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Posts: 24
| I want to spend a little more time on the water after dark this year and was wondering what lures you like to throw at night. |
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Posts: 42
| top raiders for the great noise and the slidin' shad for the silhouette and wounded effect for an easy meal.
MG5 |
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Posts: 2024
| DISCLAIMER: I by no means am an expert on night fishing.
However, I have been taught that bucktails and spinnerbaits (preferably black for a silhouette) with COLORADO blades are the best. No need to burn these babies back to the boat. Slow-medium retrieve is fine. The fish will focus on the vibrations when making the attack.
I'd stay away from zig-zag topwater or gliders simply because they are too erattic for fish to home in on in the dark. |
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | Buck, what type of water and structure do you intend to fish?
I fish mostly open water and deep underwater points/humps. My number one lure choice is a Big Joe retrieved slowly with a few pauses added. After that it's some sort of crankbait. Ernies, Jakes, and Depth Raiders are usually what I go to.
You can have a pretty extensive debate on color, but where I fish it doesn't seem to matter much. I fish a lot of clearer water, and the colors that produce during the day also produce at night. It may be different on darker water, but I don't know as I don't fish them.
Edited by CiscoKid 3/17/2006 8:52 AM
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Posts: 1996
Location: Pelican Lake/Three Lakes Chain | I throw Topraiders a lot, right up to the point the lights go completely out. After complete darkness I have more sucess throwing bucktails and crankbaits. I tend to fish the cranks in a less erratic fashion after dark also. I still twitch/rip them, but not as violently or as often as I do during the daytime. |
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| Excellent info Norm and Travis.
Crankbaits outproduce anything I have ever thrown at night. Depthraiders being the best...
I prefer jointed cranks for night fishing.
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | Norm it's funny you bring up less erratic at night. I was just thinking I should have said something about the retrieve. It makes sense, but like color I think that also is dependent on the lake you fish. Knowing you fish darker water than I it makes sense to fish less erratic. However, I have found I still need to jerk my cranks just as erratically in the clear water at night as I do during the day. I read somewhere muskies have excellent vision at night (not sure how that is proven, but oh well). So it makes sense it doesn't matter at night how erratic you fish on clear water, but it does in dark water.
Another thing I find is very productive at night more so than the day is contact with structure. Some nights I need to bump bottom with my rubber baits on those deep humps/point in order to elicite a strike. I know others say the same while fishing weed edges.
Edited by CiscoKid 3/17/2006 9:10 AM
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Location: Contrarian Island | Interesing stuff guys...keep the info coming! The best luck I've had at night has been cranks and inline topwaters like a topraider...
I have to get more confidence in big joes and dawgs...There is a very interesting article in the new Esox Angler about how fish hone in on bait/lures in dark water..
Next to topwater strikes, hits at night are my next favorite!
As far as color...my personal choice is use light colored lures when the moon is up or the sky is "bright" and dark lures when it's dark...just a personal preference with no scientific data to support it..but it seems to work... |
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Posts: 1936
Location: Eau Claire, WI | After dark...
Larger bucktails or Spinnerbaits with CO. blades. In the past few seasons I have come to like the vibration of Bucher's Slopmaster with CO. blades for low/no light conditions.
Depthraiders, Shallow Invaders, Cranked easy not wild and erratic. Tap the rocks with with Depthraider/Ernie all the better.
Magnum Bulldawgs, just slowly cranked back in.
One thing about night fishing bucktails, don't be expecting the rock-crushing strikes like you get during the day. Many times, what you'll get at night is a lighter tap or you'll just feel the weight/drag on the lure. Rember, hooksets are free.... if you're unsure, set the hook. |
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Posts: 578
Location: Sheboygan Falls, WI | .
Edited by C_Nelson 6/7/2008 8:23 AM
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Location: Contrarian Island | Oh yah, Good call Chuck....Creepers at nite over shallow weeds / sand...had some hits that you would have thought they were 40 lbers trying to eat the bait....love that Creeper! (insert plug for BS Willy Creepers here)
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Location: Somewhere on the water!!!!!!!! | I used to think that a topwater that made a lot of noise worked slow was the ticket but I have found that I have the best luck with BIG bucktails with BIG colorado blades worked nice and steady, especially when it gets dark and you can't see any more.
My favorite color is black and to get a bigger silhouette try adding a trailer to make your bait as big as possible. I also add a glow bead to my line above the leader to help me pick up my line/lure when comming back to the boat so I can figure eight. This also helps to prevent you from cranking your leader up to your rod tip and cracking it.
Hold on and "depends" come in handy when that big girl hits at boatside and scares the SH!T out of you. There is nothing like a boatside strike when you can't see the fish. 
Ralph Florio |
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Posts: 32886
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I use the Flaptail style topwaters and Spinnerbaits. I run the largest single colorado blade that Violent Strike makes on a BIG spinnerbait. Run it high, but slow. |
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Posts: 1168
| About the only thing I'll shy away from are the walk the dog topwater baits that ride high. Everything else is fair game. Creepers over weeds...oooohh!!! Love that tactic. Like Chuck said...anything that makes noise, and a lot of noise or displaces alot of water or gives good vibe. So depending on the situation, anything is fair game. I've had my best nights targeting suspendos. Those strikes in what seems like nothingness at boat side in the dark are incredible...and they hit hard, real hard.
-Bob |
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Posts: 24
| The reason I asked the question is that last year up in Canada I was throwing a 10" black jointed believer well after dark. About 5 feet from the boat I just about get the rod ripped out of my hands. It's pitch black out, the fish is on top throwing water everywhere and I have no clue if it's 30 inches or 50. We get a light on and get her in the net and she's just shy of 40 inches. Talk about a rush. |
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Posts: 434
Location: searchin for 50 | Have tried a lot of different lures. Topwater is a blast. A Creeper is by far the most fun . The noise on that thing just drives me crazy. A colorado bladed bucktail is also a good lure. We use silver/black or glow/black. Caught a lot of fish with them. Crankbaits when we know we're going to fish sunken islands and rock bars also work. It just depends on if the baitfish are there or not. Some muskies try to rip the rod out of your hands while others you don't know are there until you try and take your lure out of the water. I have tried the weighted Burt at night and have had limited success with it. Night fishing is a blast there is NOTHING like a boatside strike at night keeps the old ticker going thats fer sure. |
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Posts: 1137
Location: Holly, MI | I also have fished very little at night but would like to do a little more. A couple of more things for you night guys...
Anyone using a glow bead or simular above the snap so you don't accidentally reel the bucktail up to your top guide? How about some glow tape on top of the lure for angler identification? You will know where it is at all times and be able to see what it is doing in the water. Just wondering. |
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Posts: 434
Location: searchin for 50 | I have a white stripe painted on top of my cranks. yes i put a bead on the line in front of my leader. |
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Posts: 381
| I have had the best luck on Black haired silver blade bucktail. You will also get some smallies, Not much of a fight.
But watch out when casting that bucktail. We had a BAT grab it and did not know it. My partner could not get the weed (AKA BAT) off so he said point your head light over here. That is when we found out it was a BAT. Well the BAT went for a swim, |
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Posts: 20219
Location: oswego, il | Something I tried last year and it worked is a drag and drop on a spinnerbait with colorado blades. Did that with a violent strike spinnerbait last year and it did not take long to contact and catch fish. Even worked after dark in late fall. The vibration has to get to them and when it stops they hammer it! |
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Posts: 105
| hawg wobbler is my number one, musky buster's creeper, pacemaker and dark colored buctials like shumway flashers and cowgirls. |
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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | Most of our big fish from Northern WI and Canada come after dark(love fishing in Canada after dark as we are usually alone). I fish in shallower situations far more after dark due to the lakes I target, so that influences bait choice. A jointed creeper is my favorite topwater by far, and it has to have a rear spinner that chatters well. Wich and Rylure get the nod here. Globes are a very close second, followed by hawg wobblers. I would have Topraiders as my top or second choice, but my wife always has it welded to her rod, so I hardly use one. I used to take the Topraider off after full dark, but now know it is as effective after dark as before, sometimes more so. Wifes second choice is a Tapdancer.
My favorite underwater lure is a Triple Take, a large inline spinner with big shad tail. It has been very consistant in windier conditions. If I don't have one along, I reach for a Hellraiser Bear Paw, or a big Eagle tail.
For deeper conditions, I like 10" Jakes, and jointed or straight Trophy Divers. The jointed trophy diver has been a good one in northern WI. As Travis stated I too find that I need to twitch them as erratically at night as during the daytime to be as consistant in the clear water. The fish seem to find them just fine. I like t shad colors on my cranks and for topwater it does not matter at all. Have tried them all, and each color gets bit. Less of a color decision after dark than during daylight hours for sure. They will hit(or not hit...) black, white or anything in between.
Edited by Reef Hawg 3/18/2006 2:58 PM
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Posts: 4266
| I like Topraiders and Pacemakers. Seems that straight retrieve topwaters are easier for the fish to zero in on.
Sinnerbaits, like CJ's, with a Super-sized rear blade. I put a heavy #7 Colorado gold blade on mine. I'll also cut the front small blade off and buldge the spinnerbait. Singlespins come to the top much easier than a tandem, especially if you add a bulky trailer...like a 5" twin twister tail.
I also have high hopes for my new "Big Beaverturd Flaptail". It's over 7" long, an inch in diameter in the front, and has an almost flat front face so it plows a wall of water while the blade kicks out and moves the butt from side to side. I also like the added option of figure-8ing it. It's a much larger than normal flaptails, and sports a pair of 4X-4/0 hooks that are "T'd", so the hooking percentage should be better than other flaptails.
Beav |
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Posts: 3868
| I fish dark a lot. All my ideas are pretty much already addressed above. But I'll summarize what works for me and then offer a suggestion....
1) stay quiet
2) ensure your drag is set for that 35# fish
3) cast long
4) bring it straight back and slow
5) lots of thump
6) minimize dark-time down-time weed crap, i.e. if weeds are around, go top water or go spinner bait
7) rig your line so you will go into your eight without fear of your swivel getting hung on your top eye
8) figure 8, smooth and flawless, at least 6 times around every cast
9) wear headlights
Ok, the humble suggestion...
Sit, watch and listen to the lake all night long. Take a Q-beam, one of those gazillion power hand-held lights, and quietly/slowly cruise the water from late night until new light. Dose fisrt if you can get quality. All night. Don't fish, just look and listen. Try that just once and you'll have a whole batch of ideas on how to approach the fish at night. |
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Posts: 4266
| OK, how many of you guys would like to see, or would be willing to try Glo-Colors on some night fishing lures?
I have found some and will order some violet and some lime green with the intention of making some night fishing lures that would have either glo-scales, or glo-heads.....or what ever else you would like. These are supposed to be pretty long lasting colors, but they need to be sandwiched between layers of clear, which means more time to produce them.
Looking for an idea of whether it would be worth my time or not, because of the quantity that I'd have to buy.
Let me hear from you before I follow through on this.
Beav
Edited by Beaver 3/19/2006 11:00 PM
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| i'd DEF take a perka like that, as i fish a lot of lowlight dusk and early morning situations first with a glider.
even a 10" perka lol! |
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Posts: 4266
| Well, scrap that idea.
Upon further review......"limited color fastness"......doesn't sound good to me. Nevermind.
Edited by Beaver 3/20/2006 7:50 AM
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Night Fishing Lures