Night fishing locations

[ewillsd]

In terms of lighting you can use a green light to see the boat and what you're doing. Pretty sure that green light doesn't scare or spook fish. Weedless baits are awesome for when you aren't sure what you're casting into or at and then the go to wake bait always works.

[chefchris]

I hate the full moon unless it’s Heavily overcast

in my experience in fresh and salt the full moon sucks if it’s clear.  
 

I will take new moon over full moon any night, honestly, any night over full moon 

if it’s clear and not windy on a full moon I stay home

other guys have different experiences so try it all, but honestly just get out at night to start and not worry too much about the moon. 
 

if it’s windy/choppy fish baits just under the surface. 
 

lots of killer info in this post. 

[Amistoad]

This place is a treasure chest of solid information. Thanks to all who have posted up. You guys ROCK!

[Rogervang]

3 hours ago, chefchris said:

if it’s clear and not windy on a full moon I stay home

totally agree.

[stkbass]

Lots of good info. I'll add that it is good to know your waters well for safety/navigation and have your gear/tackle organized. 

In addition to moon phase, I look for moon rise/set times. I fish the darkest part of the night.

I fish wakes and shallow running baits at night and fish the same areas that produce during the day.

Steady straight retrieves seem to work best for me. 

Shallow cranks like the wnc can be deadly at night.

[Amistoad]

One more question about boat lights. In Texas, running lights need to be on at all times by law between sunset and sundown. So I’ll have a fair amount of light in the bot. But I also have an old Night Stalker fishing light with fluorescent and black light bulbs. Anybody mess with these? Are they useful, or should I just stick with the headlamp?

[azfisher]

1 hour ago, Amistoad said:

One more question about boat lights. In Texas, running lights need to be on at all times by law between sunset and sundown. So I’ll have a fair amount of light in the bot. But I also have an old Night Stalker fishing light with fluorescent and black light bulbs. Anybody mess with these? Are they useful, or should I just stick with the headlamp?

This is what I use for night fishing. Has black leds and one green moon glow led. I usually just use the moon glow for illuminating the shoreline in front of and beside the boat. Headlamp is a last resort so not to swallow a million bugs, red light is a must. I installed the led red/green nav lights under my rub rail to get that lighting off the deck/bow. I like the boat/deck dark and all the lighting pointed out away from the boat. Had a bud install rope leds in his boat,  inside the rub rail facing in at the deck and it was blinding, had to install a rheostat switch to knock the light down, then it was real sweet.  

http://www.conquistadortackle.com/Bass-Fishing-Tackle/Fishing-Lights/Lunar-Xtreme-Home.html

[bassturds]

On 10/22/2019 at 9:40 PM, chefchris said:

I like to get all my gear super organized and I put everything in the same spot every time, I have a crawdad so there’s no storage areas 

so I get my scale/pliers in their spot, net is always in the same location handle up and out to one side, head lamp and a bright/low flashlight around the neck. 
 

I throw a lot of rat baits around lay downs at night, super effective 

one technique I really like and seems to work for all types of floating baits is to cast it out, after it hits the water, I let all the splash rings clear out til the waters calm/flat, then give the bait a couple quick hard rod pops/handle cranks (bait depending) and then let it sit again til the waters calm and then start my normal retrieve. 
 

to me I feel it resembles a rat/mouse/bat/baby bird or whatever falling into the water, stunning itself then freaking out a bit then trying to swim away. 
 

ive had a lot of blowups/hookups on the first couple twitches or once I start the retrieve. 
 

another tip I learned was swim that bait all the way back to the boat, a good amount of hits have come a rod lengths away from the boat. 
 

you can’t see followers at night so I like to fish the bait as close to the boat as I can before lifting it out of the water 

I’ve done something like this but the opposite way.  I cast out let the rings settle. Slow twitch it.  Then burn it.   I’ve done this day and night. 
it looks like an injured stunned birds mouse, squirrel. They’ll come up look at the big bait slowly twitching. Then when you burn it. They think it’s getting away and smash it! 
 

I like shallow ponds  for night fishing, I just cast everywhere. Deeper ponds I’ll target certain areas, like steep drops, rocks, rocky points. Brush, weeds.