Engage all the senses for successful night bassing

Some of you may have seen modern-day war movies in which commandos don night-vision goggles when they're involved in a pitch-black evening mission.

I could have used a pair of those goggles during a recent fishing trip.

The tactic had always been simple on Bangs Lake and other area bodies of water: Get in the boat, rig a plastic worm or live bait hook, and look for some largemouth bass.

But this time was different. This "event" had all the earmarks of an outing into the unknown. Well, maybe not unknown, but something almost as dramatic.

So with that in mind, I would call this endeavor an experiment on a side road.

Wauconda's Bangs Lake has always been my go-to spot for big bass, especially when I would come off the Fox Chain frustrated and a bit upset with all the recreational water traffic.

In the past, it was a fairly routine for the late Roger Pulkka and I to catch double and triple limits of bass (with no fish ever kept). Our agenda called for us to be on the lake just before sunrise for a morning session, and then later at night, with or without a full moon. Of course, we had younger eyes then.

I invested several years into learning how to fish the weed pockets during sunlight hours, a place where some of the biggest bass hung out waiting for baitfish to come within striking distance.

Different anglers have different names for those openings. I like the term pocket, simply because an opening in heavy cover resembles a pocket on a heavy jacket.

But it was the nighttime surface battles that I enjoyed the most.

So now I stood on a fishing pier with casting rod in hand, rigged with a large weedless frog. My spinning rod was rigged with a smaller surface lure, a Storm Chug-Bug. I removed all the hooks from that lure and replaced them with a single, weedless hook on the lure's bottom.

My night tactics are considerably different than bassing in the daylight hours.

I like to spend time just listening as to what's happening. All that means is being aware of fish making noise on the surface as they chase dinner across the top of weeds.

When I hear what can sound like a major eruption, I immediately cast as close to the noise as possible.

It could be a half-minute before a strike, or it could be just seconds, but for me it's the best way to locate fish at night.

I like to call the heavy weeds the "salad" because it resembles what I see on my dinner table (only devoid of bass).

The reason for this lecture is to help remind you that some of the best fishing thrills in any season can be an evening of finding and catching largemouth bass simply by using your ears and casting ability.

• Contact Mike Jackson at angler88@comcast.net, catch his radio show 7-9 a.m. Sundays on WGCO 1590-AM (live-streamed at www.1590WCGO.com) and get more content at www.mikejacksonoutdoors.com.