Favorite Night Baits Revisited - Advice Needed

I will be in a night tournament in a couple of weeks and I am going to need to adjust the tackle I drag out accordingly. We launch at 8:00 pm and weigh in ad 5:30 am. Sunset begins at 8:30 pm, civil twilight ends at 9:00 pm, moonrise is at 1:20 am (37% visible disk), moon transit is not until 8:30 am, and civil twilight begins again at 5:00 am.

How would you attack the different light levels? This lake has good numbers of both largemouth and smallmouth bass.

Harry J aka Thundercat Brooklyn Bill's Tackle Shop Fishing Team http://www.geocities.com/brooklynbill2003/products.html Share the knowledge, compete on execution.

Ok... forget about the moonlight helping you. Instead, if there are any single light sources like around launch ramps, that's here the lighting will come into play. Spinnerbaits have always done well for me there in black or purple colors.

Otherwise, spinnerbaits are still effective at night in the total darkness, but texas-rigged worms are great at night. Hopefully, the boater will have a good set of black-lights, so be sure to spool your worm rod with flourescent line. If you've never seen flourescent line under a black light at night... you haven't fished! It make that mono look like rope hanging from your rod!

I'm not much on nighttime topwater lures, but only because I can catch them on the two above mentioned baits. If they're not biting those... it's time to go home. Ok, I'll have to add jigs up there somewhere too, so make that three.

~ The only colors I ever use at night on my spinnerbaits are solid black or black with blue (the blue turns black in the dark, as do all other colors). I always use a black blade at night. This combination never varies.

~ At twilight or the crack of dawn, I prefer the black with blue skirt, and use a gold blade. I use this combination because it has always produced the best for me at those times.

~ I use only 3/8 oz. spinnerbaits in real low light & no light situations, because I always use slow, steady, shallow retrieves. In my experience, deep bass will come up a long way if they are interested, and the slow steady retrieve facilitates the fish finding the lure.

~ In all the conditions described above, I always use only single blades, starting with a #4 Colorado, and then if I get no action I will eventually switch to a #6 Indiana, then a #7 Indiana, then a #5 Colorado & then, finally, a #6 Colorado. If none of these produce, I would switch to a large black Jitterbug & eat as many snacks as possible between casts (hot peppers, Slim Jims, Beef Jerky, & other healthy stuff.)

~ I have one major exception to the above: I have no idea why this works, but a 3/8 oz. spinnerbait with a purple skirt and a #6 gold Colorado blade can be an absolute killer around lighted boat docks, marinas, etc. Go figure!

I'm sure that some of this will sound weird, but whatever works... right? I have always done well at night this way, and I hope it helps.

Good luck to you, Harry!

I then to fish parallel to shore and try to run the spinnerbait at as steady a speed as possible, about 1/3 of the way down in the water column. sudden changes in speed or direction are strike triggers in the daytime. At night, they seem to generate misses. Tune yourself into the thump of the big single blade and whenever anything interrupts or deadens it, swing hard.

RichZ© www.richz.com/fishing