Night fishing under the lights

[Wilson3144]

After all those good reports/posts of night fishing in the last few weeks, I went out and got a underwater light and thought I'd try it. Been night fishing for bass since I was a kid but never under lights. Got a babysitter for our five month old and dragged my wife along. Put in at mutton creek and in three hours we caught 30 fish, mix bag of walleye, crappie and white bass. Spend most of the night baiting and netting fish for my wife. It was funny to see the transformation of my wife nervousness of being on the water at night to her keeping count of how many more fish she had than me and reminding me that she was kicking my butt. When we got back to the truck at 0130 am she said it was the best fishing trip she had and loved night fishing. So just wanted to thank everyone that posted night fishing tips! Was a great time!!!!

[wuteversbitin424]

Ive done a lot of fishing and catch a few but ive not really night fished with lights. Where do you set up...in the middle of coves or on points? What lights do you use?

[Mudshack]

Yes...was it a floating light, or a submerged light? What were you using for bait?

[Wilson3144]

Set up just off a main lake point on the cove side after finding a few brush piles on the screen in 23-24 fow. I used an old styrofoam floating light from the 70's and a new Berkeley 1000 lumen submersible light together set at about 15 feet down. Turned the lights on right at dark and waited an hour or so before the first fish but they hit fairly nicely on minnows between 10 and 1 on small gold hooks and split shots when we had to leave. Fished them suspended between 12-15 fow. White bass hit them like a ton of bricks like always. the crappie were hitting very lite but all the keepers ranged between 11-13 inches

[wuteversbitin424]

Thanks wilson for the info!

[unclefish]

willson3144 I never night fished under lights and I was just wondering. You mentioned in your post that you had one light submerged at 15 feet down. my question is if you have one down that deep why do you have a floating light. Can just a floating light be as affective?

[kwall]

Wonder if a green submersible light would work?

I got one that I've never used that can go down 25' -- you got me wanting to give it a try on a quiet summer night after all the days boating and sea skeeter activity leaves the lake for the night

[Aggressor1988long]

Green lights are best in my opinion.

[waterpossum]

Green lights are best in my opinion.

I have a floating light , but haven't used it in years. I submerge two green lights. This type of fishing can be a blast. A good way to fight the summer heat and sit back and help the kids and wife catch fish. A big cooler with ice to throw the fish in makes the cleaning job much easier.

[slab slinger]

I use to drop lights alot and always had good sucess with catching some kind of fish. Find a brush pile in 15-30 fow and set up. I like submersable lights best (less bugs) green is my fav but any will do. I know old timers that use nothing but a car headlight in a chunk of Styrofoam (home made) and do just as good. I found that your fishing will be more enjoyable with few to NO bugs in your face thats why I mean more towards the submersable style lights. Also black lights and florescent line will keep the bug attraction down for tying hooks and general lighting.

Those who don't know fishing over lights goes like this. First find a spot that will attract fish or fish are already holding there. Brush piles, points, pole timber, bridge pillers, channel swings, are all good places to start. If you can find more than one mentioned together in one location that's a honey hole and you need to fish it. Ok so you've found your location and anchor out front and rear right over it. You set up lights and start fishing. That's the time people make the biggest mistake night fishing. They fish an hour in a spot and move that's the mistake.

Dropping lights is a cycle that takes time to come together. You are putting out the lights to draw the zooplankton to your location. That's the bait fish food source. The lights attract a swarm of zooplankton which attracts the bait fish which attracts the game fish. It may take over an hour to make the full cycle but give your location a good chance before moving. I don't move from a location unroll the fish quit bitting or I can see zooplankton the bait fish but no bites in long while. You will be able to see the cloudiness in water that's the zooplankton and we all know what the bait fish look like.

Stockton will give up some great stringers of fish and most times a great mixed bag of fish as well. Dropping lights will also give you a chance to get out and get a mess of fish in summer without sweating to death and fighting the pleasure boaters for a cove to fish. I use to do alot of night fishing while working 292nd shift and got fond of having the lake almost to myself. I haven't had the chance lately to get the lights out but I see myself sitting in the green glow soon.

Hope this helps out some. If you have anymore questions just PM me I'm glad to help out!