Night fishing for "eyes"

[Nite bite]

Growing up I was taught the more light the better when walleye fishing after dark. The theory is the light will attract baitfish and the baitfish will attract the predators. I have found this to work at times and at other times I feel that the light may not be very useful. What about blacklights, no light, moonlight, and time of night? Night fishing for walleyes is one of my favorite times to fish and I have caught good numbers and sizes, however, I think I may be missing the boat sometimes by not adapting to the conditions. Anyone care to share some techniques, sources of information (books, videos, etc.), or experiences? Thanks for all info. offered.

[Walleye Express]

[b]Bite.

I've caught just as many with a 1/4 moon as a full one. The walleye uses any light available to silhouette his prey between him and the surface. On darker nights simply slow down more and give him a chance to adjust his scope a little. :D

[mowallytrkr]

I also believe in the silhouette theory, Express. There have been too many times to count that fishing at night was slow and when the moon got past the tree line and started making a shine on the water, the fishing really picked up. In most of my experiences, being at a certain spot and having the moonlight start to cast over a certain area where you had already been fishing for a while, created a "lights on" situation and the bite was on. Time of year and depth of water plays into it too, but I am sure the light changing attracted the eyes to that certain spot. It was like turning the light on before you go down the steps. I have sat there patiently and waited for that very phenom while I watched other fisherman leave the area. They just turned on. MO

[Ramdog]

Ok....Now......Whats everybody's fav. color of crank to use at nite? Chartreuse first and purple second for me.

[Walleye Express]

>Ok....Now......Whats everybody's fav. color of crank to use
>at nite? Chartreuse first and purple second for me.

[b]Ramdog.

75% of my lure color strategy for night fishing, centers around what color the belly of the lure is versus the sides or top. Even though (liked mentioned above) I believe the walleyes silhouette the lure between them and the surface, a lite colored belly like white, silver or cream adds to this zeroing-in factor.

That side to side role that both the Rapalas, Husky Jerks and a few other short billed bulsa's have when being trolled or retrieved is the perfect night time action for fish looking up for their prey. And the lite colored belly flashing like a strobe lite as it works back and forth IMHO is a very big key.

[Rick Pierce]

When your fishing at night are you using down rigers ,dispys ,jet divers or just flat lining?

Thank you Fish Wacker

[K Gonefishin]

I have have had nights where I we caught fish on every color with no pattern to it except speed, nothing matters sometimes how big the lure is, the wobble, color,depth when they are hitting they are hitting, I flatline at night or run 2 boards and the rest flat, and do very well you don't even need to use line counters I like to hold one rod that way I can adjust depth accordingly that is the rod that is always getting yanked. Off Cleveland I landed my biggest walleye it was over 10 and in 8 ft of water, we caught numerous fish in a 50 yd area. Night is the best and almost hear, You have to watch out for guys running alot of board real far out though, believe me you will hear your fair share of swearing. The moon never made a difference either but light off of shore did.

[Walleye Express]

>When your fishing at night are you using down rigers ,dispys
>,jet divers or just flat lining?
>
>Thank you Fish Wacker

[b]Rick.

I personally use Off-Shore In-Line boards with the flags on top. This allows me to attach those neat little flashing lights to keep track of just where as many as the 6 lines are when I'm running them. You can just as easily flat line out the back if your alone or with a friend though. But I've only been doing this for about 20 years, maybe gonefishing could share some of his startigies in this reguard.

[tomq.]

Another nice jab Capt.

[Walleye Express]

>Another nice jab Capt.

[b]Tom......Who?.....Me? Naaaaaaa. :D

[T man]

Our experiences fishing the NY Walleye opener on Chatauqua Lake, flatline trolling, (after dark) in 3 - 5 ft of water:
- smaller floating shallow running minnow baits work best, like
"original" Rapala's, sizes 7 to 11.
- also agree that the light colored bottom / sides of the stick baits
work best.
- SLOW trolling (.8 to 1.2 mph)
- moonlight hasn't seemed to matter (full / quarter moon, whatever)
- lights from on shore DO seem to help - our guess is that the shore
lights may draw the bait fish, which draw the walleye.

We are hoping for the best - the opener in NY is May 1st.

my $ .02 worth ...
T man

[Stiesvater]

Wonder how you catch a walleye through 2' thick ice with a foot of snow on it on a moonless nite and heavy snowing? Couldn't be any less light.