Fishing at night

[wishinfishin]

I have not seen fishing at night talked about on here, anybody try it?

Other than walleye.

Is it they dont hit at night, or the difficulty trolling at night???Whats the deal.

[Sk8man]

It certainly depends on where you are talking about fishing. I've never done it other than trolling just after it gets dark or very early AM on Lake Ontario. I have however night fished for many years in the past on Keuka, Seneca and the south end of Canandaigua.  We used to have a whole armada   out at night on Canandaigua prior to the uptick in the salmon fishing on Lake O in the late 70's and early 80's. Many of the guys that did it came from the Rochester area in addition to the locals and many of them went on to get their charter licenses and shifted to Lake O fishing.  There is no thrill like falling asleep in the night  on your boat anchored in 100- 150 ft of water to the sound of a screaming drag with a huge rainbow brown or laker at the other end. .  We used live sawbellies on five leader rigs with Coleman lanterns hung off our downrigger booms to draw the bait in. The bugs would come then the sawbellies up to the surface often with huge fish following them up. A very different type of fishing than most of us do now. You basically launched in the evening and stayed out all night and then if not much happened you'd troll for the morning.....a lot of fun. Once all the new stuff caught on people probably thought it was too much trouble (especially pulling anchor in 150 ft.)

Edited March 2, 2016 by Sk8man

[wishinfishin]

Fishing at night is fun, pulling up  150' of anchor rope day or night is not.

I was mostly refering to lake O for salmon, steelhead ,and lakers.

[Sk8man]

I'm sure you will get some responses from the guys with all the interior lighting but since you didn't specify exactly I figured it might be of interest to folks new to the scene.

Edited March 2, 2016 by Sk8man

[wishinfishin]

Understood! And thanks for the expanded insight.

[muskiedreams]

It can also be good for bass, pike and muskie. Also back in the 80's and 90's, fishing from the piers at night for salmon was very productive using egg sacs and glow in the dark Cleos. When Russel Station was still running, night fishing in the winter for steelhead was often hot (but only figuratively speaking). It seemed like the nastier the weather, the better it was.

[vetting]

I had good luck on kings after sunset until 10pm, but # of kings to go out for last year to make it worth saying out past sunset.  Did an all nighter once last year - all 3 people fell asleep on the boat for about an hour....while trolling.  Even the dog was asleep.  Good thing its a big lake with no one around.

[rolmops]

I did some trolling under a full moon with fluorescent lures. Mostly,the bait was higher up and so was the salmon and specially the lakers. I remember catching a laker  on a junk line with a #9 rapala.

The problem is that when the bite dies down, so does your motivation to stay awake.

[wishinfishin]

Ive never done it but i imagined what you just said , its a top bite . Maybe using glow lures would work? Dont know thats why im asking

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[Buckmaster7600]

I have trolled a lake in the Adirondacks where we camp at night and caught lakers, salmon and rainbows on flat lines in July. They definitely come out out of temperature at night. I have done best 1to 3am.

[Big Water]

I've done both late evening and predawn trolling on Lake O for salmon. I've definitely done better in the early morning hours but it isn't a certainty. There have been days that they've hit very well up to first light and then stop. As with many things, it's not a sure thing but it is worth trying.

[Big Water]

One other thing I've noticed. There seems to be a much higher incidence of seeing a fish on the fish finder and it hitting than in the day.

[wishinfishin]

Not asure thing i understand but wanted to hear it is worth trying. I have had guys tell me ive met when on lake o that salmon dont bite at night.

I never believed it myself .

Im not looking for night charters, but want to fish later at night if we got a late start on a particular day and wanted to stay out .

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[Big Water]

Not asure thing i understand but wanted to hear it is worth trying. I have had guys tell me ive met when on lake o that salmon dont bite at night.

I never believed it myself .

Im not looking for night charters, but want to fish later at night if we got a late start on a particular day and wanted to stay out .

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I'd say call it a day when the sun goes down and get up extra early the next morning. That's been my experience.

[wishinfishin]

Interesting bigwater, i guess if your seeing them on the ff they are not just on the top feeding.

Has your experience been at various depths?

I imagine fish cant miss seeing a glow bait in the middle of the night

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[Big Water]

Top 50, but again, it isn't a sure thing. Nothing is. Find the marks and then set down.

[wishinfishin]

Thanks for everyones help

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[Yankee Troller]

It can be done. We tried it last May out of Wilson. Four of us hopped on a boat and went out at 10ish and fished until 12/1ish. We hooked and caught 4 Salmon all on Moonshine glows. 2 Downrigger fish, 1 wire fish, and 1 copper fish. It was pretty neat. We kept the underwater lights on and watched Alewife swim through them from time to time. I had an afternoon trip and put the fish to sleep on a nice break, so we headed out there and got back on them. I wouldn't recommend it unless you have radar and a good GPS. Autopilot helps a lot too. 

[wishinfishin]

Hard to beat clickers going off in the dark, thanks yankee

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[Sk8man]

Rick mentioned something real important about night fishing. No matter how well you know the body of water you are on at night it is VERY disorienting because all your normal landmarks are gone especially as the night wears on and a lot of shore lights go off too. The importance of a reliable compass and GPS and or radar is critical. If in a small boat it becomes essential to stay fairly near shore.

[BSmaster]

My depth perception tends to be affected more with less light.  Not just at night time but in heavy fog. 

[justtracytrolling]

Even if you are on small water and know it well you can easily become disoriented. Fog, clouds, and storms can roll in and you don't see the warning signs. Im out at night a ton on small water and it still happens.

[Chas0218]

Last year was my son's first summer at our cottage and was 5 months old. I took on the duty of putting him to sleep at night around 7. I loved to do it as it was the only father-son time I would get with him. The only problem was that is prime-time walleye from 7-9. So I made the best of it and left around 8 after he was asleep and headed to my walleye spot. I would get there just at dusk drop lines as fast as I could and make a few passes. I limited out each time in only a few hours I was out and no one was catching any fish during the day. There wasn't a soul out there so if something happened I would getting help from the coast guard if I ran into trouble. The few times I have trolled at night for walleye and I will tell you it is an eerie feeling even when you know the area. 

[Gill-T]

September off the pier heads is the "right time" to do it.  You don't have to worry about hitting floating objects when you can start right out of the pier heads.  When I used to have a slip in Youngstown I tried a couple of times off the Niagara drop.  An interesting phenomena happens at night.  Those of you who have gotten into the "rearing grounds" of shaker kings off the drop know how many year 1 kings are attracted to the Niagara flow.  There are times when you have to pick up and leave the area because there are too many little fish taking your baits.  At night your fishfinder will light-up with shaker kings that line up at the 50' band of water.  This 50' phenomena  was shown in the Bergstedt radio tagging study on Lake Huron.  You will also see the bigger fish pattern similar to walleye movements at night.....they move inshore and higher (feeding time!).  Those poor alewives never see it coming.  For the stress involved with potentially hitting an object on the run in, I choose to not fish at night anymore.

[Tyee II]

I fish Lake Michigan at night quite often. Some years it has been very productive in the dark, but last year it seemed to shut down about an hour after dark. If I do an afternoon trip I will fish until they stop hitting and there have been nights that I wasn't back to the ramp until 1am.

Moonshine spoons, Shoehorns, and white dodgers with glow flies have worked best for me, but I have caught fish on non-glow spoons as well. For non-glow, darker colors have worked best.

There really is something special about fighting big Kings in the dark, and over here, you will go crazy at the amount of hooks that will emerge from the bottom as soon as twilight is upon you. Just hang on and get ready for the fire drill!