During the spring and fall, one of my favorite things to do is go night fishing with my husband. It has become our way of sneaking a little more fishing into the workweek without having to wait around for the weekend.
As soon as we both get off work, we grab the boat and meet at our local boat ramp. Most of the time, we head to Logan Martin Lake. Partly because it’s close to home, but also because there is some great fishing around the Town and Country area.
And in the fall, it’s hard to beat being on the water after dark.
The best kind of fall evening
Depending on how early or late into the fall we are, I’ll usually bring a sweatshirt or something I can quickly throw over a T-shirt once the temperature starts dropping. There have even been nights when I’ve brought a blanket along.
Lord knows a Southern summer night can get humid. Summer is still a great time to night fish, don’t get me wrong, but there is something about that less-humid, crisp fall air that makes being on the water at night so much more enjoyable.
Apparently, the fish enjoy it too, because they dang bite!
That’s one of the things I love most about night fishing. It doesn’t have to be complicated. We aren’t heading out there trying to make fishing harder than it needs to be. We’re there to catch a few bass, relax and have a good time together.
Keep it simple
When my husband and I go night fishing, our approach is about as straightforward as it gets. Most nights, we rely heavily on two baits.
For a little context, we don’t have forward-facing sonar on our boat. If we did, we might experiment more with minnow-style baits and other techniques. Instead, we tend to reach for two of the most old-school bass fishing presentations on planet Earth — and they work.
The first is a small Brush Hog-style bait on a shaky head.
We typically throw green pumpkin or watermelon red and add a little chartreuse to the tail. You could absolutely go with more traditional night fishing colors like black, blue and purple to create a stronger silhouette, but I’ve always found that little bit of chartreuse does the trick for us.
Our other go-to is about as classic as night fishing gets: a dark-colored spinnerbait with a big ol’ Colorado blade.
Black, blue and purple are all great choices. That big Colorado blade creates plenty of vibration and water displacement, which can help bass locate your bait when visibility is limited.
And that brings us to one of the biggest things to remember when choosing a nighttime lure.
Make some noise
Bass don’t stop hunting when the sun disappears, but darkness changes the way they locate prey. Their lateral line allows them to detect movement, vibration and pressure changes in the water, which is why lures that create plenty of commotion can be so effective after dark.
If you want to cover more water, try a dark black-and-blue ChatterBait, a black, blue or purple buzzbait or even a black lipless crankbait. Anything that creates vibration, sound or noticeable water displacement can give bass another way to track down your lure.
Conditions matter, though.
On nights when you have a big full moon lighting up the water, or when you’re fishing around docks with strategically placed lights, you may be able to get away with more finesse-oriented presentations that don’t create quite as much commotion.
That’s part of the fun. You can keep things as simple as you want while still experimenting with what the fish respond to that particular night.
Turn a weeknight into an adventure
For us, the sweet spot has usually been from sunset until around midnight. That window has produced some of our best night fishing, and it’s also just enough time to make an ordinary weeknight feel like something completely different.
Bring some drinks and snacks, pack a sweatshirt and head to the lake with your husband, best friend or a group of fishing buddies. If you’re of legal drinking age and alcohol is permitted where you’re boating or fishing, you might even bring along a cold beer to enjoy once you’re settled in — just make sure your boat operator stays sober and everyone follows local boating laws.
More importantly, night fishing is one activity where I strongly recommend bringing someone with you.
Everything becomes a little harder to see after dark. Boat ramps, docks, rocks, stumps and even simple things like tying a knot become different experiences when your main source of light is a headlamp. Having someone with you makes the trip more fun, but it also means you have another person there if something goes wrong.
Bring a good flashlight or headlamp, keep your phone charged, wear your PFD while the boat is underway and let someone know where you’re going and when you expect to be home. I also recommend starting on water you already know. Your first nighttime trip probably isn’t the best time to explore an unfamiliar lake.
Don’t wait for the weekend
Once fall arrives, it’s easy to feel like your fishing time is disappearing along with the daylight. You get off work, head home and suddenly it’s dark outside.
But who says darkness has to end your fishing day?
Night fishing has become one of my favorite ways to break up the week and add a little adventure to an otherwise ordinary routine. Instead of going home, eating dinner, watching TV and doing the same thing you did the night before, grab someone you enjoy spending time with and head to the lake.
Will you lose a little more sleep than you normally would on a weeknight? Probably.
But at least you’ll have fun doing it.
And if the bass are biting under a cool fall sky, being a little tired the next morning doesn’t seem quite so bad.
