Lake Tarpon All Nighter Tonight

Plan on hitting Lake Tarpon for an all nighter. Not really sure what I am doing, but hey, unless I get out there and try I will continue to not know.

I have a green LED light I will be dropping in the water (not sure how deep but assume just below the surface). Also bought a minnow trap (use bread as fish food) plan on having that near the LED light hopeing I get some live bait for the nights fishing as well. Not sure if I should drift with the light on or anchor so that the light attracts the bait. Was planning on finding a spot on the plotter that showed fish and dropping the anchor and light. Sit there for a while till the bait ball is good and then if the fish are not biting there, drift slow enough to keep the bait with the light. Will be spider rigged and if needed move via the trolling motor.

Have head mounted lamp, thermo-cell, battery powered lantern, spot light, and a couple marker buoy's in addition to the mandatory boat nightime safety gear.

Any suggestions other than keeping my PFD on all the time would be appreciated.

Hope to post a decent catch.

Ya might shoot a pm to Harold - fishin813, I believe he has done a bit of night fishin on Tarpon.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by huntinslabs

Ya might shoot a pm to Harold - fishin813, I believe he has done a bit of night fishin on Tarpon.

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He and I live about 5 houses apart so I went over this evening and spoke to him. He gave me some good basic advice.

There ya go! Now go load d boat and post up some pics tomorrow.

And your probably the best therapy he has beside fishing. Someone knocking on his door to talk fishin and keepin him from thinking about his ailments. I am sure he enjoys it as we all do.

Good luck...waiting on a detailed report

Told him would feel much better if he had someone else in boat with him.
The world changes at night - whole different ball game - much more dangerous
at night -also fishing alone puts a whole lot more into safety factor not only on
water but off.

Easy report, not a single bite, chilly, and very damp with the humidity. Pulled up at 2:30. I need more seat time on this lake to find the structure and the fish habits, but it was very peaceful out there.

And as previously mentioned night time is a very different experience.

Used to do lots of nighttime crappie fishing, it can be very productive. I used green lights also and pulled up to various structure and would drop down, wait about 20 min for the baitfish to show up and put out jigs and minnows in the shadows. Try a couple setups and it you can get to a bridge and anchor that can payoff big as well. Good luck.

Tarpon excellant day as well as night fishery. Need to spend time on it during
day to get "lay of land" so to speak. Now how to read wind comming on lake night
vs day - This lake enjoys a high degree of swirling during evening hrs - can be
very dangerous. Past year we lost 3 people night fishing lake - and they were not
newbies.......2 had fished it for 20 plus years - just got a little careless...........
Lake also known for heavy due - night mist - turns things cold when its warm
at first.........
Thats why i use generator - night overhead lights as well as water level lights.
Make sure alway practice good safety................But it is a fun lake to fish......and
there are some dandies in it.............Structure wise - no bridge pilings, railroad
crossings etc............not a whole lot of structure other than 35- 40 man made
brush piles on it.
Given time - probably couple months i will be night fishing it. Green lights - have
worked with them along side of white lights - and see no significate difference other
than cost of purchase.
A white - cool heat flood will do just fine - 125 watt. can give you mfg name
and code .who what to purchase - Electric generator beats everything vs old
12 volt bulbs lamp covers - Number of rods you will want to use and how to set
them up . How to set up boat - single anchor into wind for best movement and
control during night - what to look for when, lay of land so to speak. Don't
necessary want to look for hole in ground - structure etc. Time of year, calander
date etc. - on a flat with underwater creek comming through -
near reeds - lilly pads - open water -etc
There are several posts past year regarding night fishing on Tarpon ....
That i have put up complete with pictures.
Glad to see you really enjoyed the comfort of just being alone with your thoughts
and company of the "real outdoors"