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Posts: 87
Location: Wisconsin | Just lookin to get into the night fishing game a little this summer. Do most guys throw double tens? If so how does the color choice differ at night? Thanks for any help. |
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| Black, for the silhouette against the sky. Tony Rizzo advocated white so you can see the lure approaching, which makes sense too. So......black or white. Hmm, that probably doesn't help, huh? |
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Posts: 20219
Location: oswego, il | I find night fishing to work best once it gets dark. use alot of the same baits, slow down you peesentation. spinnefbaits work well |
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Posts: 20219
Location: oswego, il | I find night fishing to work best once it gets dark. use alot of the same baits, slow down you peesentation. spinnefbaits work well |
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Posts: 2691
Location: Pewaukee, Wisconsin | Color choice at night is not as important as during the day. That being said I choose to use black/nickel, or something dark/nickel bucktails. Top water I like black or red. Cranks and minnow baits I try to match the forage they are after.
Size depends on your conditions and water temps.
Once you get into the night bite you will love it. Fish drop their guard at night and are a little easier to catch. Figure 8 or do big ovals after EVERY cast.
If you have trouble seeing your bait before your leader hits your rod tip just add a large slip bobber knot a foot or two before your leader. You will feel and hear the "TICK" as it goes through your rod tip. Then go into your boatside finish.
Night fishing is not for everyone. That's ok with me because I catch lots and lots of fish after dark.
Full moon vs new moon......New Moon for me. The darker the better. |
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Posts: 2691
Location: Pewaukee, Wisconsin | Don't get too hung up on the same thing everyone else is using. Double 10's are not the only good night lure. Crank baits and minnow baits are great and very few people use them at night.
Speed is water temperature dictated. Higher the water temps the faster you crank your bucktails. This rule is a simple starting point. Windy, dark cold night I slow down. Flat, hot, clear nights I crank it up.
Go get em.....
Edited by Mikes Extreme 5/22/2013 7:04 PM
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Posts: 87
Location: Wisconsin | Thanks for the help. So if your using a crank or plastics do you rip them at night or generally a straight retrieve? |
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Posts: 572
Location: Maplewood, MN | I have done VERY little night fishing. However, I have had success trolling at night a few times. I think differently now than most anglers that believe to fish loud, slow, and in a straight retrieve at night ever since I caught a nice pike on an erratic bulldawg at dark my first time night fishing. Dumb luck? Maybe. My advice, try it all and change it up! |
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Posts: 151
Location: West of the metro, MN | My theory when throwing bucktails at night is either you want them to see or you don't want them to see it. I think it also depends on water clarity, maybe fishing pressure? We usually start the night having a guy throw white another black, my experience has shown all-black or other dark combos usually takes the cake on the dark nights where as if there's a full moon and bright sky whites, nickels, or even black/hi vis work better. But That's just one boat's experience, I'm sure there are more experienced guys on here with better advice |
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Posts: 1059
Location: Medford, WI | I second what Mike mentioned about figure 8's...make sure to ALWAYS figure 8 at least two or three times. I've had fish hit after 4 or 5 figure 8's when I had no clue they were there. Twice, I've had them come out of the water immediately after I pulled the bait out...one I was able to catch.
-Jake
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | Slimeduptuffy - 5/23/2013 6:52 AM
my experience has shown all-black or other dark combos usually takes the cake on the dark nights where as if there's a full moon and bright sky whites, nickels, or even black/hi vis work better.
interesting ... the logic lobe in my brain just pinged. this makes sense. |
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Posts: 117
| Night fishing is awesome way to beat the pressure and fish spots you normally cant during the day. For me, MANY presentations have been successful. Anything from a Double 10, spinnerbaits, big rubber, top waters, and big minnow twitch baits. Muskies are used to feeding at night and will chase baitfish and prey at night using their lateral lines to find what they are trying to eat. When a Muskie is chasing the forage like a Tullibee for example, is that Tullibee just going to swim slow and in a straight line? No, it will dart and swim like its on its last life just like in the daytime, so to answer the question do you have to straight retrieve at night?.....you don't have to. Slowing down does give the Muskie a longer opportunity to finding the bait, and to double up on the Figure 8 comments, it is IMO the most important thing to night fishing. We can see a fish in the day time when a Muskie "gets on the bait" late, so we do a figure 8 longer. At night, if it gets on the bait late, it is important to do a figure at AT LEAST twice around the entire 8 sequence assuming the fish might get on the bait late.....in my boat, it better be 3 times around the 8!
Edited by T_Peterzen55 5/23/2013 12:38 PM
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Posts: 1168
| First things first with night fishing....be safe.
Keep the deck of your boat uncluttered. Fishing at night is not the time to leave a wad of baits on the deck where you can step on them because you don't see them. Same thing with rods. No need to bring 25 rods along if they are just going to get in the way. Step on a few rod tips in the dark and you'll understand this.
Reverse engineer catching a fish. It's thrilling during the day to get one in the net and you're excited about it then and get jumpy...now do this in the dark with only a headlamp, flashlight, etc. Release tools handy, net isn't buried, gotta make sure the boat doesn't get beached, and on and on. Depth perception is thrown for a loop and it only makes matters worse if you can't find pliers/hook cutters, have to dig your net out, and are being pushed into some rocks.
Use baits you have confidence in. There are certain crankbaits and glide baits that I could be blindfolded and would recognize if I made five casts with that specific bait and five casts with the exact same make and model of a bait. Fish are feeding with their sense of "touch" and we can fish using our own sense of "touch."
Certain baits foul up easier than others. It's irritating when they foul during the day and can be more irritating at night.
Summer isn't the only time muskies eat after the sun goes down.
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Posts: 1455
Location: Kronenwetter, WI | one final point on converting your boat set up to night fishing....if you are fishing daylight INTO the night, then make that conversion well before dark. Clean up the decks, etc...get everything ready well before twilight because you won't want to take 10 minutes to do it once the sun gets to the tops of the trees and prime time approaches. |
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| Lots of good stuff. Here is one more...
Take the time in the daylight to make sure you are completely comfortable with your structure before you fish it at night. If you have gps, I suggest you lay out your trail in the day light on the spots you want to fish after dark. Give yourself an icon path to follow so you are certain you are keeping your boat and bait where you want it. Nothing more frusterating than finding yourself in the middle of your weed bed or banging your trolling motor on the rock pile becuase you lost your bearings. If you do not have gps, make sure you REALLY know the structure...very different at 1:00 am on a dark night.... |
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Posts: 3868
| Why don't folks do searches on questions that have been asked and aswered for 10 years now.
From below, the dark sky is light. The darker the bait the better in the top few feet; a straight back retrieve with a dark bait gives the fish the best chance of hitting. Topwaters are ingraceful in the 8, spinnerbaits are ok and bucktails are fantasitic. If you do things right nighttime casts will get the fish in the first 10 feet or at boatside.
Deeper fish then troll a big crank for the fat wide wobble that's easy to track by a fish.
As time goes by and I learn about more about catching big walleye at night I've began to really appreciate a suspended or sinking crank. Twitching the heck out of the bait for a few feet then just hold the line tight. Wait a long time then do it again. A sinking bait allows a countdown on a steep drop between twiches, a trick most folks can't do without jig/creatures or those rubber bullhead baits which don't make the crazy attention-getting action of a crank.
Or do this.....
Get 6-8 5" pike suckers and a heavy duty bass jig, thick hook. Keep the suckers most happy in an areated cooler. Know where the steep drops are and the spots on spots. Go there and fish straight down, watching your finder, and tease the fish. If this fish grabs and runs wait till the stop then a moment later feel for weight then set the hook. If another fish just grabs, feels like a 'Tick", and the fish doesn't move, then keep very light pressure on the bait till you feel the second "Tick", then reel down and rip. The first fish will be a muskie or bass or walleye, the second fish will be a big fish, either walleye or muskie. Best tactic on holiday weekends, elimitaes the problem of all the debris on the surface.
Edited by Ranger 5/25/2013 12:41 AM
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Posts: 3868
| Everybody has a dif way to go into an elegant 8 at night. White baits, glow paint on the top of the bait, glow beads, and my fav, tying to a Bucher super splitring that's attached to the top of the swivel. The big deal is that the ring prevents the swivel or anything else from passing thru the top eye. A knot in your line, or much worse a swivel, that is below the top eye will hang up on that top eye under the pressure of a boatside fish. Great way to break a rod. You can shake it out but why press your luck. I use the rings all the time, not just at night. But folks differ. |
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Posts: 69
| Great info in the topic! I fish a very pressured area and last year we had our best success at night! We threw mainly all black rubber and just straight cranked it. Along with extremely noisy twitch baits and cranks. |
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Posts: 785
| On occasion I've done really well when the full moon was up in the sky, you can see the fish coming in even at 1-2 a.m. The new moon or even the half/quarter moon at night has been more consistent for me overall though. As mentioned do a good figure 8 as a lot of your hits will be boat side, and things don't seem to happen until its completely dark. It's not fun to have that 45 minute lull from last light to pitch black but the transition between the two has always been a slow time for me. Finally like most people (I'm sure) I prefer to fish flat calm and warm but have had really good luck on windy rainy nights when I could hardly believe I was even attempting to night fish. |
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Posts: 200
Location: Minnesota | ToddM - 5/22/2013 5:49 PM
I find night fishing to work best once it gets dark.
In my experience, I've found night fishing in the daylight to be highly confusing. |
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Posts: 415
| For those of you that fish a lot at night, how do you feel your hours per fish compares to daytime? I used to do a lot of night fishing but no longer do due to traveling for work all the time and having young kids. My hours per fish was never much better than daytime, but I found my average size caught increased. I'm curious to hear others experiences. |
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Posts: 785
| I haven't kept track but in the day going an hour without a strike is no big deal, at night that same hour feels like about 3. I've had boat partners complaining about how the bite died and I'm like... we just released one 20 minutes ago, Patience!  |
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Posts: 2691
Location: Pewaukee, Wisconsin | For me the night bite has its prime times as does the day fishing. Spring and Fall produce better on average during the day. Summer is best for night fishing. The higher the water temps, recreational and fishing pressure the better the night bite. Also I can say my average size fish is bigger after dark.
Numbers of fish are hard to compare because of all the variables between day and night fishing.
Lets just say if your not night fishing in the summer and early fall your missing out on some outstanding action. |
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Posts: 87
Location: Red Wing, Minnesota | Kirby Budrow - 5/25/2013 5:56 AM
Not everyone spends their entire life on a forum, therefore they do not understand that you can do a search.
Agreed. Some NEW people to the site probably are quite capable of doing a search. But, what they are also seeking is interaction with others and a desire to participate in a discussion.
This IMO should be encouraged not reprimanded. An answer to the poster's question can be given and followed up with a suggestion to use the search facility to get more information.
Dave |
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Posts: 87
Location: Wisconsin | I did the search I just wanted some other opinions or any new info or just to pick everyones brain a little. Thanks for all the great info everyone, great site. |
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Posts: 6
| Night Fishing ROCKS!!! I have done a lot of night fishing for both Bass and Muskie and love it. A lot of times I am all alone in the prime spots. Clear the decks have a good light and a plan of action when one hits. I prefer top water for night fishing but that's just a personal thing I throw spinner baits a lot also. Try it I'm sure you'll love it. |
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| Forget about night fishing. Stay home with the bikini model. |
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