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Fishing at night

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I figured I would post this here rather than the main forum as my question might have a lot to do with our area. Basically, I have no confidence fishing at night and I'm not sure what I'm missing. Morning, evening, dusk, dawn, even middle of the day, I usually at least feel like I have a chance even if I get skunked. Early morning and dusk are when I catch most of my fish. Night time fishing just feels kinda hopeless to me. I don't know if it's mental or my techniques/lure choices sucking, but unless I'm soaking bait it seems like I never catch at night. Add to that the snags and tangles that are made worse by not being able to see and I just end up frustrated more often than not.

 

I'm not talking about surfcasting from the beach here, I'm mostly shore-bound around the Piscat, jetties, bridges, etc. In these places, lures like bucktails tend to get snagged on the rocky bottom quite often and the strong current makes it difficult to tell what's going on, which is no good when there are lots of obstacles to avoid like buoys. I've tried sluggos, SP minnows, mag darters, and many others with very limited success.

 

I want to like night fishing, because it's the one time I can go pretty much no matter what if the conditions allow (I have a family so I'm limited during the day) and I enjoy being out when few other people are. What are your go-to techniques for these types of scenarios? I'd appreciate any advice.

Edited by drmevo
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You just need to  Build  confidence  both in the location and lure your useing. 

 

Pick a spot you have caught during dawn or dusk, use the same lures white and black seams to do it. 

 

Catch and repeat, slow your retrieve down at night to a  crawl  If you fishing in a area with a lote of current try to let the current do most of the work. 

 

It well take time to build confidence but once you have it your be good to go. 

Many men fish all their lives without ever realizing that it is not the fish they are after, If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles

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1 hour ago, Tlacey21walden said:

You just need to  Build  confidence  both in the location and lure your useing. 

 

Pick a spot you have caught during dawn or dusk, use the same lures white and black seams to do it. 

 

Catch and repeat, slow your retrieve down at night to a  crawl  If you fishing in a area with a lote of current try to let the current do most of the work. 

 

It well take time to build confidence but once you have it your be good to go. 

Thank you. Speed of retrieve might be a piece of the puzzle.

 

52 mins ago, Theflyguy said:

I agree confidence is huge darker lures or for my flies at night work good for me

Thanks, just picked up a blurple SP, going to try it with a really slow retrieve.

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I feel the same way fishing at absolute dark so I don’t fish the night to often but plan on changing that. The few times I’ve had success fishing at night was on jetties fishing live eels reeling in painfully slow. I watched a John skinner video on how to fish eels at night and it gave me some confidence in fish that way I’d suggest looking that video up. The video is during the day but explains that it’s mostly a night fishing technique.

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I love fishing at night except for the lack of sleep part. I really love a black sluggo at night, you'd be surprised how fast you can work it just like in McKenna's video. 

 

Fishing at night is the same as fishing during the day, ie: find moving water/or tide over structure and work it in the same way. Mouth of river with bait dropping, incoming over a sand bar etc. Keep a log and you will find 1.5 hour after low on the incomng xyz spot produces fish during the day (etc) I use to fish all night like a damn idiot waiting for fish to randomly cross my path before I knew how to put together the particulars of a spot. 

 

You would not believe the type of fish you could have at night until you find a pattern that works and then you will have a ball when it all comes together. 

 

Favorite night time lures: needles or wood that can be worked slow on the surface/subsurface, swimmers like mambo minnows and red fins with a dressed tail, black sluggos.  

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Fishing at night is an art that once learned, IMO, gives you the best shot at catching some of the biggest, and biggest number, of fish. Confidence as mentioned above is key but even more important than confidence is patience. There aren’t enough hours in a day, a week or a month to hone your craft so try not to let frustration get the better of you but rather focus on something you can learn from each trip.....even if it’s the next day after you get done swearing, ranting, raving and going over and over in your head what you could/should have done differently. Perfect example last night, after striking out 3-4 times including in a boat and at my go-to last night, right tide, right time, seaweed pushed me out after 5 minutes. Headed to another spot and again was thwarted by my own devices, had reel issues, told my buddy pack it up we’re going home. Decided to take a walk back to the truck, re-tied, regrouped, switched up tactics completely and landed 3 fish/lost a few more to break the skunk. Also, and this is just my .02 cents, don’t spend much time bouncing around from bait to lures to flies to something else if you’re having trouble catching. Stick to whichever method you’re best at and use it at the spot you’ve caught fish/seen others catch fish at in the past. Some times a couple of worms at night off the beach or under lights can get ya in the game. Getting frustrated, especially this early in the season and this early into your night fishing adventures, is only gonna hinder your progress. Believe me if you stay at it all season you will run into fish at night, probably by accident at first, and then by luck, next thing ya know you have a hunch and soon you’re pickin times/tides/locations based on knowledge you’ve acquired. If you’re getting hung up fishing at night you’re probably in the right spot, at least for starters. Try more topwater gear like poppers, pencils or needles. If you’re hell bent on getting down and dirty in those rocks, live eels are a GREAT place to start. Let the search button be your guide here and don’t be afraid to google or YouTube videos, learn how to drift a Mack chunk through moving water or bounce a jig off rocks in deep, fast moving water. You’ll be amazed how much info is out there and, if you’re like me, you’ll take a piece of this and some of that and put your own niche on it. The most intimidating part of fishing at night is your lack of ability to see things that otherwise would be visible. Take the time to really scout these areas out during the day, high tide, low tide, slack tide, mid tide or whenever else you can get there. Having a mental image of the area your fishing makes things a lot easier when you get there and can’t see more than 5 feet in front of ya. 

Edited by OOB Fisherman
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What all the great folks above have said

 

trust what you know (places, current, moon cycle, time of year), slow it down, take it in and throw in a few Coomba Ya’s for good measure 

 

the night is your friend if you are a fisherman 

 

Heightens all senses with the loss of sight 

 

Focus, relax, and open up to a far more beautiful place in the absence of light 

 

fish don’t know or expect that you are there....

 

that’s the real beauty of it.

 

Don’t underestimate the power of the Dark Side. If you fish and trust it, then you will meet your destiny.

 

 

[/sIGPIC]"Never let the truth spoil a good story"
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All good, especially with the recommendation not to play "musical lues", but to stick with the lure and technique you're best at, and is "dark adapted".  That being said as soon as it's not light enough to see your lure hit the water, I put the poppers, my favorite lure, away.  They are vastly inferior in the dark, although spooks still retain their effectiveness.

Shall I go to heaven or a-fishing? - H. D. Thoreau

 

Veni.  Vidi.  Cepi. - with apologies to Gaius Julius Caesar

 

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Thanks everyone, this is very helpful.I think learning my spots a little better during the day is a great point. I might think I know them but I probably don't as well as I could. 

 

Here's a pretty specific question...I've had good luck on Storm/Tsunami swim shads during the day - are they effective at night as well? I know sluggos are great if you fish them correctly but haven't heard much mention of other plastics.

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11 hours ago, OOB Fisherman said:

Fishing at night is an art that once learned, IMO, gives you the best shot at catching some of the biggest, and biggest number, of fish...Also, and this is just my .02 cents, don’t spend much time bouncing around from bait to lures to flies to something else if you’re having trouble catching. Stick to whichever method you’re best at and use it at the spot you’ve caught fish/seen others catch fish at in the past. Some times a couple of worms at night off the beach or under lights can get ya in the game...Try more topwater gear like poppers, pencils or needles. If you’re hell bent on getting down and dirty in those rocks, live eels are a GREAT place to start. Let the search button be your guide here and don’t be afraid to google or YouTube videos, learn how to drift a Mack chunk through moving water or bounce a jig off rocks in deep, fast moving water.

OOB Fisherman provides plenty of good points to bring home. Fishing at night is GREAT imo if you found a method which you are comfortable with. If you are using live bait, try floating sea-worms or eels on a lighted bobber instead of soaking them at the bottom. This method allows you to cover more grounds and prevents from getting your line snagged. Light gives hope and provides assurance the bait is presented exactly where you wanted it to.

Edited by Ryan N.
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4 hours ago, drmevo said:

Thanks everyone, this is very helpful.I think learning my spots a little better during the day is a great point. I might think I know them but I probably don't as well as I could. 

 

Here's a pretty specific question...I've had good luck on Storm/Tsunami swim shads during the day - are they effective at night as well? I know sluggos are great if you fish them correctly but haven't heard much mention of other plastics.

Yes they work fine at night :howdy:

IMG_6480.JPG

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