Join the Discussion "Any of you fish at night. What are some of the good things and bad things about night fishing?  What is your craziest night fishing experience?" Ronnie

Tournament Report - 7/8/01

How It Worked Out - Flint River Bass Club West Point Lake 6 AM - 1 PM air temp - 80 - 95, partly cloudy water temp 86, clear to light stain on main lake

Related Resources • Too Hot To Go Fishing? Never! • Late July Fishing Patterns

Past Articles One Year Ago - 7/24/00 - I Hooked the Big One! Two Years Ago - 07/26/99 - Jacks Are Wild Three Years Ago - 07/13/98 - Snakes I Have Known - Part 1 Four Years Ago - 07/14/97 - Gar - Jurassic Park Fish

I like fishing at night.  One of the bass clubs I am in, the Spalding County Sportsman Club, had a night tournament last Saturday at West Point Lake.  We fished from 6:00 PM to 2:00 AM on a hot evening.  Fortunately there was a breeze that helped make the air temperature bearable.

When we took off at six my partner and I headed to a roadbed where I have caught bass over the years. (I caught my only keeper off it in a tournament there two weeks before - see the report at the right.)   The breeze was blowing just right so I let it drift the boat down the road rather than using the trolling motor on the first pass.  We did not get a bite on big crankbaits or worms.

When we got to the other side of the cove I eased back across with the trolling motor, throwing my dropshot rig.  Nothing hit it or anything my partner Carson threw.  We left after an hour and went to the riprap on a  railroad bridge where we again got no bites.

Our next stop was a hump about 100 yards off the bank.  Several boats were in the area casting and trolling, looking for hybrids.  I had seen a school come up off the hump two weeks earlier, but we were really not interested in them, we needed black bass for our tournament.

I started catching some spotted bass on a point near the hump on a drop shot rig, but they were all under the 12 inch minimum for our tournament.  Then, right at dark after all the other boats left, the hybrids came up behind us.  We went to them to catch some and have some fun, but I was also hoping some bass would be feeding with them.

During the next 20 minutes I caught a couple of hybrids and a 13 inch spotted bass on a Sammy fished thru the school.  Carson caught a few hybrids on buzzbaits, too.  After the schooling activity stopped on the surface I started dragging a Carolina rigged Zoom Brush Hog through the area and caught another 13 inch spot.

By this time it was very dark and we fished down a nearby bank where several trees had fallen into the water.  I missed a couple of bites as did Carson, and I caught a short spot and a largemouth that was 15 3/4 inches long - the biggest fish I caught all night but a little too short to make the 16 inch limit for them.

We jumped across to another point with some rocks on it and i managed to catch several short spotted bass and one solid 1.5 pound 14 inch spot, another keeper.  Both Carson and I missed several fish because of the way they were hitting.  If you felt a thump and set the hook, you missed the fish.  If you felt weight and set the  hook, you missed the fish.  The only way I could hook one was to hold my line still when I felt something.  Eventually they would move off with the bait and I could set the hook and land them. I still do not know why it was like that!

With a little over an hour left to fish we headed down the lake to a hump I like  to fish. Since there was a boat sitting on it, we went back to a point near a bridge and fished.  With about 15 minutes left before we had to go in, I worked to the bridge riprap and started throwing a black Ledgebuster Nite Bite spinnerbait.  Immediately a bass grabbed it and jumped about two feet out of the water and threw it!

On the next cast I caught another 1.5 pound spotted bass on the spinnerbait.  After that one went into the livewell it was time to go in!

At weigh-in I had four weighing 5.1 and placed second.  Another club member showed us largemouth could be caught - he had five bass weighing 15.5 pounds, including a 7.1 pound largemouth and another one weighing close to 5 pounds, and three small spots.  He said the two big largemouth hit a spinnerbait, one before dark and one after dark!

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