9/9: Night Bass Fishing, SMOKIN' HOT

Tuesday night Shawn Skidmore and I decided to head out before the front and try to find a few night time bass. However, we couldn't quite make up our minds on where to go. We had fished lake "X" the last three outings and struggled to find quality fish. Lake "Y" on the other hand had been putting out some seriously large fish but it wasn't a good spot to go out and catch a bunch of fish. At first Shawn told me to pick a lake, then I told him to pick a lake. After some back and forth discussion we had decided to settle things with a coin flip, lake "Y" would be heads and lake "X" would be tails. I soon received a picture text message of a coin facing heads up, lake Y it was!

After work we met at the lake and proceeded to unload all of our gear. By 6:50 we were on the water and ready to fish. Shawn decided to throw a buzzbait for the rest of the remaining daylight, so I started tossing a creature bait. If the fish were active and  feeding near the surface Shawn would find them, if they were staying deep and sticking close to the bottom I would get into them. More than likely one of us was going to stumble upon a pattern. It didn't take long to find out where the fish were either. No more than 20 yards from the boat ramp I heard Shawn hook up with a nice fish. It went 19", not bad for our first fish. On the very next cast Shawn hooked up with another quality fish, this time he yells out "20", so I began paddling that way to snap his picture. It didn't quite make 20" but since I was over there I went ahead and snapped a quick picture.

19.75"

It was a nice fish, especially for the pre-night bite. At this point the fish had given us a pretty solid game plan for the rest of the evening. Shawn and I proceeded to work the banks with buzzbaits. An hour and a half and zero fish later, I decided to ditch the buzzbait and start working the banks with my Texas rigged creature bait. I had immediate success, landing a 16.5" bass in the first 10 minutes. The sun soon fell over the trees and Shawn and I went separate ways. I alternated between buzzbait and my creature bait for the next hour, but failed to find a single fish. At 9pm Shawn called to tell me that he was getting a few smaller fish on a jig and craw combo across the lake. I told him that I was struggling back in the creek arm that I was fishing. He said that he was going to turn around and work his way back up the lake toward the boat ramp. I paddled out of the small creek arm and began making my way back up the lake as well. Over the next hour and a half I tried a half dozen different baits: crankbaits, buzzbaits, rattletraps, weightless sinkos, etc. but they all yielded the same result.

I was beginning to get really frustrated, I knew the fish had to be feeding somewhere but I just couldn't find them. This trip was quickly becoming the third bad trip in a row that I had fished this lake, so I was beginning to second guess its potential. I eventually went back to our night time bait, a jig and craw combo. My hopes were low, but I was going to finish the trip out. A little before midnight I had made my way back up to the boat ramp and began working the illuminated rip rap. In less than ten minutes I landed three bass in the 12-15" range. It was a much needed confidence booster. I continued working down the lake past our put in location. At this point it was midnight and we had about an hour to fish before Shawn needed to hit the road. I continued to work my way down the lake and even picked up a few fish off of rip rap. On one cast I felt a solid hit and I set a solid hook. It was a good fish, and a smart fish at that! As soon as I set the hook it made a run right under my kayak, at which point my line found my camera mount sitting on my gear track by my feet. As I tried to free the line from the camera mount the fish found some slack in the line and threw the hook. All I could do is shake my head and laugh at this point, I had worked all night for that fish and it just made me look like a fool. A few minutes later I heard Shawn paddling across the lake about 30 yards ahead of me. At this point he was going to work his way back to the boat ramp and call it quits. I continued working my way up toward him to see if he had found any more fish. I got within 10 yards of Shawn and casted toward a small area of rip rap placed between a private dock and a row of trees. I put the jig on the bank and pulled it off of the bank a foot. I kept the line tight and gave the jig a quick hop, at the top of the hop I felt a thump and my line went slack. I reeled down until I felt pressure and set the hook, right into a swimming freight train.  The fish immediately went to the air, nearly giving me a heart attack each time it breached the surface. I eventually got the fish to the side of my kayak and I reached down to land the fish, when it decided it wanted to jump one last time. The next few seconds felt like a lifetime, as the fish jumped my line went slack and as it fell back into the water I felt the weight of the fish on the line still. I swung the fish beside the kayak and slipped my thumb into the corner of its mouth. I pulled the fish out of the water and told Shawn its definitely over 20".....and I was right!

22.5"

The night had certainly taken its tole on my emotions; excited at the Shawns quick bass before dark, frustrated at the lack of activity up until midnight, rejuvenated with three small bass in less than ten minutes at the boat rapm, depressed after losing a good fish to my camera mount, and now pumped as I landed my longest largemouth to date. We had 30 minutes before we needed to start packing up......and it was going to be a long 30 minutes!

With five minutes to go Shawn hooked into a solid bass and quickly won the battle. It went 20.25", which made this our first trip with multiple 20+" fish after dark.

 Shawn looked over at me and said, "We cant leave, can we?" "We have to leave sometime." I replied. We continued working down the bank and picked up a couple fish, including one at 19". As Shawn was paddling back up the lake toward the ramp he saw the flash go off on my camera.....He yelled out, "You've got to be kidding me....you got another one?"

"Yep and its a good one!" I replied. We had fought the good fight, and were now nearly a half an hour late. Shawn had to get his daughter on the school bus in the morning and then go to work. At some point we were going to have to call it a trip, I slipped the 19"er back into the water and paddled over to Shawn. It was time to go. In the end I had 58" in my top 3 fish and Shawn had 59.25" in his three fish total. It has been a very exciting year, and we have been very fortunate to have found quality fish nearly every outing.