Night Fishing Smallies!

On Wed, 19 Oct 2005 09:49:12 -0500, Chris Rennert
wrote:

Ok all, I know it is fall, and I know the Smallies are up shallow
eating. Here is what I am running into! The moment the sun disappeares
behind the horizon, boom, nothing, not a bite, or anything. I switch to
black crankbaits, black topwaters, black spinnerbaits, etc. etc. When
that doesn't fly, I go to natural(shad, crayfish, etc.), white, then
chartreuse , next thing will be glow in the dark.

I have read articles on night fishing, and here is one question I have.
Do smallies stop biting for a certain amount of time as their senses
adjust to the lighting conditions. From 5pm to 6:30pm (sunset about
6:15 or 5 minutes in that general time frame). Then nothing at all, and
I have gone into 1, 2, and 3 hours after dark. Still nothing. I am
still marking balls of baitfishing on my graph, but I have not even had
a bite, and I am probably fishing after dark 2 or 3 days a week.
Reading those articles, I know people catch fish after dark, and I know
people here have mentioned night tournaments. I will say that Winnebago
is not by any means clear. I guess I would take any suggestions you
guys might have. I don't get out of work till almost 5pm, so if I only
fished till dark that would only be about an hour and a half, and that
just isn't acceptable :-).

Thanks all!

Chris


For some reason, there are some bodies of water where smallmouth
(and sometimes largemouth) completely shut down when it gets dark.
I've seen this phenomenom particularly on river systems where
sewage/chemical runoff was a problem. But I've also seen this in many
creeks too...especially ones that had a tendency to muddy up quickly
after a rain/snow or where runoff was often a problem. Likewise, I've
seen some fish on some river systems shut off whenever it started to
rain. It's bizarre...because it goes against what you would normally
expect. (ie. rain usually produces better fishing on majority of
waters). The only connection I made was that the fish didn't want to
eat for some reason when they couldn't see what they were eating.
Maybe it was because they learned (somehow) not to feed bc some fish
ate things they didn't want to? I don't know. All I know is that
sometimes nighttime is like turning off a switch to
bass...particularly smallmouth on some waters.

What has blown me away is that...some of these waters will
reverse itself (after a long period of time) and become productive at
night (or during rainy periods). Maybe it's mother nature's way of
fixing a man-made problem after a period of time?

If you look at many smallmouth waters...nighttime is one of the
better times to fish. For example, down on the Tennessee river, many
people just fish at night for smallmouth and have great success. Dark
jigs, big spinnerbaits and topwater baits catch many a 6 pound
smallmouth at night down there...particularly on the main river
system. I've also found that on many natural lakes, the best time to
fish for smallies is at night too. When the sun goes down, many
smallies start roaming like crazy and its the best time to be on the
water for em'..and buzzing a spinnerbait over weeds n' rocks can
produce fish after fish.

Based on what you told me...I'd be curious to see if your body of
water had problems with runoff/sewage?

--
Dwayne E. Cooper, Atty at Law
Indianapolis, IN
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