Night Fishing

[frankv702]

Hey everyone, do any of you guys go out night fishing during the summer? I want to go out but it's way too hot during the day.
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[reellittlephish]

Gotta be set up for that Frank. Good sonar with GPS is mandatory. Fluorescent lines and black lights. Headlight and accessory lights. Keep it simple on deck too.

On Mead my experience is the middle of the night bite is not that good. Best from dusk to 3 hours after dark and early morning from civil twilight till about 2 hours after sunrise.

I think the local Bass Federation boys hold some night tourneys.
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[frankv702]

Thanks! That's what I was looking for. I have a pretty heavy duty spotlight that'll work for navigating (or do I need specific boat headlights?), Accessory lights in my boat, flashlights, a pretty bright lantern and a sonar with GPS. I was out today and marked a bunch of waypoints and recorded paths to get to them.

We were out at Eagle Valley in the middle of the night a few weeks ago and the set up I have listed above lit us up pretty good in the pitch black out there. I know that's a puddle compared to Mead. I camped out there a few times last summer and fished from shore with no fish. I'm hoping my boat brings me better luck.

Do you guys have luck fishing with any crank baits or anything? Or is it pretty much cut anchovies?
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[reellittlephish]

Long as you are close to the basin the ambient light from Vegas is adequate for fishing without a big light. I use a headlight for tying or re-tying. At any other time a lantern will decrease your night vision. I'd be very conservative and only go to places I had been to in daylight recently and arrive there in decent light then wait for darkness. First time out I would not go alone.

Bassresource has some articles on night fishing: They will lay out the general basics.

http://www.bassresource.com/

Striper club guys fish at night during the summer. Maybe one of them will chime in.

At night I might have 2 rods on deck where I might have 6 rods in daylight.

I relay heavily on the GPS and Sonar and don't run fast if I'm not in familiar open water on a GPS track. Even then, more than once I have encountered another vessel running or usually drifting without running lights on.

I have black lights I can mount on the gunwales of my Skeeter. They somewhat illuminate the rock wall edges etc. A top of the line black light ( like as Bluewater LED) is expensive. Amazon has some more reasonably priced black lights.

Running all the light accessories can run your starting battery down...just a heads up.

I'll use surface lures, crankbaits, jigs, darter head grubs, senkos, and drop shots for bass in about that order. More important IMO is having a fluorescent line which glows in black light. The striper guys here may let you know what baits they prefer.
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[frankv702]

Thanks for the tips! I'm going to put an order in for the led deck light kits this weekend. What do the uv lights do? Their primary purpose is to light up rock walls and illuminate your fishing line? I was looking On the Bluewater led website at the kits they offer. The they seem pretty good!

I try to keep a lot of my lights on my boat battery powered so I don't suck the power out of my batteries. I have the anchor light, navigation light and my boat has a cockpit light that run off the battery, although I'm not too sure which battery.everything else is small battery powered. I have a 16' Tracker Superguide and its got a trolling battery and a starting battery. I should probably look into what battery those lights are connected to.

When you night fish, are you going for large mouth bass primarily? Or do you fish for striper and catfish? I seen a few guys on here catch a good see catfish on a crank bait. That sounds like fun!
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[wolfs4evr]

Everything runs off the rear battery. Your TM battery is stand-alone. Just keep a set of jumper cables in the boat. If you ever kill your rear/main battery you can jump start your boat off the TM battery. Much easier than having to disconnect it and move it back to start your boat up.
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[iamthesmf]

Stripers................
Fish early for the boils.
Night fishing comes in waves or sets as the schools move around feeding. The Boulder beach was good a few years ago now its hit or miss.

The last 2 weeks it has been good in the Vegas Wash in about 75 feet. Anchovies in a jig head to get the fish that are suspended, A Carolina rig with a 1 oz weight and 2/0 hook. Drop to the bottom and reel up a bout 5 cranks.

CHUM TILL THEY COME, then keep feeding them.
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[reellittlephish]

LED lights will illuminate your florescent line so you can see the line twitch of a bite.

If you have no on-board charger and charge manually then you might consider a third battery dedicated to lighting only. I prefer an AGM battery. Much less likely to knock loose the anode plates and they have almost full amperage till discharge. Once again shopping on Amazon. don't neglect to secure the connecting wires where you won't trip on them or catch them in lures.

"AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat)
Sealed Absorbed Glass Mat have a very fine glass mat between their plates. They have all of the advantages of the "Maintenance Free” batteries plus:

[ul][li]Much safer then wet batteries (due the hydrogen gas recombination during charging)[/li][li]Does not require water[/li][li]Shorter recharge time[/li][li]Lower self-discharge rate (typically 1%-2% per month)[/li][li]Longer service life (typically up to twice as long)[/li][li]Better vibration endurance[/li][li]Can be used in saltwater applications[/li][li]Spill proof and can be mounted in virtually any position (because they are sealed)[/li][li]Can be used inside a semi-enclosed area, like the passenger compartment or trunk[/li][li]No sulfation from electrolyte stratification or water loss"[/li][li]--------------------------------------------[/li][li]I am primarily fishing for bass[/li][li]Catfish will bite crankbaits in the spring. Rest of the time it is some kind of stink bait or live bait: re: bluegills or shad
[/li][/ul]
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[Chad71]

Those guys seemed to pretty much cover everything. I would only warn you to not disregard your safety or others for stealth or battery management. I'm sure most of the guys will agree that you will find many jack*sses out there that either don't have 360 or navigation lights or they turn them off cuz they feel like they spook the fish or they are saving batteries. There has been many occasions over the years that myself and other Striper Club guys have come upon a boat that is completely dark and they turn them on at the last second as somebody underway comes upon them. Or they start waving a flashlight around as a weak*ss attempt at a signaling device. Everytime I get a Ranger doing a routine check of me during the daylight hours I ask them to come out at night and write HUGE tickets to the irresponsible boaters. I have only seen them a cpl times and that was when they were looking for stranded boaters and just happened to be in general area. Good luck!!!
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[frankv702]

Thanks for all of the replies guys. Safety is definitely the number one priority. I want to make sure I can get out there and be safe. Then hopefully catch some fish.

I have a small handheld battery operated uv light. I wonder if that'll work to illuminate some fluorescent line. I'm going to stop by and buy some to respool one of my extra reels.

What do you guys chum with? Corn? Blended anchovies? Your own concoctions? I seen some chum mix at bps but didn't get any. It was a tiny bag for like $10.

Last year when I was shore fishing this time of year I seen a bunch of boils right before sun down. They were just out of casting distance so I'm hoping I can run into so of them with boat access now. I tried chumming corn that time but it seemed to attract just a bunch of carp that seemed like they were doing cartwheels on my line.
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[iamthesmf]

Left over anchovies or shad ground up in a food processor. Blenders burn up to fast.

Just add some water or fish attractant and freeze in a zip lock bag. Then hang over the side of your boat in a mesh bag.

Corn is a good cheap chum too.

One last thing......cut up your anchovies. Chunks work better than a whole bait. Toss the heads and tails for chum. Then hook you bait and spray with attractant, like salt shad from Bass Pro Shops.
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