Night Fishing?

[Bob Apple]

When and how is the best time to night fish. Is it better of worse than day fishing? We will be going the last week of May! What about bait?

[taper]

It depends on the water your fishing and the species your targeting. I love to try for walleye in the evening and after dark but have never had much luck for pike after dark.

[Hellfish]

Catfish and pickerel and carp seem to be what i hit the most in the dark, from 10pm-3am is usually my schedule at night time, stink bait and cut bait work well and vertically jigging with a egg sinker and worm for pickerel.

[Hooked]

If your fishing for walleyes, thats probably the best time for em. I'm headin up to BOQ this week for the opener and thats pretty much all we do is night fish, I'm talking till day break. We just troll cranks like HJ's and Rogues..... and if its a nice night and we are on a good spot, casting as well.

[Bob Apple]

We are just after Walleye's and Pike. What are HJ's

[bbog]

Husky Jerk

[lunkerbasshunter]

dark coloured lures believe it or not. Not sure why but i also catch fish at night using dark baits.

 

Cheers!

[BryonG]

Walleyes like to feed after dark.Pike not so much

[wildminnow]

Has anyone tried using a light in the water? Just wondering if this was a good option or not?

[OhioFisherman]

It`s hard to beat nite time bass fishing, the crowds are gone and they will slam lures in the dark.

 

I also have not had much luck with pike at nite, weird because muskies can be active. Some lakes seem to have a much better nite bite than others, it may have to do with the amount of traffic the lake(or river) gets.

 

Nite time can be a real mixed bag of fish, I have caught L/M, S/M, Walleye, and panfish in the same spots at nite, catfish also. They can find a real small lure and it doesn`t have to be a noisey surface lure. Some of my best nites have been using a 4 or 6 inch plastic worm or 1/8 ounce jig and pig, shallow water and a slow retrieve with bottom contact, they find it.

 

Surface lure will work too, but don`t be afraid to mix it up if they aren`t hitting them well.

 

Waters I have never fished or don`t fish often I like to get to before dark for safety reasons, waters I am familier with it doesn`t matter. I don`t speed around in the dark much anyway, usually electric motor fishing for me and staying as quiet a possible.

 

Went with some friends years ago to the western basin of Lake Erie, dude got a new boat and wanted to try it out and mix in some fishing. We left on a Friday evening and got to the ramp just before dark, locals at the ramp thought it was pointless to try nite fishing for eyes on that part of Erie, we had our limits by midnite trolling crankbaits. You won`t know if you don`t try.

[OhioFisherman]

Er, lights? some places it isn`t legal? to use a light to attract fish? But if there are dock lights it will attract them.

[Bob Apple]

When you troll for Walleye's do you fish deep Crankbaits or not and where do you troll, by the shore, in the middle, islands????

[OhioFisherman]

Walleye suspend a lot, chasing baitfish or water temps? Not sure why, a good fishfinder(depth finder) will show fish and what depth. It a matter of getting your lure to run at the depth they are at.

 

I don`t spend a lot of time walleye fishing on purpose any more, it was my bother and dads thing, his boat was equipped for it with downriggers, side planners and such. A lot of what we did was to drag a smallish crankbait like a Storm hot-n-tot or wiggle wart behind the boat and try to get the running depth to match the depth of the fish. They would get down to 20 feet or so, I didn`t go when he went in very deep water after them. They would suspend 40 feet down or more in 70 feet of water.

 

I fished around the islands, Middle bass, south bass, kelley`s rattlesnake, the David bessie power plant, huron, vermillion, lorain, and Avon Lake just drag a lure and vary the depth until the fish bite.

 

Overall I was bored to death by it, much more fun for me when we got them casting for smallies near the islands or shore. I used to get them on tubes and lures like a heddon sonar or rattletrap casting to the rocky areas.

 

Lots of different ways to get them though, erie dearies, toms walleye lure, golden or silver nuggets tip with a crawler or trolled worked too. Dad had a thing for trolling worm harnesses up north, I probably caught more casting a jig and grub or live bait on a slip float. A big chub or shiner works well.

 

I also fished a jig and minnow on Erie, a fuzzy grub, foxee jig tipped with a golden shiner caught a lot of fish, smallies and walleye.

[bassfighter]

Night fishing seemed to be better when the temp is quite constant within the same day and evening.

 

We tried fishing night time during full moon to no moon, windy evening to no wind, but we notice when the temp has a huge change from morning to evening, the fish tends to be more active in the morning, and slow at night. But if the temp is very hot during the day, evening fishing is very good overall.

 

If you fish close to the weedbed, it does not matter which lure you use, if the fish are biting, you will catch all kind of fish from rock bass to 5 lb walleye. Walleye and bass seemed to be swimming not too far apart from each other these days.

[Heybud_e]

i am going to try night/dark fishing tonight. got my Berkley Glowstik the other and was only out to test cast my new reel i picked up for it.... tonight is the night!!..Bud

[Bly]

Has anyone tried using a light in the water? Just wondering if this was a good option or not?

 

Per the fishing regs.....it is illegal to use artificial lights to attract fish except:

-to fish for smelt or to fish for lake whitefish or lake herring with a dip net.

-if the light is part of a lure attached to a line used in angling.

 

Personal experience with walleye......I do my best to make sure that no light hits the water where I am fishing.

 

bly

[Bob Apple]

Where is it illegal to use artificial lights to attract fish. Ontario?

[Bly]

Where is it illegal to use artificial lights to attract fish. Ontario?

 

 

Yes, that was a quote from the Ontario regulations

[GbayGiant]

I love night fishing, musky and walleye feed more at night in my opinion caught lot's of bass to and trout love the dark, Pike the afternoon seems to be the best.

 

It's good in high traffic areas or pressured areas to go back at night, it's calm, peaceful and the bite can be on fire sometimes all to yourself. Just try to fish the same areas you do in the day but maybe a little shallower.

 

I like loud noisy baits at night for walleye and musky, but casting jigs has worked well at night for walleyes to.

[BLACKFISH88]

just remember slooooooow for the eyes slow as you can reel trust me

[holdfast]

First of all buy a head band light(help tie knots). I grew up fishing Lake Champlain Vermont, and fishing for smallmouth bass was my favorite. They are active and love to feed in the shallows. I used anything that would make noise on the surface. Absolutly no tackle box should be without a jitterbug or Hula popper. Jitterbug reel it all the way or stop and go. Hula popper pop, it and wait a few seconds. It seems that the hit will be during the pause more often than the retrieve. Strike your fish by sound. You never know what you may get. OH yea, BIG fish cruise near shore at night. Ive caught nice size rock bass and sometimes a pike or pickeral. Also a sinker worm, Minnow at night still fishing is also excellent. Light a camp fire, Doobies or Lightfoot, refreshements and throw a flashlight on your rod tip every once in a while. Who knows what you may bring in.