Summer Night Bass Fishing

During the summer months, fishing during the day time can get extremely tough. And nighttime bass fishing can become the absolute best way to catch bass during the heat of the summer.

Although it takes a bit of getting used to and might mess up your sleep schedule, summer night bass fishing is 100% and is a technique that you absolutely need to try if you are having a hard time catching bass in the heat.

Why Night Time Summer Fishing is Amazing

So during the hot summer months, bass are constantly trying to get shade. Just like us, they don’t want to be baking in the hot sun all day.

During the daytime hours, they will either head way out into deep water where it is darker and cooler, or they will go under the thickest cover and shade that they can find in the shallows.

But during the night, everything is shade. So the bass don’t need to worry about staying cool and out of the sun.

Bass Get More Active

They will get much more active and certain bass will even feed almost exclusively during the night in the dog days of summer.

The bass take full advantage of the cool nighttime hours and become much more hunting oriented rather than just opportunistic feeders.

Bass will cruise around the shallows hunting down any food that comes near them.

Bass Can’t See Your Lures As Well

Although bass have very good vision, the dark, night time hours still greatly reduce their ability to see clearly.

This actually helps us anglers a lot because bass aren’t able to see the hooks, wires, blades, or weird looking parts of our lures that would sometimes convince them to avoid your lures during the day.

So no matter what bait you are using, it is going to look a lot more natural in the low light conditions.

Way Less Fishing Pressure

The summer season is when the most fisherman are out on the water fishing. So every lake or pond in the country will become very pressured and bass will become much harder to catch with so many other fisherman putting baits in their face.

But very, very few bass fisherman will actually keep fishing during the nighttime hours. I mean I will admit, nighttime fishing can definitely be inconvenient.

But because so few other fisherman utilize the night hours, the bass are barely pressured at night and become much more active and likely to bite our lures.

Cooler for Us Too

The bass certainly love the cooler nighttime conditions in the summer, but so do we. Let’s be honest, nobody likes to fish in the baking heat all day during the summer.

But at night when the sun is down and the temperatures are lower. The fishing is actually quite pleasant and not too hot at all. And comfort goes a long, long way in bass fishing.

Best Lures to Use

Notice: Generally, I don’t like to use trebled hooked lures when fishing at night. They catch plenty of fish, but they also catch plenty of hands and fingers.

And at night, the risk of hooking yourself when handling fish goes way up, so I try to stay away from them for the most part.

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1. Buzzbait / Buzz Toad

Topwater is always my first choice for night time fishing. And because I don’t really use trebled hooked baits, a Buzzbait or Buzz Toad are me absolute favorites.

I can cover tons of water with them and they create plenty of commotion on the surface to make it easy for bass to eat them in the dark.

If I am fishing around some sort of cover or vegetation, I prefer the Buzz Toad because I don’t have to worry about snagging on anything when I can’t see exactly where I’m casting.

But if I have really open water and I know I won’t snag onto anything, I prefer the Buzzbait because it’s a bit louder and seems to get the really big bass to eat better.

2. Bladed Jig

When it comes to subsurface moving baits, I pretty much exclusively use a bladed/vibrating jig.

The thumping blade puts off a ton of vibration and allows me to fish the bait at a variety of speeds and depths if I need.

I can cover tons of water with a bladed jig, and it is probably my most effective bass lure at night.

When I can’t get a bite on a topwater, I immediately switch to a vibrating jig and can usually get on some bass very quickly.

Also Read: The Best Z-Man Chatterbait at Each Price Point

3. Jig / Magnum Worm

Although bass will be much more active at night, there are always some bass that prefer to stay near the bottom and eat more sluggish prey.

For these bass, I either fish a casting jig or a big magnum worm rigged up on a Texas rig. I fish them both the exact same way. Just hopping and dragging them along the bottom.

When it comes to choosing one over the other, I can’t really give a great reason other than general preference and feel.

Sometimes I feel like the jig is better and other times the worm is better. I’ll generally just fish them both and see which works better on any given night.

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Best Lure Colors at Night

Black. Pretty much the only lure color I ever use during the night is black.

The reason is that black creates a much more clear silhouette in the dark water conditions, which helps bass hone in on the baits better.

And because everything is so dark, you don’t need to worry about matching the hatch perfectly, because everything looks pretty much the same at night.

Best Hours to Fish

In my experience, the nighttime bite doesn’t really heat up until about 1-2 hours after dark. There are two reasons for this.

First, many of the bass will feed up during the evening, right before it gets dark. So it takes them a couple of hours to get hungry and start eating again.

And second, it takes and hour or so for the deep water bass to move all the way up into the shallows.

So if you don’t want to fish all night long, I suggest heading out about an hour after the sun goes all the way down.

Key Night Fishing Tips:

Use a Headlamp

A headlamp makes fishing at night much, much easier. Anytime you need to see where you’re casting or need to switch baits, you can just quickly switch on the light.

Also, once a bass bites, you can quickly turn on the light and make landing/handling the bass way easier and safer.

Where Long Sleeves and Pants

The heat is not an issue at night, but the bugs can definitely be an issue. Tons and tons of bugs come out at night, so you want to wear some loose fitting long sleeves and pants to keep your skin protected from annoying bug bites.

Try to Avoid Treble Hooks

I mentioned this earlier, but the risk of hooking yourself with a treble hook goes way up at night when visibility is limited.

Whether you are handling a fish or just moving baits around, treble hook drastically increase the risk of injury, so I recommend sticking to single hook lures.

Reeling this In

Ultimately, if you’re struggling to catch bass during the scorching summer days, nighttime bass fishing offers an incredible alternative.

It takes advantage of cooler temperatures, more active bass, reduced visibility for the fish (making your lures more appealing), and significantly less fishing pressure.

By choosing the right lures like buzzbaits, bladed jigs, or jigs/magnum worms (preferably in black), and heading out an hour or two after dark, you’ll be well on your way to a successful night on the water.

Don’t forget your headlamp and long sleeves and pants to enhance your comfort and safety. Give summer night bass fishing a try, it just might revolutionize your warm-weather angling!