Fishing for white bass at night?

[Kent]

Is it likely to catch white bass, at Utah Lake, if one ice-fishes for them at night? Would it help or hurt to use a lantern?
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[2fishon]

I've done well for them at night, especially the first few hours after dark and before daylight. I haven't tried a lantern, it probably couldn't hurt.
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[tlspyder13]

I've had them continue to bite a hour or two after dark. Not sure about the light or all night though.
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[walleyebob]

Hey Kent, never have caught lots of White Bass at night with the lantern close to the hole. Tons of Bullheads and Sunfish. White Bass and Walleye seem to bite better about twenty feet from a lantern.Similar to fishing at night from a boat, the Bass and eyes hang out on the fringes of light, and the sunnies and bullheads move right in. Still, you get a few White Bass close to a lantern, but not big schools hanging out right under the hole.

WB
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[Coldfooter]

Heres a trick I've used Kent.. Cut the bottom out of a 5gl bucket, or just cut several holes in the bottom of the bucket round the outer edge and place your lantern in the center of the bucket. You can then fish closer to the light source and your less likely to cast a hard shadow on the ice.. Note, it dont hurt to spray paint the inside side's of the bucket flat black to lessen shadows. []
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[Kent]

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Heres a trick I've used Kent.. Cut the bottom out of a 5gl bucket, or just cut several holes in the bottom of the bucket round the outer edge and place your lantern in the center of the bucket. You can then fish closer to the light source and your less likely to cast a hard shadow on the ice.. Note, it dont hurt to spray paint the inside side's of the bucket flat black to lessen shadows. [] [/reply]
Don, are you saying that the shadows on the ice scares away fish?
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[Coldfooter]

Well this is just MHO,, but,, ice fishing UL at night is a tough go most of the time. I for one believe that movement and shadows above will scare skiddish fish away just as easy as to much light. And because I cant seem to keep still hour after hour while night fishing UL I tend to keeping as much of my shadow off the ice as I can. Consider this, as murky as the water might be, its only 3-9' deep where you might ice fish. A large dark shadow cruising around above might appear as either a big pred or a spook to our targets.
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[Kent]

N.E.T.O. and I hit Utah Lake last night. White bass do indeed bite at night and so do the bluegill and crappie (Randy caught a few small crappie & he also caught some nice perch before sunset). Never caught any larger white bass. It was really strange that for about the final 1 1/2 hours (we left the ice around 9:30 PM) I had an unbelievable honey hole. I had two holes that I was fishing about 5 feet apart and in about 5 feet of water. In the one hole I would get a bite within 20 seconds of dropping my baited jigs down the hole. In the other hole I got one bite all evening! It didn't make any difference whether I tipped with meal worms (large or small), wax worms, or crawlers I got immediate bites down the one hole. Tried tipping with a sliver of white bass and caught a few on that, but they seemed to prefer the other baits. When I tied on my smallest ice fly and the small $.55 jig that is sold individually at Sportsman's (ice fly was white glow, and the jig was similar to a perch glow) the action got fast and furious. After dark they really wanted a small offering.
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[N.E.T.O.]

Like Kent was saying, the catching was pretty consistent before sundown, but once the sun went down it was a different story. For about an hour or so I kept getting light hits, but couldn't hook but a few of them. Kent went and experimented with a different location, but didn't have very many bites there either. Getting cold now, we each set up our ice shacks, about 5 yards from each other. The last hour and 1/2 before we left, I probably only had 5 bites total. Kent on the otherhand definitely had the hotstick and/or the honeyhole! He was getting bites (and catching fish) constantly!
I ended the night with 10 white bass, 3 perch, 3 bluegill and 2 crappie. I think Kent had 3 times that amount!
It was really a fun trip. Started off my fishing year with an above average fish count (based on my last 2 years) and 4 species of fish already!

(Thanks Todd for the tips and the company!)

Randy
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[wiperhunter2]

Nice report Kent and NETO, sounds like a fun way to spend the evening. I read randys totals how did you do? What was your largest fish?
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[Kent]

I had approximately three times Randy's number. The largest fish was probably a white bass of around 9 inches. Nothing large this trip, but fun on light tackle.
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