Night fishing for trout w/submersible lighting

[coughie]

I can't find any threads specifically on night fishing for trout with submersible lighting so I thought I'd go ahead start one.

I'm still pretty new to night fishing for trout on lakes but here's my story,

I grew up fishing on lakes for rainbows and cant get enough of it. The guys in my family take an annual 10 day fishing trip to eastern Washington, usually somewhere in Okanogan county. (This is the only time I get to night fish due to access to most western lakes being closed during the night.) Some of us younger guys dont like going to bed early and we tend to get bored easily during the night. We decided to take up night fishing but our usual techniques didn't work so well. About 3 years ago I started my research on submersible lighting. Whenever I read about it people were usually talking about squid or crappie. Every once in a while I'd run into a post about a guy in a small boat using a car headlight glued to a piece of styrofoam. He would talk about trout circling his boat and he would c&r all night long or limit out quick. I said what the heck sounds like fun and started my search for a decent light. Seeing that I use a 45lb minkota throughout the trip and have no way of recharging my battery I started my search on lower wattage LEDs. I found a really good deal on one that has a 15' cord w/gator clips and 180 LEDs for $69. I couldn't tell you the specs because the company discontinued the product shortly after I bought it. I think it only draws around 23w but is as strong as a small halogen. Ill attach a pic. So I get out on the lake (Sorry guys, private honey hole) just after sunset and trolled on down to one of my holes next to a 10-12' boulder. I anchor up and drop the light. The water depth was about 20' and my light was at 15'. When I turned it on I could see everything in the water all the way to the bottom within a 20' radius, overkill I know, I didn't expect it to be so bright. So like they say to, I waited about 20 minutes until the plankton and bait fish moved in. Next thing I know I'm surrounded by brook trout, about 10 of them from 12-16" and a couple average rainbows. I threw my tackle box at them but I just couldn't get them to bite. Everything from flies to dough bait. I got one nibble on a prince nymph and that was it. The next day I made a trip to the store and got some red wigglers. Best investment I made on that trip! That night I went to the same spot and did the same thing but this time I dropped wigglers. My cousin and I had limited in about an hour. The only way we were getting them to bite was by threading half of a red wiggler on a #6-8 bait hook with 4lb fluoro leader and letting it naturally drift down with its own weight. With the light you could watch the fish take the worm as it dropped so you didn't have to rely on feel. I would do it by hand. Using a bait feeder reel with a 2 drag system I would set my rod in the rod holder on ultra light drag and let the line down slowly by hand and set the hook by hand (helps a ton when jigging the worm). Then I would grab my rod, switch to my main drag (about 0.75lb) and retrieve the fish. The only time I did this with bait is when I wanted to keep the fish for eating. They tend to swallow it to often and I don't like the idea of releasing fish that were baited. At the end of that trip there was on big beastly brook that wouldn't even take the worms and I was determined to catch him. After trying everything I had I turned to my cousins tackle. Most everything he had was from beginner fishing kits that he had gotten for Christmas. I said what the heck at tried one of his cheap 1" black and chartreuse skirts on a 1/16oz jig. The second that the skirt got near my light the bookie slammed it hard and peeled about 20yds of my line. I netted him after a good 5-10min fight. He was about 17" 1.5lb. Brook trout really are some beautiful fish. That's how I got started.

One of the latest trips we made was to upper Conconully lake. This is one of my favorite lakes and areas to camp/fish/hunt. I got out the first night and put my light out, the wait was on. At first I could see the bottom but after about 20 minutes I couldn't see anything, at all.. So much plankton had crowed around my boat that my visibility went to 0". bummer.. So I moved the boat and every 5 minutes or so a BIG rainbow would swim by dong like 30mph and would bounce off my light. I don't think they liked it at all. Anyone have an idea why they would do that? once again I threw my tackle box at them and all I got was one bite. On the last night there I fell asleep on my boat and woke up at sunrise surrounded by otters. The next day we went back to the last lake and limited on brooks during the night before going home. This time my uncle fallowed us. He sat on shore and tossed full night crawlers directly under my boat with a 1/4oz slip weight. He let it settle on the bottom and ended up out fishing all of us. Though I won our annual bet on the largest fish back in conconully, 21" 3lb carryover rainbow. I caught it in the early morning on a Joes Flie's trout special spinner with an 1/8oz slip weight on my mainline. Mainline was 6lb trilene sensation mono, leader was 4' of 4lb triline fluoro. I longline trolled it about 100' behind the boat at about 1.5mph.

This time around I want to explore deeper waters. I experienced the easy pickings but I want to target those big trophy rainbows\brooks\browns that I hear about people catching during the night. Now I'm also equipped with a humminbird fishingbuddy 110. I'm thinking about trying deeper water and using the fish finder to see what lurks below the light.

I'm looking for anyone who has experience with night fishing for trout on lakes to give any advice. Would it be better to fish nights with no moon or full moon? I would think they would be attracted to the only light source during no moon(mine ). Whats better, green or white light? What types of trout feed more during the night? What lures/baits have you had the most success with? What methods do you use with those lures/baits?

One thing I realized quickly is that trout are not easily spooked during the night. We were talking loudly, dropping stuff in my aluminum boat, shining our headlamps around and they would still swim around the boat all nonchalant. We would also have the occasional toad or turtle swim up to the boat. If your interested in night fishing and know some lakes well enough to safely navigate during the night then I suggest you try it. Fishing during the night compared to the day Is like night and day! lol

[iwilfish]

This just like night fishing, or any fishing for that matter. you post your thread hoping to get some info on night fishing and all you get is some guy who doesn't even know as much as you. I'm interested in it too and hope you get some guys responding that will help you learn.
It is interesting that lures and flies didn't get much of a notice. i remember reading in outdoor magazines in the 70's about night fishing where they were jigging and caught lot's of trout. It seems to me that these were multi species lakes and they would get schools of crappie and several other species around the light and the trout would circle the outskirts. this maybe would induce a mob mentality where they would hit anything because they were worried about missing out. Also I wonder if the lakes or even the spots on the lake you went to had big baitfish populations. if they didn't maybe the fish aren't used to going after minnows. Maybe finding lakes with big minnow pop's or finding areas where the minnow hang out would help.

sorry i didn't have any real info, but maybe trying to figure out the why of it will help you get where you need to.

good luck with it.

[obryan214]

my dad, sister and I used to fish Lake Sutherland at night off the floating dock that used to be in front of Maple Grove, the one attached to the logs surrounding the swimming area if anybody else remembers. we would just have a propane coleman lantern and drop small peices of worm to the bottom and reel up a couple cranks for alot of kokanee. back then it was a bonus lake with a pretty big limit on kokes and it seemed to my 30 or so year old memories that we'd fill the bottom of the boat. we'd get some rainbows and the occasional big cuthroat also.
never knew exactly how deep or if the lantern was really helping but i'd imagine it was drawing plankton which brought the kokes and trout.

[coughie]

My bookie honey hole had only a couple minnows, It's a small lake. The brooks were eating any bug that would swim around the light with the plankton. I'm talking small bugs, maybe 5 times the size of plankton. I couldn't tell you what the bugs were. Some of them looked like small white millepedes while others looked like really tiny shrimp. I bought some scud flies to try out this year. I'm not much of a fly fisherman, I just started a year ago.

Upper Conconully lake has minnows. I would have about 20 circle my light but the trout weren't going after them. It seemed to me that the fish were scared of my light. I was camped way up on the northeast end of the lake though, kind of away from the main population of fish. I was a bit weary about motoring down the big lake at night. This year I'll go where the fish are. There is one spot where water flows in and should have lots of oxygen. I want to try around there next time.

Lanterns work great for shore or dock fishing. They can pump out some pretty bright light and with clear waters it will penetrate pretty far. Worms seem to be the number one bait during the day and night. Personally I'm trying to stay away from baits these days so I can release the little guys w/o it counting as part of my limit. Though if I run into a school of kokanee with my light you know I'll use worms and limit out asap! I cant get enough smoked kokanee..

Thanks for the quick replies my fellow fishermen

[sickbayer]

Great post! This sounds a lot of fun, gonna have to give it a go this year.

[Bodofish]

I'm thinking you're talking about the upper lake. If you're camped at the end of the lake, I'd be afraid of the rocks running at night. If you have a jet, not such a big deal but there are big, really big rocks just under the surface at that end of the lake. Fish..... In my experience most or all of the big fish are caught down at the dam end of the lake. I've caught some nice bows but seen some huge bows and browns taken between the launch and the dam. If I was going to night fish, that's where it would be at. Maybe try some of the mini glow sticks, down by your lure or bait. Other than fishing the dam and me fishing for trout, all I've seen people fish for is bass along the eastern shore.

[coughie]

Yes, I'm talking about the upper lake. I remember back about a decade ago the water was so low you couldn't get around the boulders. Lucky for me every time I've camped at the end of the lake, the water level was high enough for me not to worry about the boulders. The best part was that I could launch my boat from there w/o paying any dock fees. But recently they removed the outhouse from the single campsite and put big rocks across the entrance.. Usually I'll fish the narrow upper half of the lake and I always catch some decent rainbows and really nice kokanee. This lake is full of bass, you cant miss them. I'd throw a plastic craw or worm in any direction and catch one. Last year I saw a HUGE bass swimming around the shallows but I wasn't experienced enough to entice him to bite. You say there are browns in the upper lake? I have yet to catch one there. I've heard that they're one of the easier trout to catch during the night. That is my next destination for night fishing. Id like to go near the dam where the water comes in and drop my light. Here is a pic of the trout and kokanee we pull from the upper lake. This rainbow was 19". It appears that the fish are bigger each year. When I was younger we would average 10-12" bows. Now my average is around 16"+, you know, this big. It could be me getting better but I think not. I usually don't see many people on the upper lake so I think it's under fished. Then again I'm never around during the trout derby.

[Bodofish]

That's about the class of bows I've caught there. I much prefer the upper lake to the res, even though both lakes are reservoirs. Browns are very wary feeders but they are in there, I haven't tried night fishing but I'll bet it would be good. I've seen Bows and Browns in the 4 to 6 pound range taken near the dam and unfortunately I got the low down on them my last day there. It's a long drive but it'd be a nice trip, gotta make it out again.

[sickbayer]

Yes we do Matt!

[MarkFromSea]

Really Good Thread! Wish I had something to add. Worm is hard to beat! Maybe tie it up drop shot style, let the weight stay on the bottom and make the worm dance essentially weightless just off the bottom.

I have done ok with those smaller cats at night, no light though.

[coughie]

I'll be sure to add anything I can come up with in the future along with reports the next time I go out. For instance, Anytime I put a salmon/steelhead egg in the water next to my light, the trout would sniff it and swim away every time. I not only tried my own steelhead roe but I tried pink salmon roe I hod gotten from a friend. I used a single egg on a small red egg hook. Would it be better to use such bait during fall months?

A word of warning to my fellow conconully fisherman. I ran into my first rattlesnake on the shore of the upper lake last year. Watch your step. I wasn't and nearly stepped right on it. It was about 20" and didn't rattle its tail at all, so I had no warning. Even after I scared it off it still didn't rattle. I found it to be very unnerving.

[Bodofish]

Hahahahahaha yeah, that's snake country and when it warms up there's a bunch and being up in the woods there are some really big ones!! I just make a point to walk slowly and make plenty of noise, they're really very timid creatures. If they feel you approaching they'll normally move off. It's really a bonus to get to see such a beautiful creature.

[iwilfish]

unless its fastened to your ankle when you see it.

[coughie]

Hey all! I know I'm late with this update, but hey, it's better than nothing right?

We made our way back over the cascades to the beautiful town of Conconully, Washington on July 9th. We camped out on the northeast end of the upper lake until the temperature (104F) forced us to pack up and head home on the 15th. When we got to our usual spot there were two guys fishing from shore that just so happened to be local guys from the west side. We go there to get away from the chaos of the west but it was nice to have met them.

Of course, the first night (7/9) I packed everything into the boat that I needed to stay on the water until dawn. This time around I was armed with a cheap but effective fishinbuddy 110. Around 12am I worked my way down the lake until I started to mark larger fish then tossed the concrete filled folgers can and my light. I'd say I was about 100yds from the end of the lake at about 20-25' depth. I was about twice as far out as I was last year when the fish wouldn't come around. This time my light was 10-15' off the bottom. I used the same technique I used the previous year too, non-weighted red wigglers on a #6 bait hook. First I would wait until the plankton and baitfish crowded the light. Then I would hang over the side of the boat and watch the worm slowly descend towards the light and set the hook by hand when I saw a fish inhale it. The only difference was I would wait until my fishinbuddy beeped before I dropped my worm. I had the alarm set to the largest fish setting. After a couple hours there were always a few fish on screen until dawn. It wasn't spectacular fishing but by dawn I had my limit of bows anywhere from 14-18".

The next day I cooked up most of the bows and we pigged out like kings. I waited a couple of nights before I went back out night fishing so I could spend time with my family during the day. During that time I C&R'd bass from shore. I caught more of a sunburn than I did bass, but it was fun and I learned more about how bass behave. The bass are small but there are some big schools in there. My uncle and I decided to keep and cook our biggest LM bass because we've never tried bass before. They were about 12" and to my surprise mighty tasty. I was twitching a vintage silver plug on the surface and he was swimming a rubber frog along the shoreline.

Anyways, back to the night fishing.

The second night I spent on the water (7/12) was when things started to pick up. I started earlier so I could navigate easier during twilight hours. I went about 250yds out and my fish finder went off and marked 4 big fish in a row. I anchored up and dropped my light. The water was about 30' deep. I waited until the fish stayed within range of the fish finder. Again, I went with the usual wiggler and #6. This time I didn't do it by hand I just fished normally going by feel. I just made sure to keep my eyes on the fish finder to know when to adjust my depth. After catching 2 bows right off the bat, I hooked into a Kokanee. It fought really well and even did some jumping. When I got it into the boat I realized It was the biggest Kokanee I've ever caught. About an inch bigger than the pic I posted from my previous trip. I have no pics of it because I didn't have my phone with me on the water until the last night. At that point I got really excited. It was about 2am and my fish finder was beeping about every 10 seconds. I switched to baitless gear so I could C&R in hopes that I could weed out more Kokanee. At this point the plankton was crowded around so much that I couldn't see but 3' around the light. This time I didn't worry about it because I had a fish finder. I immediately tied on a 1/16oz jig with a white skirt. I was marking fish at 15-25' so I dropped the jig to 20'. If I saw a larger fish on the screen I would adjust my depth according. I would pop my jig up about 2" thrice then about 12" once then let it drop. I would repeat that side to side next to the boat. I was getting hit after hit but with such a small hook and little experience vertical jigging, I was having a hard time setting the hook. I ended up C&R'ing a few medium sized bows. I tried green, black and glow in the dark skirts with the same outcome. I called it quits just before dawn.

The third and final night I went out was the best night. It was the last night we stayed in Conconully (7/14). With my stories of success I managed to talk my father into going out on the water with me. Again, I headed out during twilight hours for ease of navigation. While trolling the day before, I found a spot that bottlenecks the fish. I made my way over to that spot and marked big fish along the way. When I got there I landed on a school. We were about 500yds from the end of the lake in 31' of water. I dropped my anchor and light. Withing a few minutes we had a school of fish circling the boat and it only got better through the night. I was marking fish consistently at 15-30', one after another. I had to turn the alarm on my finder off because it got annoying. This time I grabbed one of those cheap larger jig n skirts from a starter kit I spoke about last time. 1/8oz jig, black body with a chartreuse skirt. My father started off with a wiggler on a #6. The minute we got our lines wet we both hooked a fish. Mine spit the jig and I netted my fathers fish for him. When his was chained we went right back at it and once again, immediately we both hooked fish! I got mine to the surface and it was a medium bow so I pulled the hooked and he swam away unharmed. My father was catching the big guys, this one was 18" and he chained it asap. This is when my father got a big smile on his face and decided to watch me for a while. I switched to a 4" unscented pink Steelhead worm with a #4 octopus hook. I would cast out equal to the depth I wanted and let it settle. The trout were hitting it really hard. I must've C&R'd 20 nice bows within an hour. Then I switched back to the jig and I hooked into decent Kokanee. It fought like a champ pulling line and flying through the air. It wouldn't give up. It jumped and splashed us with water many times before I couldn't wait any longer and had my father net it. I was worried it would spit the hook because it was fighting so hard. It was a good thing I had my drag set really low. It was a really nice Kokanee. Once I chained it I put my jig back in the water and hooked another Kokanee immediately. This one was even bigger. I got carried away, fought it too hard and it spit the jig out at my face.. I was still a happy camper. I was clapping, hooting and hollering. Not only was I catching a lot of fish but my dad was happy just watching me have as much fun as I was. That alone was worth the trip. I'm glad I had the chance to share it with him. He stayed on the water with me and continued fishing until 4am. He tried the pink worm setup, got his limit of 16"+ bows and was ready to hit the hay. I dropped him off at camp and went back out for the remainder of the night. I caught a couple more rainbows before it got light out then did a lap of the entire lake to soak in the scenery before heading home. The battery for my Minnkota died right as I got back to camp. I had to row 50'. The funny part is the whole time I could've swapped batteries with the van when making trips to keep a charge.. I didn't think about it until we went home.

A few thoughts and some stuff I've learned. My rope for my anchor is only 40' and i was using a Minnkota, so my range was limited. I stayed on the upper half of the lake while night fishing again. Next time out I'd like to have a 75-100' rope and a spare battery so I can explore deeper waters. I'd also like to get a longer cord for the light. Make sure you have your light next to your anchor line so you can finesse the fish away from them. If not you have higher chance of a fish wrapping your line around either the rope or cord. In waters deeper than the depth of the light, the fish will stay under the light. Every once in a while one will come up to the light but drop right back down. The bulk of the plankton and baitfish will also stay under the light. As you can see in the picture, the bottom half of the screen is black on the fish finder. It went black a couple hours after dropping the light. You can see the light marked at 11'. The Kokanee really liked the black and chartreuse jigs. I'm thinking about trying little hoochies on an 1/8oz jig next time. Once you get onto a school, you will catch a lot of fish and the bows will bite just about anything. Even a small hook with a single peace of shoepeg corn. If you use bait on a school, plan to be done fishing within the hour. I never felt the need to use my two pole endorsement the entire time night fishing. I was catching more than enough fish with one pole. Sometimes the bats will hit your line and give you a false bite. I had many bats circling the boat because the 360 stern light was attracting a lot of bugs. Whenever I turned on my headlamp I would get swarmed by bugs and even had a bat bounce off my head a couple times. I never once tried to be quiet. I was louder than ever this trip and I never once scared a fish away during the night. One bonus to night fishing is not a soul on the lake. But when people drove by they would stop and cheer me on and/or compliment my tactics. The road is about 30' above the water so they must've had quite a view with the water lit up. I almost think fishing with submersible lighting in freshwater should be illegal, almost. In the mean time, I'll take full advantage and make some stories.

[Bodofish]

You could do 1/32oz jig with a little rubber skirt, any color. I like the root beer ones. Other than that, I think you're pretty much in the right spot. If I remember right there's the outlet from the lake that's sort of a box type affair about equal distant from the boat ramp and the end of the lake, right in the middle. That's where I've caught my biggest fish. The guys fishing from shore at night were catching some big browns on worms. cast way out as close as they could get to the outlet.

[coughie]

I know exactly where you're talking about. I've caught many bows from shore there when I was younger. lol I would actually stand on the "box type affair" while fishing. I wouldn't bother shore fishing during the night there. It's too steep, one misstep and you're going down, fast. Next year I will make sure to work that end of the lake during the night via boat. That has been the number one spot I think of. I think I actually have some 1/32 jigs and skirts. Nothing in a root beer or brownish color though. Now I'm itching. It's too bad the lake is closed and it's 14F degrees right now in Conconully.

[whorde]

Great report. Thanks for posting. I was wondering how I would make it through the winter not being able to fish after work cuz it was dark.