Conference wahoo::fishing

    
    	Don, I think one of the best night time lures is a top water
    buzz bait. The noisier the bait the better. I've had good luck using
    a black skirted buzzer at night. You may also want to throw a couple
    of dark jitterbugs as well.
    
    	Denny

    I agree with Denny.  Generally, the louder...the better.  My favorite
    top water plugs for night-time are (1) crazy crawler (2) jitterbug
    (3) hula-popper and (4) any propeller bait like Mann's hardworm
    or tiny torpedo.
    
    Even with the light of a full moon overhead, it's still very difficult
    to judge distances for casting.  And using a bright spot light or
    flashlight only destroys what night vision you may have.  I have
    two suggestions here: first, if you must use a light, put a red
    filter over the lens to help minimize being temporarily blinded
    by the white light (it takes up to 20 mins. to recover your night
    vision).  And second, try removing the treble hooks from a couple
    of your top-water plugs and replace them with a large, single weedless
    hook.  That way, you'll be less inclined to pick up "salad" and
    more apt to cast directly into weed beds where the HAWGS lurk.
    
    Incidentally, I always use a small penlight to change lures and
    tie knots.  I've also seen small ones that have goose-necks on them
    so that you can clip them in your pocket and aim it down out of
    your eyes.  I've thought about those coal-miner type lamps that
    you wear on your head or clip to the visor of your cap, but I just
    don't want something that bulky around my head.
    
    -Joe- (who_nearly_sh*ts_whenever_a_bass_hits_topwaters_in_the_dark)

    re -1 and -2
    Those are the most productive topwater plugs for night bassin. 
    But have you ever tried a black double bladed spinner bait?  You
    will be supprised.
    
    	As for light my partner has a small black light mounted in the
    bow and one on the dash.  I works great with mono lines.  Does not
    effect the eyes.  
    good luck bassin bob
    

    I know that with the UV lights you can really see where your line
    is, especially the flourescent colored lines.  But, I don't know
    about you, but UV lights hurt my eyes.  I remember going to night
    clubs and discos that sported all sorts of UV lights (in my younger
    years) and I used to walk out with a WHOPPER of a headache!
    
    -Joe-

    re -.2
    
    Bob you stole my reply, I to use a small black light to work by
    at night and boy does it work good. As for it hurting your eyes
    I really dont think there should be much of a problem because you
    are not looking into it all the time, I usually turn mine off when
    not in use to save batteries.
    
    I really can't add much about lure selection you guys have covered
    all my favorites exspecialy the double bladed spinners and hula
    poppers. What I can add is a technique for casting in the dark as
    long as you have a fairly consistant cast. I found that I can count
    off the yards but you must practice this durring the day. Just go
    out to your favorite spot and throw out a few cast at the same distance
    lets just say 20 yards for now after you dial in a consistant distance
    of 20 yards begin to count to your self from the time that you release
    your cast until you here it hit the water (you know 1 1000 2 1000
    3 1000 ect.) you can do this at all different distances and like
    I said if you have a fairly consistant cast it should work fine
    for you I know it works great for me. I learned this trick from
    my dad when I was about eleven years old and have used it ever since,
    hope this helps you out Don.
    
                       Happy Honeymoon Hawg'n
    
                                                Jack

    P.s. I guess I left this out, when practicing this during the day
         close your eyes and you will be suprised how accurate you really
         can be. As soon as you hit your predetermined count close your
         bail and stop your lure at the perfect distance.

    Has anyone tried the lures I've seen advertised with the built-in
    lighting systems ?  I think they have a "Cyalume" (sp?) insert,
    a kind of chemical green light that lasts about 3-4 hours.  I've
    also seen for sale a lighted bobber with a battery and bulb, don't
    know the color of the light.  Most fishermen over the age of 12
    seem to disdain the use of bobbers but if you want to fish shiners
    at night, this might be a good method.                     
    
    Steve

    About $30 in lights will make it a lot easier.  Bass Pro Shops,
    a mail order supply houes in Mo. sells a black light / moonglow
    flood light which willhelp a lot.  The black light makes your line
    look like rope.  I used to try to use very little, if any light
    when night fishing because i thought it would spook them.  Last
    summer i fished a couple of night tournaments in Ca. and found it
    didn't make much difference, at least with the fish.  It sure made
    it easier for me.  As a matter of fact, the guy that won looked
    like he was filming a holloywood movie it was so bright.
    
    For night baits I like to throw surface stuff at dusk (jitterbugs,
    zara spook, etc) , then for the rest of the night I've had a lot
    of luck with plastic worms.  Spinner baits are also a good change
    of pace, especially if fishing lilly pads.
    
    p.s. Northern Bass Supply in Exeter N.H. is also a good mail supplier
    and is real fast.  phone the order in and you usually get it the
    next day.  I have info on either supply house if you need it.  

    is that the night stalker? black light w/ suction cups - looks good,
    and it's been reduced from $35 to $20 !!  

    
    
RE: Lights for night fishing....two are suggested, 1) a gooseneck flexlamp
    to go in yer shirt pocket for changing lures and close in work,
    2) A headlamp, bicycle type...this little unit has a battery pack
    which clips on the belt and a real lightweight lamp assembly on a
    headband which can be worn on a ball cap....its almost not there
    its so light....cost is about $14 at yer local cycle shop. This
    unit is usefull for spotting the shore and distance work including
    landing fish, etc...essentual when working brush in the dark to
    judge cast distance. For those of you who feel white light puts
    the fish down a red filter could be rigged very easily.
    
                                                   Tight lines
    
                                                       Ed
      
    
    
    

This is an old note, but the time of the year for night fishing is here in
Mass and so I thought to add this to what's already here.

In 1984 the bodies of two night-time fisherman were hauled out of Smith 
Mountain Lake in Virginia. They were fishing in a small boat and when they
crossed the wake of a larger boat they capsized and were thrown overboard.

This is meant as a sober warning to the dangers of night-time fishing. If
accidents like this can happen there, they can happen anywhere. Smith is
a clean lake with no hazards and night fishing has long been practiced there.
Most of the fishermen know the dangers of being out at night and take all the
precautions necessary to ensure saftey.

On any lake, the night time fisherman must always keep saftey constantly in
mind. I would never dream of fishing a spot at night that I hadn't checked 
out carefully durning the day, perferably several times. Always bring a good
map (topo), compass and at least two strong flashlights or spotlights for
the big lakes and maybe skip the compass on little ones I really know. I watch
for storms and the same goes for fog. It's really easy to get turned around
on a lake that you've fished for years in a dense fog. So, if storms are 
threating, stay in the creeks or channels, and be mindful of the effects that
a change in the weather can have.

Always motor slow at night....much slower than you would durning the day. Wear
a life jacket all the time and let someone know when you are going to get back.

On lakes that have a lot of floating debris, flooded timber or other navigation
hazards, I'd think twice about doing any night fishing. Fortunately, we dont'
have this problem on too many of our lakes in Mass and a little common sense
and discretion can make these very enjoyable places to spent a quite night
fishing (and swatting the bugs :^).

Tight lines, Ron

ps. A full moon helps a whole bunch.........and the fishing is easier and right
before it, better.
    

Note 1124.0                 COOL MASS. SPRING BASS??                  No replies
RONALD::OUELLETTE                                    11 lines   4-MAY-1989 14:03
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Some advice from some more experenced Hawgers.........
    I've heard alot about nite time fishing, and have experenced some
    wild hair raising nites myself. All the hype about early morn and
    late day/nite bassin is 100% accurate, but the the same hold true
    with this time of the year?(early spring) Are the Bass going to
    hit top water when the sun is low, with the water cold and natural
    prea not around. Eccept for an ocational May fly that gets blown into
    the water...........................
                                        .............. 
                                                      .......
                                                             Bill

    Bill, It's hard to say.  I would tend to doubt that the night time
    action wouldn't pick up until the surface temp was approaching the
    70's.  But then again, ya never know... I don't recall ever doing
    any night time bassin before June. donmac

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    I am planning on doing some night fishing this weekend and have a few
    questions about lures ect.  
    
    -  Which color lures are the best at night?  A lot of the replys in
       this topic seem to show a preference towards black lures.  How would
       you think a clear Zara Spook would work?
    
    -  The lake I am fishing I know very well so I am going to be fishing
       rockpiles and other structures.  One spot in particular is a shoal
       in the middle of the lake which comes up to about 5 feet.  The shoal
       is mostly weeds but has a rockpile at one end with a steep dropoff. 
       We caught two bass over four pounds this week during the evening
       (19.5", 20") there on Gitzits.  I figure this shoal will produce well 
       at night.  Would a Rattletrap be good in a place like this at night?  
       I tend to use a Rattletrap only when I am about to leave an area 
       because I don't like to give the fish any warning that I am around.
    
    I have only been night fishing once before so any info that hasn't
    already been said in this topic already would be of great interest to me.
    
    I bought one of those Tornado's last week and have been using it as a
    spinnerbait/buzzbait but haven't caught anything on it yet.  Does
    anyone have a technique which really works with this lure?
    
    If I don't catch a bass bigger than 6lbs this year I'm going to be
    really bummed out.
    
    Thanks for any input
    Steve

    Steve,

    Holeshot Joe would tell you to use a crazy crawler.  It is a good
    topwater lure but is second to a jointed 5/8oz jitterbug.  Either one
    should be in basic black for nite time work.

    keith

    re:*
    	How about using one of the new-fangled rubber worms with ball
    bearings in the tail section.
    
    BTW:  Has anyone ever heard of a DO-NOTHING worm.  If so could I get an
          address where I could order some.
    
    Thanks
    Steve

    I don't think color matters at night.  I like the big jitterbugs.
    Toss `em out, let `em sit abit (long as ya can can stand to), crank
    it in slow........................KABOOM!!!!!!!!!!
    
    There's nothing like a big bass exploding on a topwater at night!
    
    donmac

I dunno, Keith.  I've had better results fishing the Crazy Crawler than I 
have a Jitterbug.  There's something different about the sound that seems to 
attract them better.  But as long as YOU feel confident with the lure and it 
produces...USE IT!!

re: COLOR

Most "experts" claim that black is the best topwater color at nighttime as 
it creates a better silohette (sp?) against ta dark sky.  I've used all 
different colors and find that the noise-making is what really attracts 
them.

BTW...Chris (FFF) and I were out last night up north and fished till 
midnight and had the BEST topwater fishing for smallies EVER!!!  In fact, it 
was absolutely AWESOME!  We each caught at least 12-14 fish apiece, many in 
the 2-3 lb range.  Obviously, we BOTH were using C-R-A-Z-Y  C-R-A-W-L-E-R-S!
These basss were coming up out 10-20' of water a smashing the lures clear 
out of the water.  Many of them went airborn as high as 3-4'!!

It was an absolutely unbelievable night!  We're headed back soon.



Oh yeah.... "WHERE?"  you ask.   Sorry, but this one's gonna be a well kept 
secret.

-HSJ-

    
    	HSJ...I can relate to the action at night!  The Molesta and I went
    	out one evening and had similar results...the fish (in this case
    	largemouths) if they didn't inhale the lure, knocked it into the
    	air a few feet....I was using a crazy crawler and the Molesta
    	had a black buzz bait on.  Les even had one knock his up in the
    	air, follow it up, grab it and take it back into the water....
    	this was about four feet from the boat.
    
    	Obviously with the buzz bait the retrieval is fast, but I had
    	my best results  when I kept the "crawler" moving...
    
    	Gitizit'
    

    Whenever I've read about night fishing with "noise baits" (my term),
    they say that a steady retrieve is best so that the fish can judge
    better where to hit it. A stop and go retrieve would confuse them
    more than a steady one...
    
    The last bass I caught at night was on a chartreuse spinner bait
    with large blade. I would've used black, but didn't have one then.
    
    Ed
    

	I tried doing some night fishing this weekend (Friday Night).  I got
the big zippo, el skunkeruno.  It was pretty cold out (my only excuse).  When
I go to this spot in the daytime I catch more fish than you can shake a
Rat-t-l-trap at but at night I caught nothing at all.
	Since this is the first time I've been night fishing so it was a good 
experience for me.  We outfitted the Crawdad with front and read lights plus
brought alone one of those 100,000 candle power spotlights to help with 
navigation.
	We cruised down Dead River, which has all kinds of logs, for about a
mile until we got to the end.  When reaching the open lake I though that I had 
it made.  Unfortunately my nighttime navigation skills were not quite as 
accurate as I was hoping that they would be.  We were cruising alone at full
throttle (10 mph) and I took my eye off the depthfinder and SLAM!! we nailed a 
nice unmarked rockpile.  Fortunately, I turned off the motor quickly and only
ended up with a few scratches of paint off the lower unit; didn't even bust the
shear pin.
	After about two minutes of confusion I realized that I was a little off
my estimated course and figured out that we were really only about 100' from
my usually route.  So we then continued on to the super hawgin hole.
	It was pretty calm out for a while so we used a black Jitterbug,
Crazy Crawler, Zara Spook but had no luck.  The wind started to pick up so we
switched to Rat-t-l-traps and spinnersbaits with still no luck.
	I'm not going to let one night discourage me so next weekend my brother 
and I are planning one night next weekend at Lake Aintnobasstocook were we have
had better luck this year, plus there are no suprising rockpiles which we wont
know about.

Steve (Nocturnalizing)

    I am under the impression that at night bass come in to the shallows
    to feed. I am pretty sure that they are likely to be in a different
    place at night than they are during the day (no, not in their beds!),
    so maybe you only have to take a good guess about where they might
    have gone if they're not at the usual daytime hotspot, and try
    fishing those places instead. They can't be too far away. (Can they?)
    
    Ed

Ed,

I have (almost) always fished shallow waters for largemouth at night
(i.e. less than 6' deep), especially when using topwater baits.  In general,
they do come into the warmer shallows at night to feed.

However, a couple of recent fishing adventures for smallies up north yielded
a number of respectable fish (2-4 lb. ranger) fishing topwater chuggers, at
night, in waters OVER 20 FEET DEEP!!  It was totally contrary to the way I 
have fished topwater baits at night, but these smallies would coming BLASTING
up from the depths, sometimes knocking the plug 3-5' into the air.  We also
fished the shallows (2-6') which produced a number of smallies (and a lot more)
but the larger fish came from deeper waters.  We even fished a submerged hump
out in open water where the bottom came up from 35' to 15' and managed to 
pick some up.

Soooo.... you were right.  They gotta be somewhere!

-HSJ-

    Well, we went night fishing up in Belgarde Maine lake systems.  Most of
    the time the water was too choppy to use surface lures like chuggers or
    jitterbugs.  Most of us used spinnerbaits.  A couple of notes talked
    abut using double blades.  I tend to favor the single big colorado
    blades because they vibrate much more.  The big tandem willows and to
    some extent the double colorados tend to negate each other out by
    creating conflicting turbulance.  The big single colorado definitely
    spins wider and louder and the bulk of our hits were on the large single
    colorados.  We argued and debated over the spinnerbait colors though. 
    I caught a couple 2.5-3.5 on white and on chartruse.  My brother Bob
    caught a monster at 4.5 lbs on black.  Most of us had even amounts of
    hits on all three of those colors including a nice 3 lb on the hank
    parker classic.  In fact we definitely had more hits during the day on
    Black spinnerbaits.  Also I found that at night if I took off the
    trailers I had more hookups.  They tended to hit short with a trailer and
    I think, that its because they are moving after something they hear
    more than see.
    
    The best night catch came when my Brother Mark nailed a 4-4.5 brown
    trout on a torpedo!  That was the best catch of the trip.
    
    Brian
         

      Mr. OTA
    
      Are you getting Mattson itus? 
    
      The phenomenon that strikes up paragraphs upon paragraphs on a single
    tiny topic. I notice you have this problem! There is a cure!!
    
      A simple sumation could read...
    
      I was out fishing at night and noticed the big single blade spinner
    baits got better results.
    
    
      "SLAMmaster"