Night Fishing?

[ChinCheck]

I recently did some night fishing, and was just curious can fish see in the water in the dark or do they just smell the bait. The reason i am asking is i was using white jigs and had no bites. I switched to green power bait and had bites immediatly. If anyone knows let me know.
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[road]

Chin most fish use all of their senses to find prey/food. Some see very well (trout) while others don't (catfish). They have senors (if you will) along their heads and sides depending on species. That allow them to smell, snese movement, vibrations, ect in the surronding waters. Night fishing is a lot like day fishing ...... you have to offer what they want. Now this is just my experence and I am by far no night fisherman.
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[Curtisfish]

As far as I know, all freshwater species can see to some degree in the dark. Some such as Walleye can see very well and others, such as Channel Cats, do not see very well at all. My experience would suggest that trout seem to smell or hear/feel their way within visual distance and then decide to strike or not. In fishing the Green River at night the first week of December last year, the bite did pick up after the full moon came up, but we had already caught plenty of fish before that on jointed raps. I had on a floater for a while, and in some of the pools, I was topwater fishing for trout. I've done very well with a jig for Browns in Starvation at night also. Some days on the Gorge, adding a light stick to a jig can increase strikes dramatically. I do prefer using something that makes a little noise or vibration at night. I'm sure that someone else will have a lot better info than I do. Just thought I'd chime in.
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[aquaman]

when night fishing with lures you want to use black lures at night. The reason being when a fish looks up they will see the outline of your lure aganst the "glow" of the water above. where as white blends in.Something to keep in mind

aquaman
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[addicted2fishin]

To give a different opinion (albeit amature), I have never had any luck night fishing at all until this past summer. I have tried several different colors, etc. Then this last summer we were out on my boat and switched to the glow tube jigs I had for ice fishing. We started doing extremely well with that. (we were out in the middle of Strawberry)
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[muskyhunter]

I have cought several macks at Bear Lake, jigging at night in 65-90ft.M.H.
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[Hellsangler69]

I don't know if color is a key at night , maybe glow helps . At the Berry I slayed them one night on white paddle bug . I think movement and vibration is more important . I still don't claim to be a expert on night fishin by no means . I caught a 7.5 lbs walleye in june on the Provo and all I did was cast a floating rapala on the water and just let it sit there with no action . I sure the splash is what brought it up to check it out and hit it . Flies I use at night are muddlers and big stones (wet) with rubber legs on rivers .The rubber legs I feel send out vibrations . I fished the Berry at ice out at night once . Boy that was nuts but the fish were hitting good on leech patterns . I am from Kansas and we always fished for catfish at night . Never tried for them in the daytime . I guess they use some sense to seek pray out at night . I caught a few trout on the Green and Provo that are blind and they don't seem to be hurtin on feed .Fish like trout have latteral lines to find food, but they can smell too .Ok that my 2 cents I'll quit now .
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[PREDATOR]

Theres some very good info here, in my mind the best point being that sight is not always as important as we may think. And second, the species of fish targeted will play a big role. As mentioned, active fish at night will depend on species. Predator fish that have an advantage over they prey at night will be active. There have been tons of studies done on the activity levels of various fish at night. Some species become active, some just rest on the bottom until light penetrates the water again enough for them to move about and hunt safley and effectivley. But if you do go out at night there has been some good info posted, if you can enhance the fishes ability to see the lure, backlighting, or enhanced light from a lure, and if you can give the fish some scent, and some noise to help locate the lure, your odds will increase.
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[southernman]

you know those 'night bobby' floats with the l.e.d. light in them they sell at wal-mart? . . my brother and I used to use those at night pond jumpin in florida, with 6-8 inch shiners, going for bucketmouths . . the shiner takes it for a good ride to begin with, but there was nothing like seeing that sucker start going 20 mph across a pond and then slowly descend . .too cool!



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