Night fishing without lights

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mmwaggie
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Night fishing without lights

Post by mmwaggie »

I do a lot of night fishing this time of year but typically stay around areas with either green lights or some type of lighting. How do the tactics change (from day fishing) when you are in a marsh area or on a flat?

With less light available how do you change up your routine to not only find the fish but get them hooked?
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Yaklash
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Re: Night fishing without lights

Post by Yaklash »

I haven't done a ton of it, but I have waded flats at night fishing mostly topwater baits, always within a few days of a full moon and usually when the tide was incoming overnight. I have used black and bigger topwater baits. Tried a Glow She-dog once, but it didn't get any attention. One thing I will say is that it can get a little spooky being in the water at night and when you have a red or trout blow-up on your bait, it startles the crap out of you the first few times.

Your eyesight does adjust to the low light and you are able to see bait that are mulling or splashing on the surface.
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Re: Night fishing without lights

Post by osojet »

I do most of my fishing at night..no sun, no crowds. On calm nights I fish by sound. Trout popping/reds busting bait. You can get really close in the dark as long as you are quiet. I use as little light as possible. Just the required 360 light. If I don't hear them feeding I will do the usual....work cuts/drains. I mostly use darker colored lures on a 1/16 oz jig head. Find an area that usually holds fish in the day and it should be even better at night!
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Re: Night fishing without lights

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osojet wrote:I do most of my fishing at night..no sun, no crowds. On calm nights I fish by sound. Trout popping/reds busting bait. You can get really close in the dark as long as you are quiet. I use as little light as possible. Just the required 360 light. If I don't hear them feeding I will do the usual....work cuts/drains. I mostly use darker colored lures on a 1/16 oz jig head. Find an area that usually holds fish in the day and it should be even better at night!
^^This...
I have fished many cuts and drains at night using sound of bait jumping or fish hitting top. I fished gulp and live bait on bottom in guts and caught nice reds. I get hit from paddle tails near shore. I have caught flounder in cuts and drains and trout in channels and grass areas. It' just like fishing during the day but darker. Most people don't know this or do not go out at night as we are a "day breed" and need our sleep. I sleep when others are awake.
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Re: Night fishing without lights

Post by Drifting Yak »

Do you folks fish at night when there's no moon? Thinking about hitting some areas early next week and the moon is all but gone. Also, the wind might be up a bit so does that factor into it? Would think that it would make it a little tougher using top waters.
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Re: Night fishing without lights

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Night fishing is like day fishing but darker. The moonlight will help but does not need to be present as there is light from the stars and city lights reflected off the clouds if cloudy. Fish are always looking for food somewhere so you just have to try anything you think would work in the daylight.
IF you bring a spot/floodlight and shine it on an area you are near you will see bait fish jumping and breaking the surface as the light spooked them, probably thinking the flash is a big predator fish coming at it. Use darker swim bait lures if there is moon light above and scented lures if hardly any light.
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Re: Night fishing without lights

Post by Drifting Yak »

Good stuff! Thanks!
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Re: Night fishing without lights

Post by osojet »

As far as the moon goes...for me a new moon has always seemed more productive than a full moon. The wind is a bigger factor for me. Harder to hear fish feeding and to get close when the wind is blowing. That may have something to do with me being a hair under 300lbs... :shock: ...I am like a big sail out in the wind. Wear your safety gear and fish areas you know. Watch the weather...fog is a no go for me at night. Another note I am usually the only person out there.
If that is not the case for you...take a powerful flashlight or spotlight. The 360 lights are indistinguishable from city lights in the distance when you are on the water. Someone even starts heading your direction.. light em up and let them know you are there. Been fishing nights for several years...only had one boat come within 300 yds of me. Had my 360 light on..he never saw me till I lit him up. Good luck and post up if u try it!
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Re: Night fishing without lights

Post by Drifting Yak »

Will do!

Will not be alone. Heading to an area that I've covered during the day. Good idea on the bright light. And LMAO on the wind blowing you around! A sail in the wind! Ha! I feel ya!
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Re: Night fishing without lights

Post by mmwaggie »

Thanks for all the help and information guys. I had always wondered if it was still productive during the new moon. I will get out there next weekend and do some scouting in known areas. Thanks for the help!
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Re: Night fishing without lights

Post by Drifting Yak »

OK - YakRunabout and I hit east bay around 4 AM yesterday morning.

It is kind of creepy out there but the uneasiness dissipates quickly and turns into something pretty cool - especially once your senses get adjusted. You could actually see better than I thought you would (keeping in mind it was a New Moon). We had about an hour peddle to our fishing spot so we trolled a variety of surface and subsurface lures as we crept through the early morning darkness. Quiet & peaceful are two words that come to mind - that is until a lone fish would bust the surface beside your yak - being startled is an understatement! :shock:
There were fish in the area but don't think we had one single bump as we trolled along.

Then as we approached our spot you could hear activity. Bait getting busted? You wondered? You hoped! Started out as a faint noise in the distance but as you got closer you could tell that something was going on. It is kind of strange going into a marsh entrance when it's dark. You can barely make things out but the distant sound of thrashing pulls you in like a moth to a flame. The closer you got the more you could hear. At first it almost sounded like it was sprinkling on the water's surface but it was not rain. Something was causing the water to pop and it's about that time when you realize that it's shrimp clicking along. You move in a little further and you see scores of menhaden scrambling to get away. By now the water is thick with bait and you could see predator fish thrashing bait and busting the surface. The action was intense. The water was in a furious state of movement. Shrimp & menhaden were jumping into your yak! What a scene!

We threw everything we had and did not get a single strike. :( Hard to imagine such activity and not being able to catch a thing. We threw: Top Waters (quiet, loud, dark, light) + Spoons (silver) + Popping Corks with shrimp imitators + A variety of plastics (glow, dark, light, noisy). The frenzy carried on for a good hour and then dissipated shortly after sun up. At this point you have mixed feelings. On one end you are full of life - there's something magic about the darkness and that pure adrenaline pump from all of the activity makes you know that you're alive. But then there's the sad reality that you didn't snag a single fish. Wow - still a great way to start the day! :D

We did get into some fish later that morning and I'll post up a separate report on that.

Any thoughts on what we could have done differently?

Tight Lines!
Last edited by Drifting Yak on Thu Jul 27, 2017 3:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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kickingback
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Re: Night fishing without lights

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Did you try live shrimp at all? I always carry a pint of shrimp when I hit a new area or am trying something different. Sometimes the fish are finicky just like during the day. Being dark you may not have seen all the factors that were contributing to the bait blow ups. The water could have been deeper there and the fish were on the bottom. Did you try dragging on bottom? Was there shell present? Was the current moving water well and if so was it moving faster where the bait was? Did you try shining a light on the bait fish to see if the light affected them? When I run into a bait bail jumping, I immediately break out my go to tandem 3" Berkley Swim Shad in Firetiger and cast a few times into the ball. I try dragging back in all column levels of the water to see where they are holding. Remember that these fish like to ambush bait and bait will jump if a predator is close. It doesn't mean the fish are chasing the bait. They may be laying in wait on bottom for a hapless meal to swim by. It's the bait that is moving along in the current and happens to pass over the predator in wait and they start jumping.
Try again sometime in an area you have caught fish before and use the same tactics you used in the daylight. Report back.
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Re: Night fishing without lights

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Crazy as it sounds we never tried live bait - and we didn't need to bring any - shrimp & menhaden were literally jumping into our yaks! Amazing how your brain works during the heat of the battle but sitting here now I can't understand why we didn't at least give shrimp a try. And yes we tried running things on top, in the mid-column and on bottom. Did not shine our lights across the water but will definitely try that next time - and for sure will float some live bait!

It's hard to imagine how thick the bait was and how hard the predator fish were busting. We were fishing in a bend that was around 20 yards wide and the activity was concentrate in that bend. The water was maybe 6 feet at the deepest spot and was coming in at a moderate pace (not ripping). I simply backed my PA up against the bank and hovered in one spot towards the beginning of the bend. Ken did more drifting up and down the area. Fish would literally bust bait at the side of the PA and bait would fly into the yak. We were quiet but it didn't seem to matter. The fish were not bothered in the least by our being there.

The one thing we pondered through the day was what kind of predator fish were there during the early morning frenzy. Sure seemed like trout but we never got a look at any of them. With that said, we did notice a fair amount of gar fish in the area a little later that morning. Could that have been the predators? Would that explain why they didn't hit our lures? The gar were there in abundance during the morning but they seemed to roll more at the surface bait rather than lunging. What ever the predator fish were that morning, they were not playing around and simply rolling at bait - They were getting after it!

Nothing to do now but get back out there and try it again!
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Re: Night fishing without lights

Post by Yaklash »

Drifting Yak wrote: Any thoughts on what we could have done differently? Tight Lines!
Sometimes, day or night, there is just too much natural bait for predator fish to be deceived. Free-lined live menhaden (with the hook poked through the spine for blood scent) might have worked.
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Re: Night fishing without lights

Post by Flippin' Crazee »

Drifting Yak wrote:OK - YakRunabout and I hit east bay around 4 AM yesterday morning.

It is kind of creepy out there but the uneasiness dissipates quickly and turns into something pretty cool - especially once your senses get adjusted. You could actually see better than I thought you would (keeping in mind it was a New Moon). We had about an hour peddle to our fishing spot so we trolled a variety of surface and subsurface lures as we crept through the early morning darkness. Quite & peaceful are two words that come to mind - that is until a lone fish would bust the surface beside your yak - being startled is an understatement! :shock:
There were fish in the area but don't think had one single bump as we trolled along.

Then as we approached our spot you could hear activity. Bait getting busted? You wondered? You hoped! Started out as a faint noise in the distance but as you got closer you could tell that something was going on. It is kind of strange going into a marsh entrance when it's dark. You can barely make things out but the distant sound of thrashing pulls you in like a moth to a flame. The closer you got the more you could hear. At first it almost sounded like it was sprinkling on the water's surface but it was not rain. Something was causing the water to pop and it's about that time when you realize that it's shrimp clicking along. You move in a little further and you see scores of menhaden scrambling to get away. By now the water is thick with bait and you could see predator fish thrashing bait and busting the surface. The action was intense. The water was in a furious state of movement. Shrimp & menhaden were jumping into your yak! What a scene!

We threw everything we had and did not get a single strike. :( Hard to image such activity and not being able to catch a thing. We threw: Top Waters (quiet, loud, dark, light) + Spoons (silver) + Popping Corks with shrimp imitators + A variety of plastics (glow, dark, light, noisy). The frenzy carried on for a good hour and then dissipated shortly after sun up. At this point you have mixed feelings. On one end you are full of life - there's something magic about the darkness and that pure adrenaline pump from all of the activity makes you know that you're alive. But then there's the sad reality that you didn't snag a single fish. Wow - still a great way to start the day! :D

We did get into some fish later that morning and I'll post up a separate report on that.

Any thoughts on what we could have done differently?

Tight Lines!
Texas Roach colored paddle tail with a slow steady retrieve usually will get you bit in that situation.


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