Full Moon Fishing for kings

[Pike Hunter]

When growing up in Long Island, I have done many fishing at nights.

Last year, I have read an article about full moon fishing for the kings in Lake Michigan (?). I have seen a boat gone out trolling for kings during full moon last summer when I was riding back to the dock.

I am curious to find out how many of you have done this.

Please describe your techniques such as type of glow spoons and how far down the rigger and the length between the lure and the ball.

Tight lines.

[salmonite]

i saw the same article i am very interested in what guys have to say!

[JR]

I too have always wondered about that myself and was talking about giving it a try with a buddy of mine

[InTheBox]

Were going to do this very soon. Next couple of weeks. Ill post the results. Anybody done this?

pat

[Gill-T]

I have done it without success. It is really wierd out there in the dark....better to tag with a another boat. I did not like trying to dodge debris in the dark on the way in. I will only do it again when the fish are close to the pierheads.

[ray koziatek]

Hey Guys ,

With the recent PFD law it comes to mind that night fishing can also add another thought to your fishing . Two weeks ago a father of two and a wife at home passed out (sleeping) from drinking rolled off the back of a boat and drowned in Keuka lake. With many hours of night scube training and diving i can tell you that being on or in the water when dark you need 100% brain capasity ,a tackle box seen in the day might be a fatal tripper at night so a clear boat and lighting to see good on the boat should be a MUST. If you should fall in I can assure you if you are at nutural or negative boyancy you will NOT know up from down without a light on the surface. The only way to determine this is STOP REMAINE CALM exhale a tiny bit of air and feel the bubbles direction and follow them ....... Underwater in a nutural or negative boyancy you can swim down ,sideways with the same effort as up .....The moter sound will do NO good as sound travels faster through water than air and to a untrained ear (many hours in the water ) direction from where the sound comes from is near impossable. So I WOULD RECOMEND A PFD for night fishing with a survival (location) light . AS with all emergency situations STOP REMAINE CALM """THINK """YOUR ON YOUR OWNE and the actions you take in the next few seconds may detirme if you post your dilema or someone else post your Tragity..With that said good luck and hope to see some positive post to this fishing techinques....SAFETY FIRST!!!!!!!

Ray K.

[Shade]

Ray,

Thats some good advice but this accedent could have been prevented if the guy DID NOT DRINK. Putting on a PDF does not prevent accidents, IT WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE but it does not prevent what happened. Forn those of you who consume alchohol on your boats do not take this personal but on my boat there is "0" tolerance with booze. I DO NOT ALLOW ANY ALCHOLIC BEVERAGES ON MY BOAT. I am also very strict with equipment and gear. Take a spoon out put the one back and return to its storage place. Many accidents can happen when fishing, hook getting stuck on you body, tripping over a tackle box, slipping on the deck, falling off the boat. ALL these can be prevented if we all would think before leaving the dock. THINK SAFETY. Learn from others mistakes and prevent them from happening on your rig. If you have a smaller craft invest in a kill switch and whom ever is operating the boat attach it to there body so in the event the operator falls or looses control the boat will shut off. As a boat owner you have a responsibility to everyone on your rig. Regarless if its family, friends or a member LOU or LOTSA or anyother orginazation you are a memeber of make sure they understand your rules on your rig and where all your safety gear is before leaving the dock.

If ya want to have some beers, wait till ya get back to the dock, campsite, hotel room, etc. Alchohol slows your reaction time down and on an area of 32 sq.ft. or less there is no place for slow reactions.

Just my beliefs.........I am sure i am gonna get some flack on the beer thing but thats my rule and I will stick by it.

Shade

[ray koziatek]

I understand the drinking or drugs is bad in any counitions and i dont agree with the PFD law ,Im shure more people drown ice fishing or driving on the ice every year.But my post was to make people aware that night fishing removes one element from which we are used to when in the water LIGHT. even in warm water at night a swimming person can be very hard to see or find with a untrained search crew .Ive spent hundreds of hours doing S.A.R. work (search and rescue) and night time is tuff in calm waters throw in 2 ftrs and it more than triples the diffucalty of a rescue or spotting the person or craft. I just want everyone to be safe in different conditions (night fishing) for survival if the condition arrises ,or the non commen sence folks in albany will spend another million dollars voting on a bill that contains 200 signatures without the proper information as to how much good or bad the bill can do. My drill instructor told us the first day in bootcamp 90% of you will pay for the action of the 10% who mess up, and that lesson pretty much holds true in our daily lifes.

[LongLine]

I'm often out on the water well before the sun comes up. My stern light is quite bright & lights up the stern. Everything has a place & is kept in its place. I have the world's largest tacklebox (mostly for my spoons) that is the size of a small engine/dog house. It’s also in the stern & ALWAYS closed & latched unless I’m getting a lure out.

Here it is before I cleaned it out & restocked:

I don't worry about alcohol/drugs on my boat because they're not there. I worry about the other boat. Be especially alert at night as someone may be out there without proper running lights. You also have to realize that if you're fishing around the pierheads that any boat approaching the harbor will have a tough time seeing your lights due to all the lights along the shore.

As for lures, I like the dark lures w/white cups more than the silvers or gold’s. Also that early, I generally fish in the upper portion of the water column with a fairly long lead.

Tom B.

(LongLine)

[Shade]

Ray,

Do not get me wrong I agree and learn a great deal from your post. I do not believe in the law either I just want to make the point of awareness in a different form then what you said. My training comes from 38 years as a Maintenance Manager in manufacturing. We learned how to get to the Root Cause of problems and these training guides can be also used in our daily lives. It is called the 5 "y's".

Example - A women goes to the mall but she uses her husbands car because he blocked hers in when he went fishing. When she finishes shopping she gets into the car but it does not do anything tatally dead. She tries to contact her husband but he has not returned from fishing. She calls AAA. When the AAA tow truck arrives she asks him WHY won't my car start because the battery is dead and he jump starts it. She asks WHY did the battery go dead and he tells her you left the lights on. Why didn't the warning chime go on. He looks and the fuse was blown. Root Cause - if the fuse was replaced the lights would not have been left on and the battery would not have died.

When an accident or a problem arrises ask why and usually by bthe fifth time you ask why you will find the real reason why the situation presented itself. Putting bandaids on or pointing fingures will never fix a problem or stop an accident from happening.

I always say this web site has an abundance of knowledge and experience in every form there is. Sharing this knowledge is a tool we can not replace and it will prevent accidents, problems and most of all have fun catching fish.

Thanks Ray for sharing yours.

Howie

[Wolfpack]

I just spent the las two years stationed in West Michigan and the best King fishing our boat had was on the summer full moons. I would even go as far as saying that many of the hazards you see during the day are not an issue at night. Examples include other inexperienced boaters, jet skis, people going way too fast, launch congestion, etc. We don't drink on my boat and fish hard. Our salmon are from the Pacific NW are tidal creatures and moon phase is an important part of the life cycle and pattern of life. Nothing beats trolling at midnight on a full moon and hearing the drag scream. I will be in WNY for two weeks in August and have already planned on fishing the full moon the 12-15th at night. Plus when it falls on a weekend you avoid boat traffic and everyone driving them deep and negative. We try to stay as quiet as possible, use red lens headlamps and Moonshine lures. Nothing fancy, no flasher flies even. Just spoons and plugs. Boat must be completely organized. We would be setup in time for the "magic hour" the hour before EENT (end of evening nautical twilight) and just keep on trolling until we limit out or back to the dock by 0400 or when the rest of the pack starts to show for the early bite. Salmon and eggs for breakfast. Sleep, fish again.

[W.W.IV.]

Like Gill-T said it's weird out there at night. I tried it a few times out of Oswego harbor and it was pitch black out there, no moon. It was the last day of the ESLO and I wasn't in it so I wen't out at night out side the break wall in forty or fifty fow, with silver spoons up high, two lines out maybe 50=75ft. back.When I hook up that's all you could hear was the reel screaming while I cleared the other line, I knew I was about out of line, anyhow I grabbed the rod and the fight was on, not very long though, the fish swam right in to the boat and right into the net, about a 25lber. I was happy with one fish so I packed up and headed in.Even with lights on you don't know if the 30-40fter coming your way sees you, a good spot light would be handy in a 16ft, boat. I'd say give it a try. Good luck and be safe. .

[kingslamon22]

i tried a couple times too never had any success but i left the dock at 3:30 AM and had two mud marlin in the boat by first light. bolth fish on the same lure, it was an M/stinger NBK

[Chromemagnum]

My last night fishing trip was about a month ago, it was a no moon night with three foot rollers, My boat has lots of extra lights and great electronics. But it was not to much fun.. Just a little sketchy there was a ton of crap in the water including a telephone pole!! We caught a couple fish and called it a night, a full moon and calm seas would make it much more fun. It's funny how your spotlight is just swallowed up by the darkness when you ate surrounded by water.