Bass Fishing at night

Dick Ayotte and I both worked the afternoon shift. This would get us out of work at about 11pm every night. We loved to fish for bass at night as it was so peaceful and quiet and an exciting way to fish. I would flip my canoe on top of my car when I went to work and by 11:30 we were usually on the lake. In the summer we did this about twice a week, weather permitting.

On this particular night we had gone to fish Duck Lake, which is in Highland Michigan. The lake was like glass and it was about 75 degrees, as I remember. There was a partial moon I know as we could see pretty well.

This place we were fishing was pretty shallow as that seemed to be where we would always find the fish at night. It was about half lilly pads and the shore was lined with cattails. In fact there were clumps of them scattered all over the flood plain we were fishing. We could hear the fish working the shallows for frogs and such. That time of year the carp are spawning too and they raise a ruckus too. Very nice to be out there at that time of night even if we don’t catch anything!

Being as it was only about two feet or so deep, we were using surface lures. I was using a green, spinner size, jitterbug and Dick had borrowed a black jointed one from me. I always liked that lure as I had gotten it when I caught a nice bass that had had the thing, foul hooked on its lower jaw. I always called it my lucky lure. Don’t know who that dang bass had stolen it from but I had it now.

Anyway Dick was using it then. They are sorta nice to use at night as it is a bit mesmerizing listening to the lure coming across the water. It makes a Plop-plop-plop-plop noise as it wobbles its way to the boat and this is suppose to make the bass think frog or something.

We were very relaxed and just sorta daydreaming as we casted and retrieved. Our minds weren’t really on fishing but on the peace of the night. Dick was just a lifting that lure out of the water and all hell broke loose. All hell breaking loose in a dang canoe in the middle of the night really sucks. Dick jerked back and damn near rolled the canoe and water was a flying and we couldn’t see squat. I steaded the canoe and Dick was still a squalling and a thrashing around. Fish was gone along with my lure. Couldn’t blame Dick as he only had about 6 inches or so of line out when the bass hit.

When things settled down and I got a light on Dick he was just a setting there, holding the rod and looking at the tip. No lure! He started telling me how bad he felt and I told him not to sweat it. We might still get it! :0)

When a fish breaks a line and is swimming around the first thing he wants to do is get rid of the lure! If he is in deep water he will try to rub it off on some rock or log or something but in shallows the bass will usually jump and try to throw it. I told Dick that we should be quiet for a bit and just listen. Which is what we did. Problem was the fact, as I said before, there were carp a rolling and other bass working the shallows. We heard a few likely splashes but could find nothing when we paddled over to investigate.
We finally said to hell with it and resumed fishing. The area we were fishing was about 35 acres or so. Because of the shallow water and the weeds and all, we were always hanging up on something but that was just part of night fishing. We would snag weeds and sticks all the time. All the time we were just a casting and slowly paddling around the area so we would cover all we could. After about an hour or so I felt the lure just dragging through the water which ment I had hooked a weed. I just rapid reeled the line in and reached to clean off the weeds. What I was staring at was that damn Black, Jointed Jitterbug!! What are the odds?? It only had about 4 or 5 inches of line on it and I had snagged the body of the lure and the hooks had gotten entangled. I showed it to Dick and he couldn’t believe it. At first he figured I had in some way staged it but there was no way I could have.

I still have that lure in one of my tackle boxes. :0) Strange things happen if you live long enough!!