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Posts: 252
| A buddy and I were trolling yesterday afternoon and we were having pretty good luck. We were trolling small crank baits and caught and released three and then lost two more. A small thunderstorm came up so we took shelter until it stopped and then started trolling again right before dark.
We only trolled for a short time after it turned dark because we had a long drive to get home. I was wondering at the time if we should switch to some larger lures with bright colors or stick to the small cranks that had been working.
What do you guys think work better after it gets dark? Do larger lures work better?
And what about bright colors or dark colors for trolling at night?
Thanks! |
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Posts: 9
| A lot of it depends on the lake, clear water? Speed? Moon light and phase. I have had good experience with chrome baby depth raiders in clear water during full moon when no other crank would work.
Either way general rule of thumb is to slow down a lot at night. Casting would be your best bet in my mind. Big blades SLOW rolled. Just a thought. |
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Posts: 656
Location: Forest Lake, Mn. | Night colors I like to use either white or black. White will reflect any available light and black creates a good silhouette on a surface or shallow running lure for fish looking up against a moonlight sky. Chrome, as mentioned in the prior post, would be similar to white. Some lure companies make a color called night sucker and it's usually a combination of black and white in some pattern. Maybe use a lure with glow paint on it. I've heard that to much glow might be a turn off to fish, such as a lure painted fully with glow paint. However, a spinnerbait or a bucktail with a glow blade and a white or black skirt might be good, for example.
Lures with lots of sound and/or vibration to them should be used, rattles, a wide wobble, a thumping spinnerblade, etc. Increasing lure size may help too as that creates more sound and vibration.
Anything you can do to make the lure easier for the fish to see and feel in the long run will up your odds of catching fish at night.
As for casting verses trolling, I think that still depends more upon the depth of water, and amount of cover, being fished just like in the daytime. You can troll slow too, walleye guys troll slow all night long and get fish and I've got muskies trolling at night. If I'm trying to fish deep, or a breakline, I troll and if I'm fishing a small spot, shallow, or heavy cover I cast.
Edited by fishpoop 8/23/2013 2:31 AM
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Posts: 1168
| Wide swinging baits at a slow speed.
I'll night troll more when it gets later in the year when many guys get too cold to fish during the warmest part of the day. Some might consider it a little too extreme for their liking but that's fine. To each their own. Never know how it can be until you try it. I was curious if it would work. It's paid off. |
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Posts: 13
| 17 inch custom x.... any color....1.2 mph......hold on!!!! big girl coming!...l |
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Posts: 1036
| Night Trolling. Trolling at night. With the 15 year old daughter of the Dean. |
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| Ulbania, can you elaborate on your wide swinging bait response? Were you joking? Or do you have good experience with such a presentation? Reason I ask is cause I've been kicking around the idea of wide swinging baits at night, but haven't yet committed to it due to lack of experience and therefore confidence in that approach. |
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Posts: 1168
| Wide swinging bait means a bait that has a wide swing to it. Not a tight wobble but a wide wobble. Preferably something that suspends or has a very very slow rise or drop to it. |
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Posts: 252
| The slowest that my boat will go is 2.2 mph without modification, which is the speed that I troll at mostly. Hopefully, this will be slow enough.
Chrome depth raiders, custom x lures, and wobbling lures sound good to me. I've seen what chrome baby depth raiders do during the day time trolling, and I'm already wanting to buy a few. Thanks for the help! |
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| Hi-Fin Giant Jointed Scamper - but I don't troll and never have except for walleyes on Eagle in Ontario, and once a little peeed up on Black.... anyways I saw wide wobble and this is my answer. |
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Posts: 106
| I've caught muskies at night on small jigs and minnows, #7 shadraps, other walleye sized baits, and musky sized baits including gliders, cranks, bucktails, and topwater.
Anything that will catch muskies during the day will also work at night. |
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Posts: 173
| We pulled out and went home. 81 was the coolest we recorded . Did see two dead floaters though. |
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Posts: 72
| 2.2 will be plenty slow . I have been out night trolling the last few weeks and we have been getting fish every night and the slowest my boat will go is 2.8 . most those fish were caught at 3.0 |
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Posts: 13
| How many 50 plus? |
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Posts: 432
Location: mpls | Don't worry about speed. I troll a TON at night on clear lake trout lakes. The slowest I go is 3.5, but usually I am at 4. Go big with your baits. Color doesn't matter.
Get some Headlocks and you'll be all set 
Joe
[email protected] |
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Posts: 1529
| here at nite we troll wide wobbler georgies. moon phases help..
don't hesitate to move shallow..
my favorite time is right around Halloween here in fall on st clair.
sharpen your hooks 3.5mph is very good with 9 inch baits |
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Posts: 944
| Muskie Train MX9's are a great night trolling bait
10" believers and Jakes are good also
3-3.5 MPH |
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Posts: 833
| Are folks finding success right on the edge or do they position their set up outside of it so they can mix some direction changes in? How critical is proximity to the weed edge for type of fishing? |
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Location: Contrarian Island | I know some guys that have trolled standard straight depthraiders at night and done well ... any bait that works during the day will work at night..muskies can track down pretty much anything when they want to eat it. |
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Posts: 13
| Once again.....how many 50 plus? |
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Posts: 480
| 9 Muskies so far this year over 52" on headlocks at night, thanks for the pics guys!
Keep them coming!! |
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Location: Contrarian Island | rick believe it or not there are waters where 50s are very rare so your question is moot. I'm sure your reply above is a good one for the waters you fish, and would be good for other waters but lots of options out there.
Edited by BNelson 8/27/2013 6:44 PM
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Posts: 2024
| Capt bigfish - 8/27/2013 6:35 PM
9 Muskies so far this year over 52" on headlocks at night, thanks for the pics guys!
Keep them coming!!
Hmmm... You may be onto something here... |
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Posts: 921
Location: Apollo, PA | Headlocks r the best thing to happen to Duff since the browns dumped Dolt McBoy... |
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