Thread: Night fishing

I like starting out the depth I see the bait fish. Adjusting the depth of the lines as needed through out the night. The long rods will work if able to see the lines. I like from 10 back down. The way I used my rods is I fish with 4 rods use minnows on 3. Once I start catching fish on the minnows I will used a jig on the 4th rod. Sometimes the jig will out produce the minnows and the bigger fish will come on the jig. On the jig rod I hold in hand and work the jig by raising and lowering the line. I will not start out with the jig first until start catching them with the minnows. The reason for this is if starting with the jig rod and the crappie hasn't came to the lights yet then you will lose confidence in the jig. No confidence might as well not to use it.
LittleJohn

I use 14' rods & 10' rods & try and keep the bait out towards the outer perimeter of the light .... even if that means using slip floats.

Normally, the Crappie are going to be holding a little ways out from the circling Shad & towards the edge of the light's penetration ... looking to pick off a single Shad that wanders too far from the circle. That's why I don't fish close to the light. I just remember sitting at the bow of a flat bottom wooden rowboat, my Grandma sitting in the middle, and Grandpa sitting at the transom end ... with a Coleman gas lantern hanging off the side of the boat, right in front of my Grandma ... and Grandpa & me getting most all of the bites.

If I'm tied up to something, I'll use plain hook/sinker rigs. I use a floating headlight (white light) hanging down beside the boat to draw in the Shad, and the white lights of my "blacklight" units to illuminate the rods/line/floats. The "blacklights" run off the 29series TM battery, and the floating headlight runs off another 29series battery that I take along just for night fishing.

I don't do it often enough to warrant a lot of specific equipment, so I just use what I have and make do with it.

Thanks guys, I've only been a couple times and have felt like what the H... am I doing out here. I'll take the above tips and work from there. Will post how I do.

Thanks,
Ray

raysor65, Crappiepappy has pretty much nailed it, but I will add some more. I have used the 'Clamp-on' lights over the side of the boat with 50W DC bulbs. I just modify the connection for the connection to a DC battery with a multiple outlet power strip with Alligator clip to the battery and plug in the 50W lights.(you cut off the three prong plug on the power strip and add alligator clips to the + and- feeds). You can then use the plugs from each Clamp-on fixture to plug into your multiple outlet strip now since you've now converted it to a DC source. (Just remember you have DC bulbs in these if you use these at home. they will blow immediately if you plug them into 120VAC) You can get these 50W DC bulbs from RV type places and sometimes at Walmart. You hook these up to a nice size 12V marine battery, it should support 4-6 of these 50W lights for over 6 hours (look up the Watt/Hours on your battery. These will surprise you how much light they put on water. Other option is a small generator, but you would have use AC bulbs, and a lot more expense and noise. Probably TMI, but hope it helps.