Spinning At Night

[warjoe]

has anyone ever tried spinning or pluging at night for bass from the beach etc.

[Snatcher]

Not in person but I know that Bill Hutchinson from this forum has taken bass in total darkness on spinners/surface plugs in the Mull of Galloway area. Intend to have a bash myself next year as I have a caravan in the same area.

 

Tight lines

[Grant]

Yep! Didnt have any luck though, but there are some Yo- Zuri lures with room for a lightstick in them.

 

I reckon a surface popper would be the thing, but no personal success- maybe someone else is more informative?

[Snatcher]

As an add on to the original question. Seeing as how santa is bringing me a brand new "headlight" if I used a surface popper at night and focussed the beam on the popper would this be an assist in bringing fish to the popper or make them more wary.

 

Christ it is exciting during the daytime when a bass hits your popper. Think I had best wear a nappy if I am going to try it at night

[guernseybass]

i have never spun at night but have caught a few bass up to 6.5lbs on popper and crease flys so theres no reason why a disturbance lure wouldn't work.

 

this year i also caught bass in total darkness on lightly weighted clousers and deceivers dead drifted in rips over shallow water and currents in gullies.

 

bass have big eyes and excellent night vision and a lateral line which feels disturbance in and on the water.

 

just remembered actually that last summer in cape cod, 7 of us fished several nights on the beach and caught striped bass ( a close relative) long after dark on weighted flies as well as poppers. i think we caught 50 or so up to 10lbs in a couple of hours each time.

 

i'd advise checking out the place throughly at night first, knowing the movement of the tide first and not using any light or fluorescence at all if you can help it.

 

Mark.

Edited December 16, 2005 by guernseybass

[MJB]

A lot of the Bass I have caught on the fly have come in total darkness and not on surface patterns either. Not a lot else to add to what others have said other than DO NOT SHINE A LIGHT ON THE WATER!!!!! Gauranteed to spook every fish within 100yards. Keep the noise to a minimum too.

[warjoe]

Some bass and seatrout are being caught of are beaches on bait at this time of the year do you lads think a wee lure might work now or am i to late in the year.

 

thanks lads for all the input.

 

WARREN

[Moonyaker]

At night, Bass will principally be using other sences in preference to their visual sences to detect food and so best to forget lightsticks and headlamps in an endeavour to illuminate lures as this will probably only serve to spook or confuse them, (though for landing and unhooking a headlamp is a virtually essential tool).

 

Floating plugs are designed to immitate injured bait fish both visually and in this context more importantly vibrationally as they wiggle and rattle through the water. Bass probably first pick up the presence of a plug or ('potential meal') at night by detecting the 'interesting' vibrations it generates with their Lateral Lines and the visual stimulus is probably secondary taking over in their final attack or lunge. This is perhaps supported by our experiences that plugs are a more successful lure at night than 'the fly' which is mostly a visual attractant (unless of Popper Design) and our experience that dark dull lures catch as well (if not better) than flashy lures where there is no background lighting such as street or moonlight. Though the skill or lack thereof of the Fluff Chucker may also be a consideration in the different catch rates!

 

If you want to have a go fishing for Bass with plugs at night, (and, trust me it works !!!!!) try a Harris 'Mean Skipper' (the Pollack-Like Pattern has worked for us) or something similar.

 

 

I feel that that poppers may not be as effective at night as something that is constantly sending out the signals of an injured baitfish to the Bass through the water such as a Mean Skipper or similar jointed minnow.

 

We believe that Poppers work because the splash from the spurt from the Popper as it is jerked back attracts the Bass because it looks and sounds like the splash from 'jumping fry or sandeels which are trying to escape pursuing bass and that the bass come over to investigate, find something that looks like a static baitfish and then nail it as soon as it moves (before another member of the school gets a meal) on your next pullback.

 

It could be interesting to try a popper in flat calm conditions at night giving it lots of short pull-backs and creating lots of little splashes but the stimulus for the bass attacking and forcing the shoaling bait fish out of the water is likely to be visual in the first place and thus Bass should not 'in theory' expect to hear jumping baitfish at night and the lure should not work because of this. Perhaps a popper immitating a 'plopping Sea-Trout' would be a better idea!!!!

 

You will need to give some thought as to where the fish might be present and in this regard 'Hooked on Bass' by Mike Ladle and Alan Vaughan will give you some clues as to where to try this method.

 

I hope that this is of some assistance.

[sam-cox]

Some anglers have had realy good catches of bass at night, they use powerful halogen lights, bait fish congregate under these lights and are netted. The bait fish are used as live baits under the lights. I understand this isnt lure fishing at night but it does prove that bass are far from spooked by bright lights. I regularly fish a local jetty that is lit at night, baby gar fish congregate under the light and are hit by small bass.

In the USA the yanks use giant glow sticks in their lures while trolling for marlin, although this doesnt prove bass are atracted by green lights it does prove some fish are.

[MJB]

I think the visual stimulus in the dark is more important than you believe Moonyaker. The fish is always looking up into light background, even on a moonless night, so can pick out a silhouette far better than us looking down into the gloomy bottom. I think it goes further than that though, as my experiences with the fly have shown that flies with a lighter 'belly' will outfish an all-black creation (Black over Orange being tops). This, to me, suggests the fish are able to discern shade even in the darkest conditions and take the lure more readily as they are expecting to see their prey with a lighter underside.

 

When it comes to surface patterns, I have enjoyed great success with a fly called 'Fag Ash Lil'. It's somewhere between a popper and a slider, being constructed of a flat-faced cylinder of bouyant foam and the key to it's success has been to fish it at a steady constant speed retrieve so that it creates a 'V' shaped wake on the surface. Erratic retrieves just dont seem to work as well.

 

Sam,

 

Constant light sources like streetlamps or peir lights wont spook fish, it's a random splash of torchlight that will send them scattering.