The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

Gabby’s Fishing Fever

Big bass are waiting for bait at night


There are a lot of bass anglers doing a lot of night fishing this time of year. And for good cause.

The action really peaks at certain times of the day in summer. Most of the time it is very early and during windy or overcast conditions and at night.

During the day in summer the lake is alive with boats and jet skies and swimmers and fish like bass will move to deeper or less crowded areas during the day. But at night everything settles down and it is much quieter and the nighttime bass anglers are out. Bass will move back to shallow areas and on cover close to the bank, most of the time in only a few feet of water.

During the daytime bass will feed by sight and see its prey before it strikes. But after dark, bass have to rely on their sense of hearing and the feel of vibrations in the water to locate a meal.

Bass have a long line that runs the full length of the body called a lateral line. This line is connected to the bass central nervous system and is a series of nerves that can detect the smallest vibration of a struggling or moving prey.

Bass will use this to find food in complete darkness, and the one bait that gives this sound and vibration and sound in the water at night is a buzzbait. This bait and the plastic worm and jig have caught more bass at night than most baits combined have.

The buzz bait, when fished at night, will make a splashing gurgling sound on the surface. The blade spinning on the metal shaft makes a screeching sound that drives active bass crazy and they want to kill it. A buzzbait will make these sounds during the entire retrieve.

This makes this bait a very deadly topwater bait for summer bass at night. Bass will hit this bait so hard they will knock it out of the water at times, and this is a big bass bait also.

Try to listen for bass feeding around the surface or around cover and make long casts and retrieve the bait just fast enough to turn the blades and make the right sounds. But if you hear a fish blow up on the bait, try to wait to feel a pull or hit on the bait before you set the hook. this will help you hook a lot more bass.

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