Dawgs at night?

[bronzeback]

I'm fairly certain this has been discussed but I couldn't find where.

Anybody had any amount of consistent success on big plastics at night? Ripped, reeled, or popped along the retrieve?

I'm curious as I've never caught a fish on a bulldawg and I think if I commit to one for a whole day, night included, and build my confidence up with one of those baits I could learn to love them.

[50inchpig]

They'll find those too, don't know anyone who throws them consistently, but I'll keep mine on into the night occasionally and have caught fish doing it.

Keep in mind here in the metro, it never gets that dark.

[bronzeback]

Thanks again, 50. Day in and day out my nighttime arsenal hasn't really changed much so I'm looking to expand my horizons somewhat.

I'm considering running to Gander to grab some of those rattles you can strap onto bass jigs or insert into plastics and load one of my dawgs up with it. Just to see if that outfishes a non-rattling dawg. I know they displace a lot of water, but it could be worth the little bit of effort.

[BrianF]

Yes, Dawgs at night. No rattles required. They find them and find them easily. I prefer Pounders to displace more water, but Mags have put lots of fish in my boat as well.

Over shallow cover like rocks or weeds, try the ShallowDawg. They hang in the strike zone forever. On breaklines or deeper spots, go with the Pounder or Mag. White and Sherbert are two good colors to use, but only because you can see them better as they come in, thus allowing you to avoid reeling your leader into your rod tip. Not sure the fish care about color at night.

I've had great success simply retrieving slowly and without jerking the bait. I will give them a little nudge forward every once in a while to trip following fish, but I don't even think that is necessary. They just will swim up and eat the bait.

Dawgs are best at night when the winds are calm to moderate. Better to go with a Cowgirl when the winds and chop are higher.

Almost forgot, be sure to do at least two full blind figure 8's though I'd recommend even more. I've seen many nights when this was THE deal. The fish, and there were many of them, were only hitting in blind figure 8's and several on the 8th, 9th, or 10th time around.

Night time is the right time for muskies and you can hardly do better than to pitch Dawgs into the inky blackness.

BrianF

[Scottie Thomas]

BrianF summed it pretty well!

I also really like to use the Heli Dawg at night and like to reel crank it in with a straight retrieve. They seem to work really well over rocks at night, but yeah use the dawgs day and night!

[bronzeback]

excellent information, Brian. Got me hopping on the Dawg train now.

This should effectively double the amount of baits I use at night now, haha. Maybe I'll post a report in here if I have any kind of success.