Night Bassin'

I've spent the last few weeks chasing largmouth bass well after sunset and into the early morning hours of the following day..... as you may know from my last blog. The success that I found in June was more than enough to fuel my desire to head back out and continue my quest for a giant night time largemouth. Here's a couple reports from the last week and a half.

July 1, 2014
 
 June 30th Shawn Skidmore and I went back out to the same lake that I had found success on with my little brother a week earlier. It's one of the largest lakes in southern Ohio, and quite possibly one of the most pressured lakes in Southern Ohio. I had only been out one time after dark and landed over a dozen small bass and one 20.25"er. Now, that could have been a complete accident, a fluke if you will, but it was more than enough to get the attention of Shawn Skidmore. For weeks we had been hitting one of his favorite lakes after dark with success, however this week he was ready for a change in scenery. He sent me a text that June 31 and we made plans to meet up and fish the "Big" lake at night. We got on the water around 6:30pm and began working thick vegetation hoping that the fish were buried in the weed beds. By 9pm we were both discouraged, the day bite failed to yield a single fish. However, once the sun set the bite picked up. I quickly landed 3 fish on a black and blue jig, all of which were in the 12-15" range. Now they weren't big, but they let us know that the fish were definitely feeding after dark again. Just as quick as the action picked up it died....the fish had seemed to shut down again. Shawn and I continued to work the banks, and at this point we were slowly working toward the area that I had caught my 20.25" bass and the 17.75" bass the previous week. Once I got to the exact spot where I had caught the 20.25" bass I slowed down and worked that area extra hard.......nothing. About an hour later Shawn makes his way into the light of a nearby boat dock, and no more than 10 casts later I can hear the sound of a bass thrashing the surface. I could tell that he had hooked a bass but I didn't know how big it was, assuming it was the typical 14" fish I went back to fishing. Fifteen seconds later I hear Shawn yell over that he's got a NICE one! I quickly reel in my rod and paddle over to find him holding what looks to be a 5 pound bass.

We quickly snapped a few pictures, put it on the hawg trough, got it on a scale, and released it. The bass went 21.5" and 4lbs 8oz. We were pumped, this was the fourth fish  over 20" that we had landed in our last five trips out after dark. We fished for another hour and a half but the fish just weren't willing to cooperate. In total we landed 7 fish, significantly less than what we typically would on a given night. At 2am we decided to paddle back over to the boat ramp and call it a night.

July 3rd

Thursday after work I couldn't resist heading back out to the "Big" lake and trying my luck again. I was feeling pretty good about our success so I decided to try out a new spot. I started fishing around 6pm and fished till 2am. The first few hours of daylight were spent bass fishing as I normally would, but the entire time I was watching the shoreline. I tried to remember where the fallen trees where, which shorelines had weeds, which were rocky, etc. I was mentally preparing for the night bite. For the most part, the area I had planned on fishing was as good, if not better, than the area that produced a 20.25" bass and a 21.5" bass. I was pretty excited to give this spot a try. However, that was pretty short lived as boats began arriving, one after the other. I had overlooked one key issue.....a holiday weekend. Fishing became rather difficult as I had to position myself just right with each passing boat. (Nose into the wakes created by the boats.) Once it began to get dark the boats slowly cleared out....but now I faced another issue, Fireworks. This trip was slowly becoming a nightmare. To make a long story short....I landed 3 fish in the 14-15" range, I broke our streak of 20" fish, but I did find what I believe to be yet another productive shoreline for night bass fishing.

 July 6th

Once Sunday rolled around Shawn was ready to head back out and try out his lake again. There was a slight catch though.....he had all day and night to fish but his lake was bombarded with pleasure boaters left over from the holiday weekend. We eventually decided to hit 2 lakes in order to avoid boat traffic. First off we would hit a lake by my house, a small 100 acre electric only lake. We planned on fishing it until 7pm and then heading over to Shawn's lake to finish out the trip. Plan A started out rough.....at one point I even called Shawn to tell him maybe we should make new plans. The wind was ripping right down the small 100 acre lake, and at points evening making white caps. Before Shawn arrived the wind had almost completely died down so I began unloading my gear. As luck would have it the wind was far from over. Shawn and I decided to paddle up the lake and fish down the lake with the wind. After 2 hours we found a productive pattern....tossing jigs along the edges of lily pads on the windblown side of the lake.

Shawn's fish went 17.5 and mine went 16.75", both of which were super healthy. At 7pm we decided to paddle back to the boat ramp and head over to the other lake for the night bite.

We got on the water around 9pm and began working our way toward the bank that produced Russ' big bass a few weeks earlier. This was also the same bank that produced my 19" bass and the bass that broke my line. It had been nearly 2 weeks since that trip, but we were hoping that the bass were on the same feeding pattern. Shawn and I worked the shoreline all the way down the lake, picking up several fish in the 14-16" range....all on jig and craw combos. At about midnight we decided to turn around and head back up the lake to where we launched from. About halfway up the lake Shawn and I start missing hooksets. I'm not sure what was going on to be honest, I assumed it was small bass and bluegill hitting our jigs. Needless to say I was getting irritated. Shawn and I rounded a small point and began working a rip rap bank when I felt another thump......fearing it was another bluegill or small bass I set the hook hard out of pure frustration. I reeled down until I could feel pressure, swiveled my hips toward the rod, and swung with all my might......I was going to send a message to this little fish. My sweeping hookset was stopped halfway through my swing as I connected with something solid. Seconds later my drag began to roll off of my baitcaster. Eventually the fish made its way to the surface, revealing itself to Shawn and I. It looked to be another fish in the 20" class, but we'd have to get it on the board first to determine that. This was a strong fish, probably the strongest bass I had fought all year. After 3 good jumps and a few drag slips I pulled it in close enough to get a net under it. 

It was yet another 20+" bass, officially measuring in at 20.5" and weighing 4lbs 3oz. Shortly after we released the fish we noticed the wind starting to pick up. Which happened to be blowing right in our faces. We worked through the wind and finished out the shoreline, landing a few more bass each before arriving at our take out around 2:30am.

In the last month and a half we have successfully landed 5 bass over 20" during the 7 trips we've made after dark. (And one of those trips can be blamed on fireworks and pleasure boaters....but anyway. ) In our minds there is no doubt that the big fish are feeding heavily at night. This may be a rather bold statement, but I feel pretty confident that we will find a fish over 22" if we continue to put the time in on the water. If you haven't got out at night yet, give it a shot.