“After June about all we fish are night tournaments for the summer,” Stone said. “The weather is hot and the boat traffic on weekends is pretty harsh. It gets pretty dangerous trying to fish out there on Saturday afternoons.”

There is another major reason this Saturday’s night tournament is on the schedule, Stone said.

“It’s a little different fishing so you have to be a complete angler to win this thing.”

In fact, the fishing is not all at night – the tournament starts at 7 p.m., so anglers get a couple of hours of daylight fishing before the sun sets completely. That means working at least two different patterns, one for daytime and one for night fishing.

“Schooling fish play a big part in the tournament because during those last two hours of daylight you can get on the schooling fish. If you can pull up and get 11-12-13 pounds of schooling fish in before dark then you can go after a couple of big fish after dark and that will put you ahead of the ballgame.”

Stone said most anglers will fish the schooling bass with topwater lures, Spooks and Sammies, and some will fish flukes.

“Swim baits have also got really popular the last couple of years for schooling fish,” he added.

Although during the day in summer, most anglers fish the deep holes, at night the fish usually move shallow, he said.

“Mostly during the day it is more of a deep bite, a Carolina rig or a deep-diving crankbait,” Stone said. “At night they move up on points and around brushpiles in the 12- to 15-foot range. A lot of guys catch them shallow at night because the fish will also move up on the rocks after dark.”

Once the sun sets about 70 percent of the anglers will switch to soft plastics, he said.

“A few guys like to throw topwater baits and bang square-billed crankbaits off the rocks, but after dark I put every rod on the boat up except for a worm rod.”

The summer night fishing has been pretty tough so far, until last weekend, said Stone, who also serves as tournament director for the Lake Wylie Bait and Tackle Friday Night Trail.

“Last Friday night we had 16, 15 and 14 pounds caught so hopefully it is getting ready to pick up.”

The King of the Lake Tournament Series has held four tournaments so far and at this point the top five anglers in points are all local fishermen, Stone said. There are two tournaments left before the championship Oct. 20 – the night tournament Saturday and a regular daytime tournament Oct 6.

Stone explained that the six tournaments are held to find the best overall angler, with one for every season – wintertime, pre-spawn, post-spawn, summertime (late May), a night tournament in July and a fall tournament in October.

The top five anglers in points after the six regular tournaments fish in the championship with first place guaranteed $5,000, plus the title of King of the Lake. Anglers may drop one tournament when calculating the points. Entry fee is $150 for each of the regular tournaments, but the five who qualify do not pay to fish the championship.

“If we have 15 boats first place pays $1,000 in the regular tournaments, so if you win one of the regular tournaments you have paid your entry fee for the season,” Stone said. “And then if you are one of the five you fish for $5,000 in the championship.”

King of the Lake One-Man Trail

Sat, Jul 14, 2012 (night)

Lake Wylie

Buster Boyd Access Area

Call Mike Stone at 704-915-0942

www.lakewyliebaitandtackle.com