G-Man Fishing

Remember those days of getting up early to make it down to Burke Lake? You needed to rent a boat for $40. Then you have a 1 or 2 hour window to make something happen before the sun and humidity becomes unbearable. Not to mention that you usually had 3 to 4 boats following you around the same points in the lake. You usually came up empty and went home wondering what you should have done differently.Well you weren’t night fishing! We arrived at the lake with the brand new canoe at around 8:30 pm. The skies were cloudy and the sun was setting. It didn’t take long to get dark. Suprisingly, there were several other boats launching at the same time for some night fishing action and even more shoreline anglers as evidenced by the lamps set up in various locations along the shore.We started out working small plastic jigs tipped with nightcrawlers near the dam area and a nearby cove. Lots of small bites but nothing hooked. This had been my experience while fishing with crawlers at Burke before: lots of small baitfish nibbling away at your bait.When it got darker, we paddled to another cove near Vesper Island. I decided to switch to a black skirted spinner bait with a willow leaf blade. H decided to stop fishing and instead help navigate the canoe (Thank you!) allowing me to cast. Casting towards the weedline from about 30 feet from shore, we worked a cove til we reached a point. Thats when I hooked a 13 inch largemouth bass. We measured it and then released it. (Damn, forgot to bring the camera!)Later we paddled across the lake to another section of weed lined shore and hooked another big mouth bass. This time it was a big fighter. I got him next to the boat where he got loose. It looked to be about 16 inches or so and maybe about 2 pounds.Overall, we were on the lake for two and a half hours; most of which was in darkness. I hooked two bass in that time span. To me, thats a vast improvement over the many many hours spent last year fishing during the day without even one single bite!If you haven’t tried night fishing, you should give it a shot. Bring a flashlight and be safe. You’ll find it enjoyable and much more productive!