Glurgle,glurgle,glurgle sputter, glurgle, glurgle, glur........slurp......whoosh........I didn't see the strike, I sure did hear it and soon after I cranked the rod back, I was wrestling with another night time largemouth bass that blasted a buzzer. This particular evening was dark and saw me doing my best three blind mice impression as I fished by feel and used my ears to determine where the bait was. The senario repeated itself many times on this night as I continued to chuck a small plastic bladed buzzer to the scaly green inhabitants of a small local pond.

If you can get by the occassional mosquito and the fear of being eaten by large snapping turtles, night time can be the right time to tangle with big bass. Some people subscribe to the notion that big bass are caught primarily in low light conditions, during peak feeding points. I do not, but I will tell you that you can catch large fish at twilight.

I prefer to wade at night. It makes my approach more methodical and truthfully on the small LI waters I fish, a boat may just force me to fish too fast thus making me ineffective. At night during the warmer months, which by the way is the only time to night fish for largemouth bass, I feel that a topwater approach is best. True, fish can be caught on worms and other subsurface baits but I feel that bass tend to look skyward at night to get the best eyeball on an offering. A topwater bait has a silouette on the surface that bass most likely can see better than a worm on the bottom. I utilize a few hardcore night baits when fishing in the black. Remember I said that I do this during the warm months so buzzers would be a natural choice. I also like the Weedwalker which is a plastic spoon with a buzzing paddle wheel in the middle. It rocks!!!! I also use a spinnerbait I dubbed the Midnight special. It is a 1/4oz model with Turtleback Willow blades, a double rattle and a metallic black skirt. It is simply death with one hook!!!! A large floating lizard or worm and a large grub buzzed on top round out my offerings. You will notice that I didn't include a Spook, popper or Jitterbug. This is for several reasons. First, I can think of no better way to put a hook through your finger than to blindly reach for a thrashing bass that has a mouthful of trebles in the darkness. Second, I go hardcore and try to fish weedlines and gak. An open hooked bait would foul in my applications and I don't want to clean hooks after each cast. Lastly, single hooks equal better hook up ratio and at night, I need that advantage as I won't know a fish is on until I feel him. Bass are less apt to throw a single hooked bait.

THE BUZZBAIT:

I got into buzzers many years ago on my favorite small ponds. I would often employ a chart/blue 1/4oz model made by Strike King. I think it was called the Timber Buzz. I liked this bait because it was on a 1/8oz frame. It had a lexan plastic blade that was a bit more subtle than the aluminum models so common today. With the 1/4oz model, I could easily chuck it on baitcasting gear. At the time I was using a Shimano Bantam Mag Ps201. A simple reel without all of the bells and whistles of today's mills. I like a light springy tip on my rod to absorb some of the shock of a strike and I feel that it helps me keep in contact with the bait better. 12lb test was the norm on my set up at night, I don't think bass are line shy at all. I would target the weedbeds and weedlines. I would hit any ambush point I could think of. Here is where knowledge of the waters you fish pays off because often I had no idea exactly where the piece of cover or target truly was. I was fishing in the spot I thought it was. I broke a ton of blades crashing the bait into stumps and trees and other hard objects but more often that not my cast was met with an angry micropterus that blasted it out of the water. These days, I can't get Timber Buzz' anymore and I rely on Lee Bailey's Cavitron Buzzer. This bait has a blade that comes drilled with holes and a head that is offset from the wire arm giving it more bite or gap from the hook. The holes that are drilled in the bait are key as they make the bait sound different and they throw a lot of water. I remove the blade before I fish and jam a square pointed nail in the two holes that accept the wire arm. This squares the holes out and the blade will now thump every time it moves. This is a deadly little secret as most guys fish their baits straight out of the package. I notice better success with it this way. I do not use a trailer hook on any bait ever. I believe that if a bass is striking short, he isn't prepared to commit to the bait you are throwing anyway. It doesn't matter how fast you think you are retrieving, if the bass wants to catch the bait, he will.

THE RETRIEVE:

I make a cast and start retrieving the bait before it hits the water, this keeps it on top . I prefer a slow but steady retrieve. You can't see the bait so it keeps you honest. At times you may jerk the bait when you hear a fish blow up on it but with a little practice, you learn to wait until you feel the fish. There is no reason to set prematurely, wait until you actually feel the fish. Once I feel the weight of the bass, I pop my wrist sideways to set. One thing I've learned is that you must listen to the bait. At times a bass will hit the bait and swim towards you. If the gurlge is interupted, try to speed up so you can catch up to the bait. You might just have a bass latched on to it. Prime time to fish buzzers is on the hottest stickiest most mosquito filled nights. I rarely use them in daylight any more.

THE BUZZER IN ACTION:

For daylight use, I target weedlines and visable cover. It can be very effective when bass are active. At night it becomes the ultimate search and destroy bait. I can cover a ton of water with it and it has a great hookup ratio. I don't want to limit this bait as a single use bait but a buzzer IS a warm water bait. Yeah, I have had freak outings where I caught bass during snow storms on it but those are the exception rather than the norm. One area in which a buzzer excels is in current. When bass relate to current, a buzzer can be magic. Whether it is an incoming trickle from a drainage pipe of a steady flow, you can bet that active bass will be close by waiting for munchies to drift by them. I'll buzz a pipe and keep the bait close to the inflow, the bass will usually be sitting just below the trickle. The inflow brings cooler water, oxygen and bait to the fish so they may be in a supercharged mood. A buzzer is a good choice because it looks like something that is trying to scurry away. The buzzer resembles nothing natural in the aquatic world. Spewing water on the surface, it resembles an object in flight. I think it annoys fish into striking.

WEEDWALKER:

The name of the company escapes me now but I think either Heddon or Strike King make this beauty. It may be the ultimate night time weedbed bait. I've had monster bass actually break them in half and spit them back to me demanding a stronger bait as if they were insulted by my flimsy plastic model. This weedless spoon bait has a paddle wheel in its center that acts as a buzzer churning up the water. It features a wire weedguard and a single upturned hook that is adorned with a rubber skirt. It slips over weeds and other objects with ease. It may be the most weedless bait on the market. I can't praise it enough as I've caught a ton of bass on it. I accidentally began using it back a number of years ago on LI's Canaan lake. This is a shallow water that is reminiscent of many of the Florida waters I grew up fishing. Weeds everwhere, pads, cane even some stumps. Big bass and some pickeral as well. My friend and I had been fishing for pickeral. He claimed there were no bass inm the lake even though I told him otherwise. It was early evening and the sun was falling. I heard the movement in the pads as the fish began to feed. The weeds were so thick that I couldn't fish any other bait effectively. I had two new weedwalkers in the bottom of my bag. My pal Scotto, laughed at me as I tied one on. No exageration, I took 5 bass on the first five casts I made. This made him scramble to kiss my butt so I would give him the other bait. We tore them up that night with several brute bass that absosutley obliterated the baits. Since, it has earned the right to be in my tackle bag.

MIDNIGHT SPECIAL:

This is my go to tournament bait for night time fishing. I've always caught bass on it in every tournament that I've fished. The combination of tandem Mag Willow Blades and a dual rattle pod set up produce all the sound and vibration that bass need to home in on the bait. I can fish it at any speed and it works. I have a pretty big named Pro angler who is sponsored by a major spinnerbait company using these things. I don't think that the weight matters all that much. I like a 1/8oz bait on a 1/4oz frame to keep a good sized profile. I will also use up to a 3/8oz bait to slow the bait down a bit. The package is completed with the addition of a metallic black skirt with a special scale flake pattern. I put big eyes on each bait as well. I use this bait in shallow water up to 6 feet or so and always toss it on baitcasting gear. Again I like a rod that has a softer tip. In fact I've fashioned my own homemade light action bait casting rods just for this bait.

Although I mentioned some soft plastics, they are not my go to baits. I prefer baits that I can always keep in contact with. No slack in the line at night means no tangles and less lost fish.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR:

Like I said earlier, it pays to have good knowledge of the waters you fish. Knowing where certain obstructions are or where they should be can only help you when you are casting. Try to learn the locations of the weedlines as you will take many of your fish from them. I like to make average distance casts. I'm not trying to break records because I can't see exactly where my bait is and the less line I have to pick up means that I won't have much trouble setting the hook. Walk softly to avoid both spooking bass and stepping in a hole which will increase your chances of drowning!!! No good!!!! One of the things I should note is that my night fishing is done in extremely shallow water. I usually don't venture into water deeper than 3 or 4 feet. I think that many fish naturally set their sites on shorelines at night to corral baitfish and prevent them from escaping.

NIGHT TIME CHECK LIST:

flashlight
knife
mosquito repellant
waders with belt
I like to use clear lens glasses since I can't see the bait coming at me a 100 mph after a missed hookset, I would rather the glasses take the hit instead of my face or eye.
9MM pistol(optional)-Turtle Tamer

You would be amazed at the wildlife you come across. In a small pond near Ronkonkoma a few years ago I was graced with the presence of two foxes with are pretty rare in Central Suffolk. I've seen deer, car-tire sized snapping turtles, pheasants, owls and other neat creatures. Give night time bassing a try. I don't just do it to avoid the heat.