Prize Bass: When to Fish for Bass

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Articles: Bass Fishing Tips: Best Time to Fish

Best Time of Day to Fish

The best time to fish for Bass is early and late in the day, at dawn and dusk. That is when you're most likely to catch the biggest bass. By fishing at these times, you'll be putting your lure in front of the bass just when they are looking for prey.

Bass love to feed at spots where they can ambush bait fish from behind cover. They will hide and then pounce on their prey.

Remember that these bait fish are most active in early morning or evening. As those times, Bass will be following the bait fish feed because they are less wary of predators while feeding.

That's why going fishing during these times brings the best success. Plus, you can fish wherever you want on the water, because few other anglers will be fishing during these times.

When fishing at dawn or dusk, use a lure that appears like a baitfish ready-to-eat since that is what the Bass are looking for. A very productive lure for this purpose is a plug that looks like a mouse. You could also use a lure that looks like a big spent-wing moth, which is made out of deer hair and has a body and wings about the size of your forefinger. The idea is to twitch the "moth" along as if it is injured and trying to get in the air.

You could also look for other surface plugs that draw attention. The lure could chug, waddle, or have spinners, or it might be one of the buzzing lures that squeak. Very effective is a slim-minnow lure, that floats and dives. When on the surface it resembles an elongated minnow at rest; when twitched the lure dives quickly and then pops back up as if injured.

You will need to use good technique when retrieving an underwater lure in dim light, to make it easy for the Bass to find it and strike. For this reason, its best to retrieve the lure at a steady pace once it is set in motion so it will be more predictable.

Although its generally a good idea to fish at dawn/dusk, don't expect to catch anything when the water is below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Cooler temperatures change the feeding habits, so you can plan to stay home when the water is too cool.

Submersible lights can be helpful when fishing in dim light, especially in the evening. Using a special submersible light, like the "Evening Secret" can bring feeding fish swarming to you.

Night Fishing

Because bass do not see well at night, many anglers presume that they won't strike. While its true that bass cannot see well at night, they have an amazing ability to sense disturbances on the water and find unsuspecting bait. To capitalize on this at night, you should use lures that vibrate. They will cause the most underwater disturbance and will be most effective. Another way to draw attention to your lure it so drill small holes in plastic or balsa lures to insert small BB's in them to rattle around and make some noise.

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