I heard about how good night bass fishing Sand Hollow can be in the summertime and couldn’t stop thinking about it. I also found out there are a couple of night bass fishing tournaments every year at Sand Hollow, so I knew fishing at night must be a good thing. It turned out to be one of the most fun fishing trips of the year for me. We wound up doing really well, and caught a couple big hawgs . The dynamics totally change at night when it comes to bass fishing which made it really fun. Here is what we used, where we fished, and how things shook out on my first midnight bass run at Sand Hollow.
I timed my trip with a visit down to St. George for work, and talked my dad, Chuck Spilker, into heading off into the dark for some night bass fishing. As soon as we got done with job stuff, we grabbed the bass boat and headed out on the water. We arrived at Sand Hollow around 7 pm and started releasing the “Kraken” on those Sand Hollow largemouth bass! Here are the logistics of what happened hour by hour while we were there.
After some deliberation on where to start, we decided to hit up the dyke on the south side of the lake. We headed there because it seemed like a good spot to get out of the wind. Our hope was that the wind would die down in a few hours, so we could go tackle some of our other favorite spots later. We decided to tie on and throw a few different baits. My dad used a medium diving bluegill pattern crank bait, and I tied on a bluegill rippin lips spinner bait. I crushed my first bass within about 4-5 casts. Always makes you feel good. All the fish we caught where within 10 feet of the dyke. My dad also popped one or two on the crank bait. The spinner bait seemed to work the best our first float down the dyke.
We fished the same shoreline along the dyke a second time and started using soft plastics. We picked up a few more bass. My dad out fished me this time around. He had on a green pumpkin smallie beaver texas rigged with a 3/16oz weight. I tried a topwater Megabass Dog X for a minute and caught one on it. All in all we wound up with about 6-7 bass in the boat, but nothing had any real weight or girth in our first hour of fishing.
We decided it was time to bust out the topwaters and change locations. We buzzed over to the under water island which usually produces fish. As soon as we pulled up, I caught a decent 3lbs largemouth with the Megabass DogX on my second cast . It got us super pumped. I caught one other little bass 20 minutes later on the same bait. My dad went dry on the popper he was chucking. We decided to move on and try the east shoreline. At this point the sun had gone down, but you could still barely see enough to tie on your bait.
It was officially dark when we started fishing the east shoreline. I tied back on my blue gill pattern spinnerbait, and released the “Kraken” on a few more bass!
It was really fun fishing in the dark. You couldn’t see where your bait landed in the water, and you had to rely on your senses to tell you how your bait was working in the water. I loved how you never knew what size of a fish you had, until you got it into the boat. Plus, we didn’t have any head lamps or flashlights. It made things even more interesting and fun. Good thing we had lights on the boat!
We decided to move and pulled up to the rock island next to the boat ramp. I tied on a football jig with a havoc pit chunk trailer, and got crushed! It was a solid 3lbs bass. A couple casts later I crushed another toad. It was dark, but I could tell he was big. He really pulled out some drag, and when I finally got him in I was stoked. He was a solid 4lbs. We popped a couple more, and were excited about how big they were. We fished until we decided we needed to be responsible since we had to work the next day. What an awesome time!
Here is a map of where we fished hour by hour on our evening of night bass fishing Sand Hollow.
Here is the list of baits we used. We threw a lot of stuff. You can refer to the above time segments if you want to know when we used what.
A solid jig for night fishing Sand Hollow is a strike king summer craw football jig. Then add a summer crawdad pit boss on the jig for a trailer. Cast it out, let it sink to the bottom, and twitch it back. The key is short quick hops, and pause to let the bait settle and the skirts flair to get bites on the jig.
A blue gill color Rippin Lips 1/2 oz willow & colorado blade was a solid catcher for us at night. Plus, don’t forget the pearl white 3″ grub as a trailer. Cast your spinnerbait out and let the bait flutter down, then swim it back to the boat. The deeper you want your spinnerbait to travel the longer you should let it sink and slow your retrieve down as well.
We also used a topwater spook style bait called the Megabass Dog-X. We Didn’t catch a ton of fish on this topwater bait, but I did catch a few. I used the color called GG Flashing Wakasagi. Make sure you are “walking the dog” with this bait. It takes a little practice, but you’ll get it.
A Green pumpkin Texas rigged beaver with a 3/16 oz bullet head weight worked well for us. Throw it out, let it sink to the bottom, and crawl it back like a crawdad on the bottom.
We used medium diving bluegill pattern crank baits. They worked decent in the evening before dark. Throw it out and reel it in. Try to have your crankbait bounce of the rocks, and tick the grass along the bottom.
What an awesome time. The dark made everything even more exciting. It heightened your senses of feeling what your bait was doing. Plus, not knowing what you had on until it was in your hands was a blast. I’m definitely planning on doing this again. The other bonus’s were you avoid the summer heat and the boat traffic. It was nice and cool at night. One word of warning. Make sure you grab some bug spray before you head out. We got eaten alive at one point.
For more insights into bass fishing Sand Hollow at night check out my Sand Hollow Bass Fishing Guide eBook. It will help you identify where you can locate the bass on Sand Hollow during each season, and it provides several baits, and techniques to use at those times for getting bass to bite. Click on the image below to learn more about what’s inside to help you catch fish on this lake.
Everything you need to know about finding and catching bass anytime of year on Sand Hollow
Please leave a comment below about your experiences night fishing Sand Hollow. Plus, don’t forget to subscribe to the blog to stay up to date with all my trip reports. Let me know if you have any other questions about night bass fishing Sand Hollow. Good luck in your endeavors to release your “kraken” and catch some bass at night!
As always,
Stay Stoked!
The links above and below in this post are affiliate links were you can pick up some of the baits, rod’s, reels, line, and anything else used to “Krak” some bass night fishing at Sand Hollow. Krakenbass receives a small percentage of the sales through these links. I only use links to baits, and gear I personally trust and know work. These links are provided to primarily be helpful for you, and not for the small amount I make for the sale of the products. Hopefully, these products can help you “krak” some bass like they have for me! Thank you for your support.
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