Lures imitating shad at night...

[carpanglerdude]

Let's say there is a random city park that happens to have a decent shad population. Bass get hit hard here and are super line shy during the day. However, bass and shad activity picks up in evening, bass are stalking them in the shallows, crashing them in the dark. What would you use?

That's what I ran into on my of my trips last week. I through spinnerbaits, little swimbaits, topwaters and jigs. Couldn't get a bite. Hot day, warm summer evening, could see random boils and splashes along the shore, really aggressive like bass, not just carp dancing'. Sun had been down for about an hour, pretty dark except for the park lights. Any ideas? I will probably try some crankbaits and rattletraps next time...anything specific?

[Ifishtoolittle]

The thing with night fishing is that everything you use should be dark if not black in color. Now fishing dark colored lures at night does that even make sense? Yes it does. The reason is that a bass' eyes are much like ours and are even better than ours. A bass has cones which it uses during the day to see color while at night it is uses light sensitive rods. Rods allow us to see dark figures at night even when it's pitch black. Thus based on how you see is how a bass will see. If you can't see it at night then it's likely a bass can't see it. Good lures at night are dark colored, produce noise, produce strong vibrations, and anything else that may attract bass. I hope I hit your question on the head.

[bsp]

http://www.swimbaitnation.com/articl...me-swimbaiting

Here's another good article. Notice that there's no mention of color. White lures and hot pink work at night too, as do large sub surface soft swimbaits in the same colors. Take a look at 3:16 lure company's photo gallery. You see dudes with the black/blue pattern, but you see just as many other big fish taken on white/natural baits or light with a contrasting color top. Strong vibration/noise isn't necessarily good either. The Hudd is a much more subtle bait than say a Wake Jr., and it works very well at night. If you think about it, baitfish don't magically become black at night. They still are silvery, and you can bet the bass will key in on it, especially when you work around the lights. The main thing is to be willing to change it up every outing to see what the bass that particular trip.

What IFTL posted works, but just be aware that there are a lot of other ways to stick big bass at night. I'd really recommend trying some bigger swimbaits or at least a good 6in bait. 3:16 Rising Sons are fairly cheap and are very solid producers, as are the Freestyles. The latter are harder to track down, so give the Rising Sons a shot (Small and Large) along with a Baby Wake or Wake Jr. Mattlures Hardgill and Hardbass are other good, more affordable hard bait options.

Hopefully a few of our resident ninja bass fisherman will chime in with some suggestions on more conventional lures and tactics. The specific lures for what I mentioned will be different if you aren't swimbaiting, but the general tactics are applicable and effective.

[Mrborohachi]

scrounger jigs and the owner swing jig/hook
http://thescrounger.com/news/

[beaner]

Great post (not giving up your spot) and that situation is ideal for a small black (1/4) spinner bait, or split shot a fluke. The best advice is to get some live shad and it's a sure hook up every shad. good luck.

[bayfishingjunkie]

rattletraps brother slow and steady so the fish can track it

[smokehound]

the thing is, fish rely much more on their lateral line to detect and locate prey at night.

The lateral line is an organ that detects electric pulses-- generated by movement.

with this, they can detect living creatures nearby. A moving lure nearby generates alot of static that fish can easily find without eyesight.

[carpanglerdude]

Super thanks for the tips...will try again soon, hopefully get 'em this time.
Good call on the swimbait article link, good read.

[FishermanStu]

buzzbait??

[CL SmooV]

bayfishinjunkie nailed it right.

baits that make noise are great for catchin bass at night in the summer.

i can testify to that.....