Night Fishing for Freshwater Striper
By: Casey Reed, Old Town Pro Staff
I used to spend some days from sunup to sundown fishing. At that time, I didn't know fishing at night, for anything other than catfish, was a thing. A few years ago, I went out on my first night fishing trip and though it was a little difficult adjusting to making good casts in the dark, it was a lot of fun. When you get bit and that drag starts screaming, it’s even more of an adrenaline rush than normal. Fast forward a few years, now most of my fun fishing is done at night.
Starting in November, I start going out at night targeting freshwater striped bass. My favorite way to catch fish this time of year is targeting lights. There are a lot of different lights you can zone in on. My favorite type are the underwater lights. Some people that love on the lake will put out these underwater green lights near their dock. These lights are generally sitting on the bottom of the lake, in close vicinity to the dock. I like fishing these type of lights because you can really see the bait, and the fish that are swimming around it. As you get closer to the light, you can see the shadows of the fish swimming over top of it. Seeing a huge shadow swim across the light is just about as exciting as feeling that thump on the end of your line.
The next best light are what I call bait lights. A bait light is some sort of light fixture that is mounted slightly above the surface of the water that a lot of people will put on the end of their docks to attract bait fish to catch in a cast net. These lights tend to direct the light on a small surface area in front of the dock.
Another type of light is flood lights. They are generally mounted close to the roof of the dock, they usually light up a big surface area of the water, but not as direct on the surface.
Any kind of light that’s directly hitting the water, no matter the brightness of it, can attract bait, as well as predator fish. I’ve even seen some docks that are decorated with Christmas lights attract baitfish.
LURE CHOICE
When fishing lights at night, I have a few that I always have tied on. They are all very similar with a few variations:
- Jig head / Fluke
- Jig head / Swimbait
- Swamp Monkey (Jig head / Skirt / Swimbait or Fluke)
When approaching a light, you want to fish all around it before getting close to it. If there is fish and bait in the area, the fish may have chased the bait off of the light and they will be feeding all around the area. If you find an underwater lights, pay close attention, you may see the shadows of the fish and bait swimming through the light. You still must have patience, and fish the edges of the lights thoroughly before moving into the light. From my experience, the fish feeding near the lights are spooked very easily (especially the bigger stripers).
You have to figure out what the stripers are wanting, fast or slow, high in the water column or dragging the bottom. Having some different size jig heads ready will allow you to adjust your retrieves and depths for your lure presentation.
I usually start by throwing a ½ ounce jig and letting it hit the bottom. I try to count down till I feel the jig hit the bottom. I’ll reel slowly keeping contact with the bottom. After a dozen casts with no bites, then I will count down till just before the bottom and reel trying to maintain the jig in that depth. This is where different jig heads come in handy. If you are struggling maintaining that depth you may need change to a lighter or heavier jig head. From there, you can work the whole water column until you are burning the lure just under the surface.
When targeting lights at night, I really like there to be little to no moon light. I tend to believe that the light of the moon light will spread the bait and stripers out more. That's fine, you can still catch them, but I don't think they will be as concentrated under the lights as if it were completely dark out..
Finding good producing lights, that stay on consistently can sometimes prove to be challenging. This is where my Old Town Predator PDL comes in handy. My trek my past few trips out has been over 5 miles round trip and only two lights I’ve found have produced. Lights that stayed on all winter previous years and also yielded some nice fish but have not been on at all this winter.. So having the PDL has really proved beneficial to be able to cover water to find other lights. Finding that pattern of when the dock owner leaves the lights on and when they turn them off can really help keep you from wasting a trip as well. A great place to start is around marinas. They usually have lights on the boat and sometimes you can find someone that has put out a bait light. Also, if you know a dock owner, then you should really give them a call and ask them to leave their dock lights on for you on the nights you decide to fish.
The last thing I will cover, but is definitely the thing that should always be your first thought when hitting the water, is safety. At the minimum, make sure your vessel has the proper lighting to be legal, but a 360 light, and a powerful spotlight is something you should always have. I have a strip of U/V lights made by YakLights, and other boaters would have a hard time not seeing those. Late fall and winter means water temps are dropping, even if you have a warm night, getting turned over in the cold water is not something anyone wants to do. So you really need to make sure you are prepared. A dry suit is something to really think about if you are fishing water temps of 50’s and below and you should be wearing your PFD at all times when on the water.