Big Bass by Night

Favorite way to fish bass? My favorite way is to fish them at night. The more and more I fish, I find myself believing you can catch bigger and more numbers of fish, after the sun goes down.

I have forgotten, how much fun it is, to take out a small flat bottom boat, and a little motor, fishing for bass at night. You are the only boat on the lake, with the moonlight, and great friends. Throw in some big bass, and and it becomes addicting rather fast.

The bite most of the time is unmistakeable, others, is just a small tick, or more weight than normal. This is where a high quality graphite rod like a St. Croix does wonders for you. We have been using 6’6"-7′ St.Croix Legend Tournament Bass rods, in medium to medium heavy. Spooled up with 20 lbs test pink fireline. If you haven’t tried the new pink fireline, I would give it a shot, especially for night fishing. You can really see it great!

Above is Steve Lepic with his biggest bass to date, a 5.5 largemouth. Nice fish Steve!!

We have been targeting wood structure, any wood we can find, holds bass. Especially wood in eight feet of water.

We are using 1/16 BFT jigs, and ringworms, or texas rigging big ten inch powerworms. Casting them into the structure, banging them off the wood, and fishing them back extremely slow. It seems to us, in order to catch the big females, you must use at least a ten inch worm. I am really going to recommend to people this year, to try BIG baits. They work, and work well. I believe the bigger females will watch a five inch bait go by and not even think twice about it. When they see a ten inch, they think energy used/reward ratio. One big meal is easier to eat than five small ones. Give big baits a try this year! I was even throwing musky plastics.. On more thing I would like to mention, this type of fishing must be done very very quietly. Complete silence, is a must in the boat, especially when you are right over the fish.

Here is Andy with a bass that went six pounds. All of these fished were released. The bite is on guys here in Iowa!! Now is the best time to be out, especially out at night, and away from the crowds. I took my small flat bottom, that way, I didn’t have to worry about dinging anything up in the dark. It worked perfect.

Good luck, and we’ll see you on the water!