Night Fishing With The Lights

[npierceuark]

Planning on heading out late Sat afternoon and doing some crappie and cat fishing till 2am or so. Figured I'd lay out my 20 jugs then anchor up to a tree and fish till I can't keep my eyes open. Any one been catching any crappie that could lend some insight on where to start? Probably try around pt 12. Depth of water, structure, lures?

On a side note had a banner weekend on table rock. Did some night fishing and caught 6 cats all in 3 lb range (perfect eating) along with 2 nice walleye and a couple dozen crappie with the largest close to 15". Caught the cats on a trot line with stick bait and the rest on green curly tail grubs jigging vertically below the dock. 20 FOW. Had 3 sows of some specie break me off before I got a look so who knows what they could have been. Glad the night bite is here, I've been waiting.

[J-Doc]

Count me in for a trip next weekend!

[npierceuark]

I'll mark it down. this was last weekend... got into them good right before dark. lots of shorts and a bunch of nice whites

[Feathers and Fins]

Catfish, this time of year Rocky Branch is always good, if you launch in the back the first cove out of it on your left where the road comes close to it is a good cat area. Crappie are normally along the same side but more back toward the boat launch hanging over the trees. Beware the whites are there as well. If its windy I wouldn't take that boat, that area of the lake gets nasty in high winds. Second bet would be try the back of Montne for cats and crappie along its bluff walls. I will be out Saturday evening chasing walleye this full moon looks to be a good one for them.

[wc1063]

12 bridge seems like a hot spot for night fishing last time I was out, there were 10-12 boats under the bridge, I guess they were fishing for white bass.

[bfishn]

Shaddox is good for both crappie and cats, with a ramp right there handy for late night loadout. (Might want to scout the ramp given the lake level). There's some really nice flatheads in there, but your lines won't likely be the only ones there now.

That said, light fishing will be diminished if you're in a spot the early full moon shines on. Up next to a tall, west-facing bluff will keep you shaded from the moonlight long enough to get a good bait swarm going. Once they're there, they'll stay.

[jdelow77]

What kind of lights do you guys use ? I bought a submersible one years ago and it started melting the plastic inside ! I have one of the floating styrofoam ones but , I've never used it , anyone ever used glow sticks ?

[marknsaw]

Night fish anywhere along a bluff line. From 12 to 1. Pole timber is important. Use your sonar to mark fish sitting in the timber. Tie up close and drop minnows 10-20 feet. Drop your light around dusk. If you get a shad-nado....... don't plan on sleeping. White light has worked better with my experience. You'll have a fun time trying to figure what is on your line. Stipers- to - bream....... back to back tugs are catfish.....hard dives are whites' or small stripes.....crappie and walleye give up quick..... you'll get a pole bender as well once or twice. 20 pound flathead and 22 pound striper, landed both on 8 pound test. Nothing like giving it yer all at 3:11 AM

[fisherofmen11]

What is a shad-nado?

[bfishn]

A shadnado is an inverted cone-shaped mass of small shad swimming in a circle under the light, gleefully gobbling up zooplankton the light attracts. Left to grow under the light, the mass can number in the thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of individual shad by dawn, with the ones directly under the boat bumping into it with machine-gun-like staccato.

This is the goal of light fishing. If it doesn't happen, you're in the wrong place. A couple times I've untethered the boat and drifted very slowly in the breeze, bringing the shad along with me, catching suspended fish that hadn't been close enough to notice the buffet.

Sometimes a school of fish will rage on the shadnado and disperse it for a bit, but mostly they just hang out near the edges picking off stragglers. Just outside the shad (and just under) is where you want to be fishing. I like to use slip bobbers with tiny cyalume sticks zip-tied to the upper stem. When everything goes right it's a real hoot, and the sun will be coming up before you're ready.

The best light fishing is in the darkest place you can find (with shad, of course) in the dark of the moon.