night fishing

eddieb

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Mar 17, 2017
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Lenoir N.C.
Do any of you use jigs at night , if you do what would be a good color ,or would a rubber bodie like a curly tail work better
 

Hawnjigs

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Ogallala, NE
This year I've targeted on jigs walleye, wiper, and catfish almost exclusively at night. Catches have been best ever since taking up fresh water fishing moving to Nebraska in 2014.

Since I throw jigs in the dark without accessory lighting, as previously posted a high vis white pearl Powerbait Twitchtail Minnow has been a preferred pin on jigheads. I only fish from shore, and yesterday in pre-dawn darkness got an exceptionally lucky 15 walleye most 17-21" + bonus 15# wiper. Right place and time.

Relying on feel rather than sight I prefer light as practical jigs cast on a short 5'3"ML rod & 8-10 braid for sensitivity, power, and handling.
 

eddieb

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Mar 17, 2017
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Location
Lenoir N.C.
I have used 3 inch pearl curly tails at night for with a 1/4 ounch for wippers but have tried never for crappie , thanks for the info.
 

hookup

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VA
For small mouth, anything black that moves allot of water
 

Hawnjigs

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I've always wondered about fishing black jigs at night. How do you keep the jig from slamming into the rod tip at the end of a retrieve? Or properly position a dangling jig for a cast ?
 

hookup

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I wear on of those head lamps from Petzl. Just don't turn and stare at your fishing partner or you'll blind them
 

Bucho

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Mar 29, 2013
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Kiel, Germany
Speaking of zander, I once hooked 2 nice fish in short order and tried to get the third one on film using my headlight. The result was clear, 7 more casts without fish, shut the headlight, 8th cast I was in again. We commonly agree over here that the llight will not spook them but irritate them enough to prevent bite. Zander fishing is going well here btw. I used to be very happy with the black and pink but tried chartreuse/olive this year.

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Hawnjigs

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Amazing that zander and walleye are nearly identical and native to both North American and Eastern Europe. Were they stocked in Germany?

Both species have eyes adapted to low light vision and maybe a bright light shined in their direction at night may impair their ability to track and bite a moving lure, speshly if the beam is strong enuf to "blind" "your fishing partner". Personally, I only fish for walleye in the dark and if I need to use the headlamp will turn away from the water or sometimes momentarily shine at my feet to land a fish in difficult terrain.

Hey Bucho, my best walleye this year is closing in on zander size at 33" = 84 cm.
 

Bucho

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Kiel, Germany
Hey Bucho, my best walleye this year is closing in on zander size at 33" = 84 cm.

Now that is impressive! Congrats!

Zander are only stocked privately in small club owned gravel pits and so. They are very fond of artificial waterways however and have spread further west than the Rhine where they usually lived. They even made it over into the British system of canals where they were first percieved like everything else that is new and comes from the East, but with the growing popularity of lure angling, the Angling society there seems to become more apreciative about them over time.
 
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Hawnjigs

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Yah, maybe the Brits finally realized that zander tastes better than carp ?

Speaking of tasty fish, didya ever get back to Denmark to target those giant yellow perch? Haha, everything seems to grow bigger in Europe.
 

hookup

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Yah, maybe the Brits finally realized that zander tastes better than carp ?

I keep telling the local guides they need to put packages together for the British to carp fish over here. Our rivers are full of monster carp
 

Bucho

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Kiel, Germany
The "problem" with Brits is that they live so close to the Sea and have so limited fresh water fishing possibilities that they generally don`t eat anything that does not come from the monger. Even the saltwater lure anglers often practice C&R. They love their "coarse" fishing for cyprinides and perch, generally speaking everything but salmonoids, and are very suspicious about any new predator.

You may invite them to carp fishing, but God forbid anybody does the Carp any harm while they are around- they will turn their back on the mark in despise and never come back. I am absolutely serious. That is actually an issue with respect to imigration and xhenophobia since many east european imigrants have a far more down-to-earth attitude when it comes to pickling quanteties of small, bony fish.

There are some lost forgotten ponds in East Germany where the co-operative once stocked carp for food before being liquidized. Anonymious pictures show fish up to 80lbs. No online posts, no articles, no guides, no exact information - just gigantic carp being caught and treated with maximum care once in a while. THAT would be something to make money of, but they generally do not speak too much English and are not too fond of foreigners, either.
 

Hawnjigs

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Haha, was just kidding about Brits eating carp.
"Mabel, get my bird gun, there's a commoner fishing in MY river".
Over here no one eats carp, or crow. Except Joe Tess restaurant in Omaha NE is famous worldwide for fried carp sandwiches.
Many anglers here consider carp a nuisance and dry them off on land. Gut hooked catfish also litter beaches in tourist season.
A pond with 80# carp could be lucrative indeed. Even German lure entrepreneurs may be potential customers.
 

Hawnjigs

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Carp are often the biggest fish consistently available in some locales to catch with hook n line. Jigger John has developed jigs and tekneeks to get em to bite.
 
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