Sensing Night Bites

Did you know that many bites from big boys go completely unnoticed? Sometimes smallest tug brings up biggest fish (in my experience). Here are some proven methods to increase your sensitivity to these subtle big game bites.

Braided line saves a lot of retying of frayed line and its sensitivity makes subtle bites easier to detect.

Wearing a headlight for focused light is recommended. When you have a bite on, you need to put that focused light on your rod tip to help you. If you are fishing deep, when bite is on, rod tip will barely move because fish is swimming out, not down. If it swims up, rod will slacken – in either case it will be hard to tell unless you have some light on that rod tip.

Equipping your reels with fluorescent monofilament line will dramatically increase your catch ratio. Use it in combination with a black light so that you can detect subtle strikes in total darkness.

By way, a black light is probably one of most important pieces of night fishing gear. It will make fluorescent monofilament line glow like a laser beam across dark water and will allow anglers to detect subtle strikes that would ordinarily go unnoticed.

Copyright 2005 EveningSecretFishing.com Fishing

Long-Time Fisherman and friend of EveningSecretFishing ( http://www.eveningsecretfishing.com/specialsecret/Night_Rod_Handling.php)

Clear water – Cut down size of worm, line, and sinker so that bass will have a harder time seeing lure.

Big vibe worms – Use a worm with a curly tail design that gives off extremely strong vibrations. Try these worms when your straight worms fail to score.

Skipping – This is only method to get under overhanging branches. You need a spin casting or spinning rig because a level wind reel just doesn’t ski8p well. Make a flat hard cast onto water’s surface so that it will make a low skip. This will reach bass hangouts impossible to attain in any other way.

Ripping – This will surprise reluctant bass to strike a worm. Let worm settle to bottom and lie there for about 20 seconds. Reel slack out of line and pick up worm with a long, sharp upsweep of rod tip. Let it settle to bottom under tension as you slowly lower rod tip. Repeat for three or four rips. Strikes will come.

Drift trolling – move to head of a deep hole and let wind carry you quietly across lake while your worm crawls across bottom cover. Raise and lower worm as it contacts bottom. Pickups usually happen as worm is being pulled off cover.

Flyrodding – Fill a single action flyreel with backing and about 50 yards of 10-pound monofilament. Rig a six-inch worm weedless and add a small split-shot ahead of hook so it will sink slowly. Either flip or flat-cast worm into every pocket you see and feed it line as it slowly settles to bottom. Keep flyrod tip low so that you can make a long, sweeping strike when you feel a bass inhale worm. This is practical in ponds, lakes or streams.

Worm rig

One of biggest problems with fishing a worm is inability to sense strikes. Usually inability to sense them is due to a sinker that is too heavy and a line that is too thick.

Use a variable buoyancy worm using lead strip sinkers. Here are some advantages:

No moving lead on line to dampen feel of a gentle pickup You can apply precise amount of lead to deliver worm action needed It makes it easier for a bass to inhale worm It aids in hook setting It’s easier to shake loose from snags You can cause worm to hang virtually suspended over bottom when fishing shallow water.

To tell how much lead strip is needed, wrap one strip around hook and bury barb in worm. Ease it into water and watch it sink, it should barely settle toward bottom. If it sinks to fast, take some off, etc. A slow decent is ticket here.

Make sure to use no heavier than 8-pound mono line – preferably 6 pound.

Weather Matters

In early spring and fall bass will smash top water lures such as floating propeller types and poppers. They are also likely to take surface lures when found in shallow water, such as along shorelines near overhanging trees.

As temperature rises and bass are in cooler, deeper holes, change your technique. You need something to dredge bottom. The plastic worm is ideal for this, even most sluggish bass will respond when you drag one slowly past its nose.

Crank baits

When fishing a tidal river for bass, cast crank baits near mouths of tiny feeder streams on falling tide. Bass hang out where water depth drops off, waiting for crayfish, crabs and minnows to be washed out.

Bait

One of best baits for small mouth bass in rivers is hellgrammite, larva of Dobson fly. Gather these from beneath rocks in shallow riffles with a mesh net or seine. Fish them on No. 4 or 6 fine-wire hooks, drifting them naturally through pools and runs below rapids.

A Trick Most Bass Fishermen Don’t Know

First and foremost, most bass fishermen are not aware of The Evening Secret which is a special device that will bring feeding fish swarming to your location on water. It works like a charm.

Cast a worm over a limber branch and reel it back so that its tail just touches water. Then jiggle rod tip, making worm squirm and wriggle just above surface. Bass will often leap right out of water to snatch it.

Night Fishing

Many anglers have idea that bass do not see well at night and won’t strike. Although it is true that bass cannot see well at night, but they have an amazing ability to pick up disturbances on water and hone in on unsuspecting bait. Given this, lures that vibrate will cause most underwater disturbance and are most effective. You can also drill a small hole in balsa or plastic lures to place small BB’s in them to make some noise.

Copyright 2005 EveningSecretFishing.com Fishing

Long-Time Fisherman and friend of EveningSecretFishing ( http://www.eveningsecretfishing.com/specialsecret/Bass_Tips.php)