Summer bass are after-dark delights

My tournament-fishing schedule the past few years has kept me from taking some of the fishing trips that were my favorites when I was younger.

This year, however, the Bassmaster Elite Series was over by the third week in June, and I don’t have another tournament until October. So I’ve got a big window to go fishing at night, and I’m really going to enjoy it.

These days, our reservoirs are so crowded with fishermen and other recreational boaters that the relative quiet and solitude you experience fishing at night is enough of a lure to get you on the water. Add in how uncomfortably hot on the water during the daytime this month and you’ve got two good reasons for waiting until after dark to fish. The third reason is really the charm: the fishing can be great.

Catching a nice stringer of fish can be tough during the dog days in August, but you can fish at night and have a chance to catch some really nice fish. The water has a chance to cool off a little, and you can generally find bass moving into shallower water after dark. I think a lot of big fish only feed after dark when it’s really hot.

I take into account two main strategies when I head out to fish for bass at night. First, you can fish close to the bank with the aid of lights on the bank — street lights, lights on the back of people’s houses, lights on piers — or you can get away from the lights and fish in the sure-enough dark. I have fished both ways and caught fish both ways. Fishing lighted docks and places where you’ve got some visibility can be great, but it can also be great to fish as far away from lighted places as you can, because those places don’t get as much pressure. It helps to have a big, bright moon up there and for your eyes to get adjusted, but fishing a brushpile out on a dark point or a stretch of docks on a dark bank can be great.

When I tie on baits before heading out, I am basically going to fish two kinds of lures: big Texas-rigged plastics and topwaters. My favorite is a 6-inch Senko, Texas-rigged with a quarter-ounce weight on a 4/0 Owner hook. I like dark colors: blue with red flake, dark purple, red shad. The dark color and the big bait give it a silhouette that’s easy for a fish to see, but really, the big bait is there for another reason. At night, fish feed more by movement and sound, and you get a big bait falling through the water, it’s got some action, it’s moving some water, and fish can zero in on that.

I fish monofilament for some things and braided line for others, but at night, I stick to 17- to 20-pound Trilene fluorocarbon. It’s more sensitive, and fishing at night, you need to feel everything. Plus, it’s strong and abrasion-resistant for fishing around docks and brushpiles.

As far as topwaters, a buzzbait retrieved very slowly can be a killer. The other topwater I like to fish is a Brian’s Bs prop bait. If you’re not fishing at night, the only time you can expect to catch a fish on topwater is first thing in the morning. But they’ll hit topwaters all night.

I think some lakes fish better than others at night, and I think some lakes have a better topwater bite at night than others. It can change even within a single lake. On the lower end of Lake Murray, the fish will be deeper, even at night, but I know I can run to the upper end and have some success with a topwater bait. Fish will move up there, especially at 1 or 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning. And lakes that have some color and are shallower, like Wateree, they fish better at night. I also think lakes that are more developed are easier to fish at night, because you’ve got the lights from all the docks. And it matters what kind of shallow cover you’ve got, plus whether you can present a bait around it.

Navigation has to be a factor, too. Santee Cooper is more dangerous to fish because there are so many unmarked trees, because it’s more difficult to maneuver and navigate, and because there are literally thousands of targets to try and target. If you’re going to try Santee at night, I’d stick to Potato or Wyboo creeks, which are more developed and have more lights, because out on the main lake, it’s dark — like they closed the closet door on you.

When I put my boat in for a night-time fishing trip, I fish deeper water first. The bass won’t really move up until the water’s had a chance to cool down, and that can be midnight or after. The other thing to think about is that bass don’t school much at night. They don’t group up together as much in August anyway. As far as catching a fish on a dock or brushpile, don’t leave after just one, but don’t expect to catch more than two or three from a spot.

Of course, one of those two or three might be a fish you’ll never forget. When you hold up one of those great big fish to look at it in the moonlight, remember who talked you into fishing at night.

One thing is very important. Before you hit the lake after dark, make sure you’ve got running lights on your bow and stern that can be seen from all directions, the whole 360 degrees. When I was younger, you could almost cut your lights off at night on Lake Murray because so few boats were out there, but nowadays, you don’t even want to think about that. You have to take into consideration that there are other people on the lake not nearly as experienced as you are.