Going Night Fishing Saturday Night...

[FishinCricket]

Just gonna put in after work at the public access at Bennett and float down a couple miles and set up a camp (hopefully well away from other campers) and try my hand at night fishing... I got the spot all staked out, but I have never even attempted fishing at night for anything but catfish and crappie.. Any suggestions? Like things I can do to help me see better without being eaten alive by insects? Or any particular type of bait I should use.. Any suggestions for nightfishing would be most appreciated..

My overall plan is to try and catch a lunker in one of two holes using bigger bait and a larger bass pole... But I am used to fishing with an open-bail ultralight and a spinner or spoon lure...

any thoughts would be appreciated...

[Guest]

deleted

[Wayne SW/MO]

I would consider camping at the hole under Keith Bluff. If the rivers normal you could work all the way back to the mossy hole just below the last ramp. If you don't linger Sunday morning you could still be out in front of the herd.

[FishinCricket]

I assume you are trying for a big brown trout? Try a jointed minnow bait, like a rapala j-7, or large crayfish imtations. A head lamp can work wonders for tying knots at night as well.

Yes, this is exactly my aim.... I have fished this Niangua river way to long to not have a picture of me holding a massive brown trout.. The biggest I ever caught was a 21 inch brown and my ex wife threw away the photo to spite me during our divorce... and I have a picture of a friend of mine holding the 5 lb rainbow I caught.. I have ben informed by other anglers that unless it is me in the photo then I can't claim the fish...

I found a spot last week that two branches of the river converge on and make a 15 ft deep hole.. I stood there with a spinner and got 6 or 7 small rainbow to bite, but whatever the dark masses were on the bottom moving around I couldn't get them to come up.. Just almost dove in to inspect but didn't want to mess up the fishing...

I have an ugly stick meduim duty bass rod with 8lb test, I figured I would take a jointed minnow or other diving bait and drop it in that hole and see what happened.. The head lamp is definitely a good idea, thanks for that one...

[FishinCricket]

I would consider camping at the hole under Keith Bluff. If the rivers normal you could work all the way back to the mossy hole just below the last ramp. If you don't linger Sunday morning you could still be out in front of the herd.

Definitely one of the two spots I was considering.. We are putting in pretty late on Saturday afternoon and hope to aviod the drunken floater by doing this and then getting up early and hitting it hard until around 9 am, then getting off the river before the party floats down that far... Hope it goes according to plan, I hate having to fish in a drunkfest... But it can be done, I have seen it...

Basically if my guess is right we are just going to have to stop at the first gravel bar that isn't occupied by a bunch of raving idiots...

[hoglaw]

If you want to catch a for sure hog, I'd catch a couple of sculpins or crawdads.

[FishinCricket]

If you want to catch a for sure hog, I'd catch a couple of sculpins or crawdads.

So scoop up a few bigger crawdads and rig em carolina rig style? The spot I have in mind I should be able to stand at the top of the confluence of the two streams and drop the bait or lure right out in front of me and just wait for the hit.. Any certain depth for river browns at night? Someone topld me to fish close to the top, another said fish the crawdad on the dead bottom.. I am a little lost...

Thanks again for all the suggestions, hope it yields me a lunker!

[oneshot]

Browns and Smallies are hitting on Crawdads.

oneshot

[hoglaw]

either sit above your hole with the crawdad weighted to the bottom, or get below the riffle and throw upstream with a smaller weight (splitshot) and bounce it back to you. If there are sculpins in the river, I'd prefer those over crawdads for big browns. You just have to kill them before you fish with them for bottom fishing, or you can fish them live like a jerk-bait unweighted.. The crawdads need to be alive.

[Wayne SW/MO]

If it were me I'd lay hard on the mossy hole right below the access hole, and the one at the Winchester Gap access. I think the Browns like the moss, they're a lazy ambush type fish and those two holes always seem to be perfect for the bigger ones.