Going to be a good summer for full moon night fishing

[RumRiverRat]

June 12th Thursday

July 11th Friday

August 10th Sunday

September 8th Monday

October 7th Tuesday

I am most excited about the October Full Moon. Could be an amazing night of Buzzbait and Spook action if the water temps are in the mid 50s.

I plan on doing a lot of all nighters on the water this year, fish Sunset to Sunrise.

I am back to working nights 4 12s so every weekend is a 3 day weekend starting the middle of May until mid October, unlike now when I have been working 5 to 6 days a week 60 to 72 hours.

So I am naturally awake all night, much to my wife's chagrin.

So once I can fish I might as well fish at night right?

With this in mind I am going to put together a dedicated night fishing tackle bag.

The no brainer lure choices

Black Buzzbait

Black/Blue,Black/Red Colorado Spinnerbait

Walk the Dog bait....Spook, Sammy

Prop Bait....Xrap prop, Devil Horse

Wake Bait...DtFat1,Manns Waker,1 minus

Blk/blu Chatterbait

Frog...Black Money Frog,Spro Frog/Popper

My question is what about throwing jigs and texas rigs.

Kind of hard to line watch in the dark.

Anyone fish more subtle baits at night?

[bassfshin24]

I have not night fished but my dad use to tell me he would night fish all the time with a black texas rigged work and said it was lights out all the time. He would let it sinking having a tight line. He said a lot of the time the rod would almost get jerked out of his hands. This was back in the 80's I think. He said all he would throw was black spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, and a black texas rigged worm.

I have yet to try night fishing but would love to get out this summer and try it. What times did you find were the best Rum?

[jalberg]

I did quite a bit of night fishing for a few years, not much the last couple. During the heat of the summer it's pretty enjoyable vs. frying in the sun all day. Topwater certainly works, but for me it was usually but not always smaller fish. I used jigs and t-rigs a lot. Line watching is a challenge but doable. I used fluorocarbon which has some reflectivity to it. During full moons there is enough light to hold your rod in a direction so that you can see the reflection on the line. You really only need to see your line until the bait hits the bottom. After that there is enough tension on the line to feel bites. Your sense of feel goes way up because you cant see as much and its usually pretty quiet out there. I don't recall having a problem feeling bites. It seems like they hit it pretty good at night. On dark nights I would use a low setting on a headlamp to watch my line until it hit bottom.

For some reason when throwing topwaters with braid I would have bats run into the line a lot. Topwater strikes really get your heart going at night, especially close to the boat! Again, probably because of the switch in senses being used. My 2 cents.

[RK]

Hiya -

I used to night fish quite a bit. Don't as much any more for some reason. When I did I definitely used a lot of more subtle baits.

Actually, got to the point where beyond using darker colors I didn't really change my lure selection a whole lot from what I threw during the day. If fish were biting jigs before dark I just kepth throwing them. My two most productive lures after dark were jigs and crankbaits. Fish have no problem at all finding them.

Jigs actually work great. I think especially on weedy lakes, a lot of the feeding activity at night is fish feeding on crayfish that are nocturnal so a jig makes sense. You obviously have to fish by feel, so braid is kind of out. Can't feel a slack line bite on braid. Used to use mono but now I'd use fluoro for sure. With cranks, it was a lot of steady retrieves at moderate speeds with some stop and go mixed in. All in all a lot less erratic than daytime though.

Didn't know about them back then but I have to think a swim jig with a swimbait trailer would be killer at night too. Might be better than a spinnerbait.

Cool that you're experimenting with this. You'll learn a ton.

[RK]

For some reason when throwing topwaters with braid I would have bats run into the line a lot. Topwater strikes really get your heart going at night, especially close to the boat! Again, probably because of the switch in senses being used. My 2 cents.

First time I trolled cranks over open water for walleyes at night using Fireline, the rods were bouncing all over and we couldn't figure out what was going on. Finally figured out it was bats hitting the line. Never happened with mono. I guess to their sonar braid seems like a bug.

Catch some weird stuff on topwaters at night sometimes. Caught more than a few big walleyes on buzzbaits... Always a fun "what the...what?" moment when what you think is a big bass turns out to be a big walleye instead...

[RumRiverRat]

Bassfshn24,

When I fished the night of the September full moon last fall I noticed the fishing was best 30 minutes either side of moon rise, 30 minutes either side of sunset followed by 30 minutes either side of when the moon was directly over head.

During these times I was fishing high percentage areas, areas that consistently held fish regardless of any solunar effect based on my detailed logs.

Put these two fish in the boat on back to back casts within minutes of moon rise.

[jalberg]

Catch some weird stuff on topwaters at night sometimes. Caught more than a few big walleyes on buzzbaits... Always a fun "what the...what?" moment when what you think is a big bass turns out to be a big walleye instead...

I got my PB walleye (28") late at night on a t-rig. Definitely a "what the..." moment.

[jalberg]

The whole solar/lunar thing seems a little hit and miss for me. Sometimes it would be like clockwork and the fish would get active out of nowhere right when they should. Other times nothing at all. Of course I may not have always been in the right spot.

I remember once I was out there and it was a full moon that was directly overhead at midnight and all of a sudden right at midnight a big school of panfish started getting pushed to the surface by feeding bass.

[Hester]

RRR, its January and your already thinking October full moon.......that puts a new winter right around the corner again.

I get what your saying, I fished smallies after dark for the first time last year and had a blast.

Mostly used jigs and soft plastics, along with some smaller swimbaits. It was definatly interesting having smallies jump out of the water at night.

[RumRiverRat]

I am also thinking about pre spawn largemouth on Pool 2 and 4.

Also thinking about yanking Largemouth out from under overhanging trees during the bluegill spawn on a particular lake. The bass sit under the trees and wait for the bluegills to get too close and they attack.

Throw a jig in there and the bass annihilate it.

I am thinking about the incredible spook bite over deep weedlines in July and August.

I cannot wait to throw jerkbaits over flooded trees along creek channels on Table Rock in late March/Early April.

Fall has become my favorite time to fish and having a full moon at the beginning of October versus the middle to end of the month like the last two years has me excited.

The September full moon last year was borderline epic fishing, water temps were in the mid to low 60s. By the 2nd week in October the temps were in the magical mid to low 50s. So if this year is similar I believe the combination of water temp and full moon will make for epic fishing if the weather is decent......ie not raining or storming.

[bassfshin24]

God dang you're getting me way to excited about open water Rum! This winter has already felt long and it's only the beginning of January.

[RuddyDuck]

Yeh, this kinda of talk isn't helping the wait til Bass season! Been doing alot of ice fishing, but still find myself paging thru the Bass catalogs at night and practicing my pitching on the "cat" fish in the house.

Never been a big night fishing guy, but I am sure it can been really good on lakes with alot of pressure. I guess I like to see what I am doing! One would think jigs and t-rigs would work. Maybe add a rattle for more noise or trailers with more action.

[RumRiverRat]

God dang you're getting me way to excited about open water Rum! This winter has already felt long and it's only the beginning of January.

I learned a bunch of things last season, it was a very eye opening year.

I cannot wait to hit the water running so to speak.

[RumRiverRat]

The approaching full moon made me think of this thread.