5 Methods To Catching Midnight Bass

Night fishing is the perfect relief from the legions of pleasure boaters, pressure of other anglers, and oppressive summer heat. It’s also a great way to catch the biggest bass of the season.Unfortunately, night fishing can be intimidating to a lot of anglers, and it takes some skill to do it right. We sat down with some of the best in the business and came up with the following list of tips for maximizing your night fishing success.

1. Keep it simple

Its dark, do you really want to be messing with a deck-full of rods, or complicated presentations? Keep your boat deck clear, only get out one combo at a time, and restrict your tackle to simple presentations.

2. Make it thump

Without light, bass feed purely off the information provided them by their lateral lines. Vibration is the key. Try big Colorado bladed spinnerbaits, big jigs, vibrating jigs, and big worms for maximum success. Remember, night time is not the time to finesse fish.

3. Fish transitions

At night, bass will leave their deepwater haunts to hunt in the shallows. The best night fishing locations are transitions where there is deep water close to shore. Bass follow those transitions as they move up to feed. Drop-offs, points, channel bends, and ditches are all excellent night fishing targets.

4. Be patient

Don’t expect night time to be big for numbers. Instead, be patient and know that you’re probably going to be sacrificing numbers for quality. If you keep your nose down and your bait wet, there will be a feeding window where the fish will bite. Sometimes it’s only an hour, but that hour can be magical.

5. Don’t overwork baits

In addition to using baits that put out a lot of vibration, try to minimize how much you work them. Bass have a tendency to miss baits at night as it is, so keeping the extra jerks or pops to a minimum will usually result in more bites. At night, slow and steady usually wins the race.