Brandon Butler: Beat the heat by fishing after dark

Nighttime bass fishing is a great way to be outdoors while avoiding extreme daytime heat.

Submitted photo

Miserable is the most appropriate word I can come up with for the weather last week. Temperatures over 100 degrees with humidity over 90% just doesn’t work for me.

A good friend recently returned from a musk ox hunt in Greenland. I’ve been picking his brain about real estate. I bet moving north becomes much more common in the coming decades. There’s a lot of frozen land up there that will be lush in the future. Might as well invest now, igloo and all.

Until relocation to a cooler climate occurs, we’re going to have to find outdoor fixes appropriate for the sweltering heat. Nighttime fishing is at the top of my list. Throwing topwater baits has always been one of my favorite means of catching bass. Doing it at night makes it even better.

During weeks like the one we just endured, after dark is the only way most people are going to be able to enjoy the outdoors.

Under the cloak of darkness, bass come out of deeper water to chase prey in the shallows. They feed on baitfish, frogs, mice, snakes and more. Any bait resembling something moving across the surface can fool a bass into executing a ferocious topwater predation. Common topwater baits include Zara spooks, hula-poppers, buzz baits and jitter bugs.

Fishing for surface bass after dark is fun for more reasons than the aggressive strikes. The chess match of targeting visible structures is exciting. Fallen trees, lilypads, patches of weeds, cattails, docks, sea walls, rip rap and dams are top producing areas. To me, it’s fun to think, “There should be a bass right there,” then cast to the spot and catch one.

Bank fishermen can get in on the action, but tangles in trees and other lure-snatching obstacles are more common in the dark. Anglers fishing from a boat usually have an advantage. For one, they can position themselves in front of structures and can cast from deep to swallow. You can cover more water from a boat as well.

One great way to fish after dark is slipping a float tube into a farm pond. If you’re not familiar, float tubes are simply fancy innertubes outfitted for fishing. You sit in the water, so there is the extra cooling effect of having your lower body in the cool water — although many farm ponds feel like bath water now.

The ultimate is wet wading a cool water stream. In the summer months, it’s fun and refreshing to walk and fish along a creek or stream in shorts or a bathing suit. Be sure to wear good solid shoes, since you won’t likely be able to see where you are placing each step. Unfortunately, there could be glass or metal that could cut you, so be careful.

You don’t need much gear. A spinning rods with a pocket full of baits and a headlamp are about the only must-haves. Beaches are also a great place to wade fish after dark.

Nighttime top-water fishing for bass is a great way to take advantage of these hot summer days. The action can be hot and heavy, but even if you only get one strike, the energy created from a bass busting your offering on the surface is intense. It also gets you up off the couch and out in nature when that’s hard to do during the heat of the day.

See you down the trail …

Brandon Butler writes a weekly outdoors column for the Daily Journal. For more Driftwood Outdoors, check out the podcast on www.driftwoodoutdoors.com or anywhere podcasts are streamed. Send comments to [email protected].