tenkiller don't know much about it right now I haven't been on the lake since our first tournament in Feb. Of all the lakes we fish on this trail we are the least familiar with Tenkiller.
tenkiller is somewhat of a clear lake. the first think i would do is to idle out to the channel and see where the thermocline is. i think tenkiller still has timber in it. at least i remember seeing it once, and as i remember it had timber. a couple of pretty good bassers by the name of bud guthrie and bill willis used to fish tenkiller a lot. they both told me that it fished somewhat similar to table rock. with that said, timber with a roll off at the depth the bass are holding will be good places to try to find. baits to throw will be jigs, plastic worms and crawdads. you will need to experiment with sizes and weights. i would think that a 3/8 oz would be a good choice to begin with on a jig and and plastics both. do not be afaid to go up to a half oz. sometimes it takes more speed to trigger a strike. i have seen it go the other way, and had to drop all the way down to a 1/4 oz. i hope that you have a good black light and use flourescent line. it makes working your lure and strike detection much easier.

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Old 07-09-12, 10:05 AM   #13
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Merc my partner actually has one of the black lights that mounts on the side of the boat what type of fluorescent line do you use?
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Old 07-09-12, 11:01 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by b.a.s.17 View Post
Merc my partner actually has one of the black lights that mounts on the side of the boat what type of fluorescent line do you use?
i am not a fan of floro, and i think that stren is the only company to make a flouescent floro. in mono, i still use stren. in braid, i use stren sonic braid, or berkley fire line. the sonic is much thinner, rounder, limper. i use 20 and 30 in fireline. in the sonic, i use 40 and 50. the 40 sonic is at least as thin as 10lb. mono. we use it at falcon, and if it stands up to falcon fish, it will stand up to anything, and any type of trees whatever.

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