I have never been successful at night on my upstate new york lake for bass or panfish??
What am i missing?
The strike…? 
Our water stays warm enough during the night during the summer. Maybe…?
…lee s.
Is that what that hard tugging at the end of my line is… a fish? 
Seriously though, no it is actually nice a warm up here in the summer. THere is no weather/temparature reason. Can it be that my lake has no nocturnal feeding?
How often do you try?
Some nights we have had to endure several completely in-active hours before all he!! broke loose. We targeted a specific pond last season several times (4 different months) during full moon periods. We were surprised by the results. We expected “hot” action. We experienced mediocre action usually. We only fished top-water…?
Our night forrays to the delta have produced varying success rates too.
Maybe a full moon helps US see more than it helps the fish to see…? 
Do you fish near lights? There are several lighted spots that are productive for stripers nearby…?
I agree with you about sunfish not biting at night but I think that’s because the bass are on the prowl and it isn’t safe for a sunfish to be out and about. That being said, I caught some very large bass at night. I like to use an all black streamer with white or pearl colored eyes or a topwater slider or gurgler (both in black) if the conditions are right. Night fishing can be a blast and the strike even more exciting when you can’t see a thing.
Jim Smith
I love bass fishing at night. Done it since I was a teenager, and only with a fly rod. Although someone posted here that color makes no difference, that any fly is a silhouette at night, I still prefer to use black and topwater. Great strikes. Great blind fights with fish. Love fumbling around to lip 'em knowing there’s a hook somewhere in there. That’s about as close to the edge of excitement I as get nowadays. JGW
I hear a lot about bass fishing at night…Here’s my q…why is it that I catch bass steadily…right up till the last rays of sun disappear from the horizon…and then suddenly Nota,Zip,Zilch…???
Anything I am missing…I have caught quite a few gill’s well past nightfall on a Black Gnat Dry in and around a size 6…I don’t doubt that fish of some kind do continue the bite after the twilight hours…Crappie seem rather more willing to accommodate too…but the bass just never seem willing…even with water temps in the bath water range…
Am I doing something wrong???
I read somewhere that it takes a bit of time for their eyes to adjust…?
Used to fish Khalotus L. in Wa. where the BG’s and crappie did well for about 1 1/2 hours after night fall. The bass did well in the dark too, but we did them on different nights…?
…lee s.
my experience and reading knowledge has been very similar to what Lee S responded with. Which is that at some point just after sunset the fish may go off the bite due to “lighting conditions” and due to the visual acuity or light adjustment period of the fish species. Seems we may have read the same article about fish eyesight.
Also, I have personally experienced hot and cold bites on the same night, same waters. And it does appear to be cyclical or time related -either earth rotation or length of time after bright daylight fades to dusk(hot bite) and then dusk fades to dark(no bite) and then a period of deep dark moving to moonrise(medium bite) and then back to no bite later in the evening. (which is really a long way of saying it is earth rotation making the difference) Partially, it also could be the fishing pattern and how “worn out” the waters get from staying in one place too long.
Just some ideas. If you do a lot of both day and nite, early and late fishing you may notice a similar pattern during your daytime forays. For example, on a small pond that I know quite well, if I go at dark thirty in the AM and start fishing right away-hitting all the spots where the fish “are”, I get nada! Zip! zero! but right at sun-up I start to see a change and get the onezee and twozee fish. Then say between 7-9AM the action is hot! hot! hot! then the sun creeps a little higher and the bite dies; even if I change tactics, fish deeper, different flies, etc. When it dies, it really dies and I pack it in. however on an overcast day the bite may last another hour …and then of course there are weather fronts to contend with. yea…lotsa rambling but you can see there is a pattern to be discerned from your fish and my ramblings…good luck. HTH!
Steve
I fish, therefore I swam.
[This message has been edited by featherchucker (edited 19 April 2006).]
Featherchucker,
You just described the fishing routine of my favorite farm pond to a T…exact same scenario every time…except for the days when there is NO Bite…Those days it works in reverse…in the evening…
Some good info already given. The water temps around here will get too warm for are northern strain of bass during the later hours of the hot summer days. When that happens, then fishing in the early morning hours, say from an or 2 before sunrise, to a few hours after sunrise when the water is the coolest its going to be is usually more productive.
Terry Quality flies~ great prices…www.teflyfishing.com
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=“1” face=“Verdana, Arial”>quote:</font><HR>I hear a lot about bass fishing at night…Here’s my q…why is it that I catch bass
steadily…right up till the last rays of sun disappear from the horizon…and then suddenly
Nota,Zip,Zilch…???<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
The secret is…
they move… They really do. They do, their food (bait) does, frogs hop in, all sorts of things change right then. But why do they “quit biting?” they don’t, they are gone.
I found that a noisy fly gurgler gurglepop ect helps alot. A friend ties a double bead head w/ loose beads.its supposed to cause a click when twitched. He won’t give me one but they apear to be like a big worm.They do catch fish… Noise and movement,the vibration from the noise (topwater) movement causes the strike!!!
Dennis
I have years of experience night fishing for Small Mouth Bass but none for the Large Mouth. My experience has been in NY finger lakes and a few rivers.
...In the Lakes...
In my opinion, the moon is the main factor. If you want to fish the surface, its better to fish when there is no moon at all. Smallies prefer dark nights and Rock Bass are active in the opposite maner, feeding heavily at the surface during a full moon.
Cloud cover (thick enough to obscure the moon) will afford good fishing even when there IS a full moon above.
Patchy dense clouds drifting by will cause intermittent feeding of the Rock Bass and this can be very obvious because of their loud slurping when the moon is visible. There is an abrupt halt to Rocky feeding when the moon hides behind a cloud. Smallies sometimes begin to feed during these dark periods but they’re apt to be small.
...In the Rivers...
The situation is similar to the lakes but when the moon is out and bright its time to go down to near the bottom for them. Rockies, if they’re present will act the same as they do in the lakes and may be quite a nuisance.
....The flies....
In some of the above, black or near black is mentioned as a good color and Its the same here. IMHO, bass are apt to hit anything that moves and don’t become so conditioned as to refuse a poorly matched lure. Flies that cause a commotion on the surface will do well and dead drifted drys will work too. Streamers are sometimes the best producers of all, but clasic wets may be the ticket at times.
The old time river guys would fish three flies on fairly heavy and stiff leaders. (the stiff leaders were used to avoid tangles) If you can get your hands on leader material that unwinds straight use it. The last I have seen were available at salt water shops. If You get a hopeless tangle, remove the whole leader with flies and put it away. Have another handy (flies already attached) and tie it on. Here’s where Castwell’s knot shines!
Ol’ Bill
I live in the Southern Tier region on NY and I enjoy fishing at night for largemouths in ponds and lakes.
I like large flies that push a lot of water. I also find that I need to fish them a lot slower. Pop, wait a full minute, then twich two or three times and wait half a minute, etc, etc.
I do catch less fish at night but the ones I do seem to be larger.
Ed
visit my non-commercial, no banners, fishing web site at:
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