When I don’t have a tournament, I enjoy a night fishing trip every now and then. Night fishing is a blast especially during the hot summer dog days. You don’t have to pull an all nighter to catch fish, a 7 to 11 PM trip is just about right. You get the good evening bite and the best part of the night bite.
I’ve fished a couple of tournaments in Missouri that blasted off at 7pm and weighed in at 7am. That made for a long night; especially when the fishing was very slow from 11 until about 4am.
Fishing at night requires a few extra items to make your outing more enjoyable. The required items are a good map of the water, clear blue florescent line, black light and a spotlight. A Lowrance GPS (Global Positioning System) is not required but sure takes the guesswork out of where you are or how to get back. The i-finder hand held models are great units and surprisingly inexpensive.
Clear blue florescent line doesn’t look like anything special until you turn on a black light then it actually glows in the dark. This helps you to detect any line movement from light biting fish when throwing slow baits like jigs or tubes. It’s not necessary to use the blue line when throwing faster moving lures like buzzbaits or spinnerbaits but it helps when you have to retie, just work over your black light and you can see it perfect.
If you are an avid reader of my articles you may remember I mentioned that I will rarely pick up any buzzbait except for white. Well night fishing is one of those rare moments, my night time spinnerbaits and buzzbaits are solid black. For my spinnerbait I prefer a large profile 1/2oz model made with heavy gauge wire a big single colorado black nickel blade, a black skirt and a black number 1 Uncle Josh pork rind for a trailer. For the buzzbait I like 1/2oz bait with a black blade, black skirt and the same black pork trailer. On a short 4-hour trip these are the two lures I will throw the most, covering water looking for the more active biters. Shallow, shallow, shallow! I don’t think you can fish too shallow after dark. Start out fishing points and as it gets later (darker) work your way to the very back of the coves. The same strategy applies to weed beds, start by fishing the outer edge and as it gets later work your way to the shallower weeds. Night fishing is a lot of fun and a great way to get your fishing fix, without cooking in the hot summer sunshine. Until next time keep your lure wet.
