on a Saturday night in July a few years ago 14 members of the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished our July tournament at Jackson. We fished from 7:00 PM until 2:00 AM trying to avoid some of the heat, and it was slightly cooler after the sun went down. Fishing was tough in the heavily stained water, with seven members not bringing in a keeper fish.

We landed 23 bass over the 12 inch minimum size and their total weight was about 35 pounds. I had the only limit and my five weighed 8.22 pounds for first place. James Pilgrim, Jr. had four weighing 7.99 pounds for second and his 4.04 pound largemouth was big fish for the tournament.

Butch Duerr had four keepers weighing 7.31 pounds for third, David Pilgrim had 3 weighing 4.54 for fourth and Jason Wheeler’s 3 weighing 3.09 pounds rounded out the top five. Of the 23 keepers brought to the scales, 13 were spotted bass and 10 were largemouth.

I was on some kind of strange schedule. For the first two hours I caught about four bass too small to keep, and a 3 pound catfish. Then I caught a keeper every hour, just about on the hour, from 9:00 PM until 1:00 AM. Each fish got a little bigger than the one before it, but I started with one just barely 12 inches long. The second one was 12.25 inches and the third just a tad bigger.

My last two fish were decent keepers, with a 2.5 pound spotted bass just after midnight and a 3.31 pound largemouth just after 1:00 AM. The first fish I caught hit a Zoom Mag 2 worm and the last four hit a Rattleback Jig with a Zoom Fat Albert twin tail trailer.

Night fishing is a lot more comfortable this time of year, and the bass do feed in the dark. Give it a try one of these warm summer nights. You might like it.