Fishing swimbaits at night has been the topic of many threads in the past few months on SwimbaitNation as well as other popular bass fishing websites. Questions asked have run the full spectrum of subjects including what time of year is best to what types of lakes are best. I love bass fishing at night, I’ve been doing it for as long as I can remember and I get really revved up just thinking about it. Fishing at night is enjoyable for many reasons. Big bass can get very active at night, especially on highly pressured clear water systems, and I usually have great confidence on each outing that I have the chance of catching a fish of a lifetime. A nice benefit is having the lake to yourself.

 Once the summer heat sets in I become nocturnal and almost never fish during the day, the exception would be the occasional trip to the Delta. I have light skin and pale eyes and physically do not do well in intense sunlight and high temperatures. Also, once light turns to dark the world changes. The sounds are different, the birds are different and the animals are different. It’s a world I enjoy being a part of and feel very comfortable in, and the serenity of the night can’t be matched during the day.

Throwing swimbaits at night was a natural transition for me. I still remember the first night I threw swimbaits. I started the evening out crappie fishing and the conditions seemed poor for a good bass bite. I finally got the nerve to throw my swimbait and on the first cast stuck a 7+. A few casts later I stuck an 8+ and that was pretty much the start of an obsession. Since that first outing I’ve learned to fish the entire water column at night using a variety of swimbaits.

This article will focus on the basics of fishing swimbaits at night. As always I want to point out that the information below is what works for me but by no means is the only way to fish swimbaits at night.

Safety
Safety concerns are a step up from those during the day and they trump everything else when fishing at night. A safe, productive trip starts with proper planning. Fish lakes or areas of lakes you know well, make sure you have the proper gear and make sure somebody is aware of your itinerary. Having a clean, well organized boat is extremely important and I make every effort to bring only what I need. Night time is not the time to have 16 rods on the front deck and gear strewn about the boat. Tripping on a rod or poorly placed net is easy to do at night, especially when fighting a good fish, and falling in the water is probably the last thing any of us wants to do. Gear can be reduced to an absolute minimum with proper planning and the boat can be kept orderly with just a little patience.

Needed Equipment
Life Vest – Every boater should wear a life vest whether its night or day. However, being lazy is particularly a bad thing when fishing at night. Take the time to put your life vest and kill switch on prior to starting the big engine. I read a statistic one time that I can’t get out of my head. Hunters and fishermen in the 30-45 year age category have the highest risk of drowning when compared to all other boating user groups and age categories. I spend a ton of time on the water hunting, fishing and working, and coupled with my age, I am in a high risk category. Every time I’m being lazy that little stat pops in my head and motivates me to put my life vest on.

Headlamp – A quality headlamp is an absolute must when fishing at night. No, a flashlight won’t do and no, the interior lights on a boat won’t do! I can’t begin to tell you how I feel when I fish with somebody at night and they show up without a headlamp. I know we are both in for a frustrating night. Save yourself the headaches and spend the money on a good headlamp which will cost in the $30-$40 range. I only use LED headlamps because they use about 10% of the batteries of traditional light bulbs.

Spotlight – A good spotlight serves not only as a navigational tool but more importantly as a piece of safety equipment. When running the big engine I always have the spotlight by my side and ready for action. I use it to find navigational buoys, docks that may be in my path and anything else I need to avoid or locate to arrive at my location safely. The other reason I have it ready for use while driving is in the event that another boater is not paying attention. I can tell you from experience that a spotlight shined on a distracted boater will get his attention quickly and alert him of your presence. Also, when the big motor is off and I’m fishing I keep most of my lights off (I may be lying a little here) and I’m always aware of my surroundings. The spotlight is always positioned such that I can grab it quickly and alert another boater of my presence or warn them they are too close. I want to point out that I use the spotlight sparingly and am courteous to lakeside property owners and other boaters. You can usually see what you need to see by shining the spotlight high in the air, the peripheral light is strong enough to illuminate even small details. Never shine the light directly on others unless it’s a safety issue!

GPS – Don’t fish at night without one. Fog and storms can come out of nowhere and reduce visibility to zero. Familiar terrain becomes foreign quickly. I’ve spent my share of nights anchored in protected water sleeping in the bottom of my boat and it’s not fun. Also, driving a boat in a straight line in zero visibility conditions is absolutely impossible; you will always drive in a circle. I’ve proven the physics of this many a morning searching for my duck blind. I don’t even attempt to do it anymore unless I have a GPS unit. I always save a waypoint and make sure I clear the “Active Log” prior to leaving the ramp. Don’t waste time at night looking for your fishing spots, do your homework during the day and make sure you have a waypoint on each spot you intend to fish.

One of the most important aspects of using GPS is to understand how it works and what the limitations are. GPS is not an exacting science! Accuracy is affected by noise in the radio signal, atmospheric conditions, physical barriers and the number and geometry (relative to each other) of satellites your unit is locked into (ever wonder what EPE and PDOP means). Noise is introduced by static interference, something close to the receiver, or by something else on the same frequency. The best example of this is electrical wires such as high tension wire supports. Atmospheric noise comes in many forms including clouds, radio waves and all those other “waves” that current technologies blast into the atmosphere. The less a signal from a satellite has to travel through the atmosphere, the better the accuracy (in other words, directly overhead is best). Satellite signals do not go through mountains, buildings or people. I could talk forever about this subject but the take home message is to understand that GPS accuracy can be off by as much as 15 meters or more so never rely solely on your GPS for navigation. You have to use common sense as well. You probably can safely run from Lucerne to County Park by staring down at your GPS, but you had better not do this when running from Skiers Cove to Markley marina at Berryessa during a new moon. I’ve fished on dark nights with folks who ran at high speeds in narrow canyons when GPS accuracy clearly was poor and it scared me to death.

Black Lights – I don’t use black lights when fishing swimbaits at night. No doubt it would be useful but I have not found a fishing line that 1) I like that works with a black light and 2) can also be used during the day. Relying on feel and the countdown method works fine for me. This approach also forces me to pay more attention and really helps me to tune into what my bait is doing. White braid is a line I’m interested in trying at night. I don’t know if it works with a black light but it really stood out in the peripheral light from my headlamp.

Buoys – I use round style buoys extensively at night. Each of my buoys has a generous amount of reflective tape on them. The tape can be seen from great distances by using a spotlight, and it only takes a quick flash of your headlamp (pointed up in the air of course) to locate your spot when in close quarters.

Clothing – Make sure you always have warm clothing, a warm hat, warm gloves and rain gear in your boat when fishing at night. Don’t second guess this and bringing more than you think you will need is better than not having enough. It never ceases to amaze me how many people underestimate how much the temperature can change from day to night.

Fishing Line
Choosing the right fishing line is much easier at night. You can get away with much heavier pound test even in clear water. You may gain a slight edge by using something like fluorocarbon but I don’t think it matters all that much. In general I use 30 pound mono for larger plastic and surface baits and 20 pound mono for medium sized baits. You can use 30 pound mono with smaller baits but I think it takes away from the action. I will change this up if I’m targeting specific type cover such as deep rocks. Anytime I need to increase sensitivity I will fish braid with a leader. Also, and I was very surprised at this, getting baits free when snagged in rocks is much easier when using braid. At this point I only use the braid/leader when fishing medium sized baits but I may experiment in the near future with larger baits like Huddlestons. I’ve been using 50 pound PowerPro with about a 12 foot leader of 20 pound mono or fluorocarbon. I use a long leader because I retie frequently and I want to start out with lots of line so I’m not constantly tying on another leader. Fluorocarbon is used when I need more abrasion resistance. I switch to 30 pound test leader if my leaders are getting torn up. My connection knot is an Alberto which I believe is identical to an Albright. Some people may ask why I even use a leader at night and the answer is because my experience has shown that braid will break very easily in rocks and other abrasive cover. I’m not a big fan of using the braid/leader combo because of the potential for knot failure, but I like the sensitivity braided line provides. In the future I will be experimenting with 80 pound braid to see if that will allow me to eliminate the leader.

Baits
The same baits that work during the day will work at night. I try real hard to simplify my approach and stick to baits that have proven themselves through time as being fish catchers and durable. In my opinion trying to use every bait available detracts from ones ability to consistently put good fish in the boat. It takes alot of time to really learn to fish a particular bait. My time is better spent fishing a handful of baits, mastering them and developing extreme confidence in them. Once you accomplish this with a few baits you will start catching more and bigger fish. Too many people stretch themselves too thin by throwing too many different baits.

When fishing at night be prepared to fish the surface, mid-water and the bottom. The topwater baits I use include any 3:16 bait, MS Slammers and Wood Tails. Mid-water baits include bottom hook Rising Sons and Huddlestons (primarily ROF 12 and sometimes ROF 5). Bottom baits include the new tophook Rising Sons, Big Hammers and Huddlestons (ROF 12 and ROF 16). On certain lakes I have been using Mighty Minnows and Basstrix for fishing on the bottom in deeper water. I hate all those weighted hooks that have come out for Basstrix style baits, so I just super glue them (and the Mighty Minnow) on stout jigheads in the 3/8-1/2 oz size. Plenty of other baits out there work well but these are my confidence baits, and when I think the conditions are conducive for a big fish bite these are the baits I will definitely be throwing.

Time of Year
Swimbaits will catch fish at night year-round. My favorite time of year to fish at night is during the summer, and the summer is defined as that time period when daytime temperatures start getting really hot and stay hot. I don’t like the heat or intense sunlight and as far as I can tell bass don’t like it either. During the day in summer bass usually are located in deep water and inactive. Sure, they can be caught during the day, but once the sun goes down they go on a feeding binge and can be very easy to catch. The night bite continues to be good until the water temperature hits about 49 degrees. After this the bite slows down but with persistence some very large fish can still be caught. As the water warms in spring and bass start thinking about spawning, fishing pressure increases tenfold on our favorite trophy lakes. It’s not difficult to figure out how the high fishing pressure affects a bass’s behavior, and this is another key time that I show up at the ramp when everybody else is on their way home. If I do fish during the day in the spring when angler pressure is high I’m usually out deep looking for pre-spawn fish, but I still check the shallow waters for big, wary fish. If I find one Ill return after the sun goes down.

What Types of Lake are Best
I prefer to fish clear water lakes at night and those having high traffic during the day are best. Swimbait fish can still be caught in stained to muddy water but my experience has shown these types of lakes aren’t as good as clear water lakes. I fished the Delta once at night and it was horrible. I don’t know why the fishing was poor but I do know I probably won’t go out of my way to do it again. Water clarity plays a big role in bait selection. In clear water I rely less on bulky baits that displace a lot of water and give off maximum vibrations. It may help but I don’t think it’s a major factor. The reverse is true of muddy water where I really like throwing big, loud swimbaits (especially surface baits around shallow shoreline cover). However, I’m not convinced adhering to standard theories concerning bait selection and water clarity really matters. Think about it. We all know big worms, brush hogs and jigs work great at night regardless of water clarity. Nobody can convince me that a slow rolled Huddleston gives off less vibration and is less of a presence than these type baits. So who knows. My initial bait selections usually conform to standard conventions but I have no problem trying odd things when that approach doesn’t work. The bottom line is you should choose a swimbait at night that you have confidence in. Confidence trumps all other factors.

Structure and Cover
The same types of cover and structure work at night as they do during the day. Bass have seasonal migration and will use specific types of cover and structure during each season. A discussion of the types of structure and cover bass use each season is beyond the scope of this article but I will provide a general idea on how I approach fishing each season. As water temperatures warm in the spring and fish are still considered to be in the pre-spawn phase, I concentrate on main lake structures like points and humps. I fish the deep part of the structure with the occasional cast shallow. As water temperatures rise I concentrate more on shallow areas and probably will start moving into secondary points, or other structures within smaller creek arms or the backs of larger creek arms. Once I know the spawn has begun I will likely spend most of my time running shallow areas, but I will still visit main lake structures on occasion. At this time I will start fishing shallow wood cover and shallow weedlines. Post spawn is just like pre-spawn and I really concentrate on main lake humps and points. Summer is an interesting season because you can find fish everywhere at night. I really like fishing deeper rocks and deeper weed edges (on any type of structure I can find them) in the summer but I always spend time fishing shallow and make sure to fish any cover carefully, especially wood. Submerged vegetation, especially along breaklines, can be great during the hot months regardless of water depth. In the winter I exclusively fish deep water structures. The type of structure doesn’t matter as long as there is deep water close by. For instance, I may fish a hump that tops out at 5 feet but it will have very deep water close by. Deep shoreline rocks can also hold large concentrations of good fish. The shallow part of the structure can still hold good fish even in the winter.

Moon Phase
I pay close attention to the moon phase when fishing at night. Ten fishermen will give you ten different answers if you ask them what phase they like best. My favorite moon phase to fish is the three days prior and after a new moon, with the three days prior being best. I have had great bites on all moon phases but the new moon seems to be the most consistent and the full moon seems to be the most inconsistent. However, the best time to fish is still whenever you get a chance.

Time of Night
Many people will tell you that fish will not bite right after sunset because their eyes need time to adjust. My experience has shown this just isn’t true, and sometimes a good evening bite will last straight into the night. I make sure I’m fishing a good spot as the sun goes down and I stay there into the night until I’m certain the fish aren’t going to bite or they are done biting. Another key time for me has been the hour before the sunrises. During warmer months, if I can stay awake, I usually fish into daylight until the topwater bite disappears.

Time of night is very important when fishing swimbaits at night. On almost all of my night trips there usually are one or two periods when fish activity is very high. Sometimes the activity periods last for 10 minutes and sometimes they last for a couple of hours. Predicting which time will be best is the hard part. However, there are a few things I do to try and put the odds in my favor for successfully predicting a good time period. The daily moon cycle includes four periods that may cause a good bite to occur: moonrise, moonset, moon overhead, moon underfoot. A good bite is never guaranteed during these time periods but it never hurts to be on one of your best spots during the four major time periods. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t. I have definitely proven to myself that the four major time periods can and do instigate conditions conducive for a big fish bite.

One of the other things I do to try and predict a good time period is to pay attention to when the fish bite was good during the previous night. Theoretically a good bite should occur about 30 minutes before or after it occurred on the previous night. This isn’t always the case but at least it’s a starting point. The first night of a multiple night trip is always difficult because the only information you have to go on is when the four major periods of the moon will occur. Pay attention to what happens each night and use that info the next night to increase the odds of hitting good spots during good time periods.

As good as this information sounds, it’s important to remember that nothing in nature is predictable and one of the best ways to consistently put fish in the boat is to fish as hard as you can for as long as you can. I’ve had good bites occur at 4 AM one night then at 9 PM the next night, and neither of the times coincided with a major moon period. I try to make sure I am physically prepared to fish all night long and preparation starts a day or two before I will be fishing. I try real hard to alter my sleeping schedule before my nigh fishing trips, and in particular I sleep as late as possible on the day I will be night fishing. Accomplishing this can be difficult but if you can do it you will be mentally and physically prepared to put in a solid effort.

Retrieves
This is a fairly easy topic to address. The best retrieve is always the retrieve that produces the most bites. In other words, keep mixing up retrieve speeds and cadence until you find something that works then stick with it. Too many people make this more difficult then it needs to be and I can say I’m one of those people (but I’m working on fixing this problem). I’m a firm believer that retrieve speed and cadence is probably the biggest factor when swimbaiting (the other would be depth in water column), but day in and day out you can’t go wrong with slow and steady. I’m also a big believer in the idea that if you want to catch a truly big bass the best way to do it is by retrieving your bait very slowly on the bottom. The tradeoff with a very slow retrieve is that you can’t cover near as much water. When I’m searching for fish I usually fish a little faster or make fewer casts with a slow retrieve. Once I am certain of a spots potential I will slow down and saturate the spot.

Final Thoughts
Fishing swimbaits at night is identical to fishing them during the day. Seasonal locations, bait selections, retrieves and all other factors don’t change just because the sun sets and the moon rises. The biggest hurdle to overcome is the mental challenges of fishing in darkness. Have confidence and persistence, believe that you can catch fish on swimbaits at night and success is guaranteed.