Night Fishing 101
It is summer time, it’s hot, the boat traffic is crazy and the fish just don’t want to bite.
Well, you can beat the heat, forget about the boat traffic and still catch a ton of bass.
Once the hot summer time heat starts and the pleasure boaters come out, I almost solely fish at night. Lets go over some of my key baits and some tips for summer time bass fishing at night. The first thing you always want to consider when fishing at night is safety.
Lights are a key factor at night. Make sure all your navigation lights work so other boaters can see you. Also, a headlight/flash light is a must. It gets a lot darker out on the water then you think. You will need to see to get your tackle and also to cast. I always use the brightest head light I can buy, no such thing as too bright. The last but maybe most important safety item is your life vest. It is dark and one wrong step could put you in the water. I use a self inflating life vest and wear it at all times while night fishing. Now that we have covered the safety items, lets get into the tackle and set up. I like to keep my lures at night very simple. You do not want to be re-tying and changing lures all the time.
Remember it’s dark and hard to see. I use a 3 lure set up that never lets me down; a football head jig, a swim jig and a big worm. First lets talk about my go to bait at night, the football jig. I like a 1/2 oz Double D Jigs football head jig in black and blue with a Gambler-Lures burner craw on the back. You want to keep bottom contact at all times and you also want to make as much commotion as you can on the bottom. The burner craw on the back of the jig does just that. Fish this around rocks and structure in 5-15 feet of water as the bass move up at night to feed on craw fish. Second is the swim jig and I fish this around docks. If you can find a dock with lights on it, that makes it 100 times better. Bugs will be attracted to the light, bait fish and perch will eat the bugs and the bass will eat the bait fish around the light. For this set up, I like a 3/8 oz swim jig with a Gambler-Lures EZ-Vibes swimbait on the back. The EZ-vibes swimbait has a huge tail thump and makes it easy for the fish to find. White is my go to color for this rig. Last but definitely not least, the big worm. I use this as a clean up bait. I will fish it both around docks and in the rocks for giant night bass. I use a 1/4 oz Woo Tungston weight pegged with a Gambler-Lures 7 inch ribbon tail worm in June bug color. This bait will get bites and will catch the fish that will not eat the jig. I fish all three lures on braid. Remember, it is dark and the fish can not see so use the braid to your advantage. It will help you feel those light bites. So this summer, when its crazy hot and you want to go catch some giant bass, give night fishing a try.
