Night Fishing 101: Subsurface Reaction Baits

Have you ever had one of those nights where you get out on the water, start to fish, and suddenly notice that there is nothing out there? There isn’t a bird, a squirrel, a fish on the surface, nothing. Everything around you just seems dead. Typically, that isn’t the time to be trying to throw a topwater. Obviously the fish haven’t gone to another lake, they just aren’t being active on the surface. That is when its time to try your hand at subsurface reaction baits.
I’ve broken it into 5 baits that I like to use. In no particular order they are the Chatterbait, spinnerbait, deep diving crankbait, small lipless crankbait, and large lipless crankbait. Between these 5 baits I’m able to do just about everything that night fishing can throw at me in terms of high-speed fishing.

I hope you’re able to take these tips and turn them in to big bites on your local fisheries.
What are your top 5 reaction baits? I’m always curious to see what other anglers are using. Of your top 5, which one seems to consistently draw the bigger bites?
For those of you wanting to pick up some of these baits that aren’t available at your local retailers, head over to tacklewarehouse. Here is the link: Matt’s go-to Lipless bait on tacklewarehouse

Night Fishing 101: Moon Phase

Would you rather fish on a tough day or an easy day? Of course, we’d all like to fish the easy days full of hungry fish. What if it were as easy as looking at the calendar and knowing which days to fish? While its not always that easy, understanding the moon phase calendar will go a long way to helping you catch more fish. Its amazing how a big rock so far out in space can impact the feeding patterns of fish in the local reservoir but it absolutely does. There are peak feeding times and if you understand when they are you can eliminate a lot of wasted time.

By watching this video you have potentially eliminated 17 “less than ideal” days of fishing during the month of July alone. Its not a guarantee but if you stick to the 10 days in July (and 3 at the end of June) that I’ve recommended your likelihood of experiencing a great night on the water will go up significantly.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this topic and by the end of the month, your success stories. Good luck out there.

Showing our Appreciation

Paul Elias is not only a good fisherman, he is a great friend and a major contributor to this website. You really don’t know the contributions he’s made because I’ve yet to upload most of the videos but Paul went out of his way to pass along some knowledge about tournament wins, techniques, and fishing history that will blow you away.
I’m putting up this quick post in order to give you an opportunity to show your appreciation. As Paul will explain in the video he needs us to show our support by voting him into a tournament. B.A.S.S. is using a new format to allow anglers into a post-season tournament and it is on a fishery that Paul knows well. Watch Paul’s video and then follow this link, it will explain the rest: Bassmaster Fan Favorites
And remember, you can vote once per day so please go back each day and show your continued support for a great angler who supports this site.

Paul, Thank you again for your support. I look forward to watching you win the event!

Night Fishing 101: Topwater

Prior to creating this site I had no idea how many anglers were interested in night fishing. I don’t know if it is the taboo of lurking in the dark, the potential of giant bass, or simply the appeal of a new technique but the constant barrage of emails and calls requesting information on night fishing have made it clear that this topic requires attention.
What I intend to do is create a very in-depth series of videos on night fishing. This first video highlights a variety of top water techniques. It will soon be followed up by subsurface patterns, the impact of weather, moon phases, and a handful of other elements. I hope to create a resource in these videos that you can tap into again and again.
Night fishing is an exciting way to more and bigger bass, all across the nation. Whether you are new to this genre of fishing or a virtual pro, I hope you enjoy this video as well as those to follow.

As always, support your local retailers. However, if the baits mentioned in this video are not available I recommend you take your tackle warehouse. Here is a direct link to the Lunker Punker on their site: Lunker Punker at Tackle Warehouse

I assure you that the next few videos will become more and more in-depth as I share what I know of night fishing with you. Like any technique, on the surface it is quite simple but there is always more to know. My goal is to shorten your learning curve as much as possible so that you can see immediate success on your next outing. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.