Night Fishing help

[swimbaitman]

something i forgot to mention is fish the same places in the day and find spots that you think seem fishy, then try them at night. my local pond has a few humps that come up from 5 feet to 2 feet, only way you'd know they were there is to look for them in the light 

[jtipton91]

Parallel the shore with a rat.

[timcauliffe]

My opinion is if you are able to fish, go out and do it. Forget all the lunar phase malarky and weather stuff - just get out on the water. Worry less about all of that. Learn your baits. Have patience. Toss that slammer around and try different retrieves. Something will work and you will get on to it.

[tysonck]

I have found a lot of times fish just do not want a surface bait at night for what ever reason. The rising son crushes fish in this situation. If there isnt much surface action ( sounds crazy to you surface freaks , I know) switch it up and go subsurface. The old style castaic hard head and plastic tail 9" crankdown trout used to kill it for me also. Ive gotten into throwing other baits these days and have gotten away from it for no other reason, but slow steady subsurface baits kill in the dark. Dragging a hudd like you do in the winter can be dynamite in the dark if you have bottom that doesnt have much cover. Dont get hung up on trying to get a topwater explosion and miss out on a bite thats happening beneath.

 

Side note:Color has never mattered for me at night with swimbaits. Trout colored. Black colored. Carp colored. They dont care.

Also, slow and steady seems to work best. Eratic actions just dont seem as neccessary to me at night as when the bass can see the lure better in the daylight. ( Of course, there are always those times when, blah blah blah).

 

My advise. Keep it simple. Keep changing through 3 or four baits you want to try until you get bit. Two surface baits with different sounds or actions, and two subsurface baits that follow suit. No magic potion. Just a box of tools and hopefully youre fishing in a spot that is holding active feeding fish. And if not keep rotating them until they do.

 

Last piece. The swim jig is death when they dont want anything else.Let it fall to the bottom, crank 5 times and repeat. Good luck.

[Nateraz]

I fish Slammers and Punkers as topwater, punker when they want more commotion, slammer is great all around.

I also love fishing the weedless rising sons because i can just throw them almost everywhere. Rats are real good as well, like nezumaa's and woodrow.

[reelfish]

One of our members Marbles posted a video a few years ago on night fishing. It was full of lots of good information. 

[FishDr]

One of our members Marbles posted a video a few years ago on night fishing. It was full of lots of good information.

 

You might still be able to find it - search for a video by Swimbo - that's his current handle. Bit definitely has some solid info.

[Az_urban_swimbaiter]

Rats , Hudds , triple Trout , glide baits they all work . I pick a bait I have the most confidence in the day . So I know what my lure is doing every reel turn , what speed I like to fish it . How long to pause . If I do a half turn of energy real what will it do Ect . Learn to fish the the baits during the day to really get to be comfortable with how you swim the bait Ect ... Swimbait fishing your not gonna get a fish nesasarily every 5 trips or every two or even every 10 . You have ally more odds of catching fish with conventional gear . But the size of fish it apeals to is much greater . Now I'm not saying you can't catch a 12 on dropshot but y would that fish wanna search for worms while there is a big trout or bluegill , rat you name it . The wanna spend as much time saving energy so they can fill them selves with only a 1 bigger meal . But if you drop a dropshot on her nose she could eat she might not . Your not gonna land or even goon nearly as many fish as you would on a jig Ect . Even the small bass will eat a big 10" trout . I got a 1 pounder the other night on a black dog baits tail wagger (10" bait) but we caught a few nicer sized fish on the bait aswell . Way more big fish are caught on the big baits compared to small fish

[Az_urban_swimbaiter]

I have found a lot of times fish just do not want a surface bait at night for what ever reason. The rising son crushes fish in this situation. If there isnt much surface action ( sounds crazy to you surface freaks , I know) switch it up and go subsurface. The old style castaic hard head and plastic tail 9" crankdown trout used to kill it for me also. Ive gotten into throwing other baits these days and have gotten away from it for no other reason, but slow steady subsurface baits kill in the dark. Dragging a hudd like you do in the winter can be dynamite in the dark if you have bottom that doesnt have much cover. Dont get hung up on trying to get a topwater explosion and miss out on a bite thats happening beneath.

 

Side note:Color has never mattered for me at night with swimbaits. Trout colored. Black colored. Carp colored. They dont care.

Also, slow and steady seems to work best. Eratic actions just dont seem as neccessary to me at night as when the bass can see the lure better in the daylight. ( Of course, there are always those times when, blah blah blah).

 

My advise. Keep it simple. Keep changing through 3 or four baits you want to try until you get bit. Two surface baits with different sounds or actions, and two subsurface baits that follow suit. No magic potion. Just a box of tools and hopefully youre fishing in a spot that is holding active feeding fish. And if not keep rotating them until they do.

 

Last piece. The swim jig is death when they dont want anything else.Let it fall to the bottom, crank 5 times and repeat. Good luck.

This is so true a lot of fish don't want to hit topwater for some reason .

[Rmcgrath]

If usually fish a wooden shellcracker really slow and pause at vegetation and at the weed line.

[ISO_the1]

All good info in here...for me i have been throwing a 7" X2 slammer and a BBZ-50 rat.  Those two baits are my go to when it comes to ninja fishing!  Full moon, no moon, doesn't matter.  You'll be able to see what you're doing better on a full moon but I have not noticed a bit change with different phases.  I fish HEAVILY pressured places and not so pressured places with the same outcome...FISH ON!!

 

Its more about confidence and experience.  Change things up, longer pauses, steady retrieve with a pop then a pause...(same stuff everyones been saying).  And yes, if the slammer isnt working go to a louder bait like the BBZ-50 rat.

 

Now if you just cant get them to break the surface go to a subsurface with a good thump.  Rising son, Hudd 68, 8" Hudd, Hudd gill are all good baits to entice the weary bass...

[bassturds]

i know this is a swear in the swimbait world and not in the dictionary of swimbaiting. T rigs have been getting good fish, spinn yea nothing big but i wanted fish instead of skunked! 3-4lbsers aint bad for the Northeast.  ive used swimbaits  topwaters mostly with little success. the bass have been really keying in on crawfish. so  find the bait and the key forage of the lake and start from there. next i like dark colors but ive seen people do really well on white and chartreuse.  ive done good on a 7inch perch slammer. i also like lot of noise and vibration. rather its a noisy topwater or bottom crawling bait.  the bass can find the bait easier with a lot of vibration and/or noise. gota have at least one of them. last thing is fish SLOW!!!!!!! slower the better.  ive had some good luck slow rolling a hudd 68 night stalker. 
my favorite baits for night are hudd night stalker, bbz rat 50,buzz jet, lemires sea fly and slammer.  

shallow lakes fish can be anywhere but the deep lakes i find the bass will come up and cruise drop offs!