| Walleye Fishing At Night by Mark Tim
Fleagle
First off, walleye fishing at night
can be one of the most rewarding night fishing trips you will ever do if
you follow some simple , but very important set up rules . It has been my
experience, to catch much bigger walleyes at night then during the day.
Walleye are very active at night and it is their primary feeding time.
During the day you need to very selective with your bait and your method
to catch fish. At night you do not have to be as precise. The main reason
is Walleyes are night feeders! When fish are feeding they will hit on just
about anything that is native to their normal food source. Also you do not
have to contend with any sunlight factors, walleye have very sensitive
eyes, as a result at night this is not a factor. Also the fish you catch will be much
bigger, lets face it older and
bigger fish are much wiser.
Before
we get into anymore detail specific to walleye we need to address the
cardinal rules of night fishing, proper lighting, proper submerged
illumination devices, tackle organization, insect repellant and
chumming setup. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of these 4
for night fishing. I will not discuss the
insect repellant but bring some along bugs really nasty at night
especially when using the lanterns
PROPER NIGHT
FISHING LIGHTING
I recommend a minimum of
two propane lanterns minimum of a single mantle preferably two mantels.
One lantern needs to be extended outside the boat and the other inside
your boat. I recommend having 4 battery lights with you. These are
essential for emergency situations and just in case your lanterns
malfunction. You would be surprised how quickly this can happen. My son
and I were out on our last night fishing trip for catfish and it was very
windy and our lanterns ended up in the lake, good thing we had are battery
lanterns for backup. You can pick the lanterns up at any wall mart, or any
sporting goods store I always see them in the camping section. Also
Cabela’s has a nice selection (that's where I purchase them
from)
PROPER NIGHT
FISHING SUBMERGED ILLUMINATION DEVICES
(what?)
A good submerged ILLUMINATION device basically
creates a massive swarm of feeding fish in any fishing spot by first
attracting small organisms called "zooplankton" to your spot. Next it
attracts the native bait fish in the area by the hundreds - which soon
brings the game fish swarming to the area. It is a scientific way of
creating a food chain feeding frenzy in your spot, and it has proven to
catch more fish for many different
types of fishermen in both
saltwater and freshwater. I use (2) illumination devices that are 5ft
in length. too get started i would recommend purchasing only one. They are
attached to both sides of my boat . Click here to see what I use.
(also we are going to talk about the planner board set up later.
PROPER NIGHT
FISHING TACKLE
ORGANIZATION
before you go out for your night fishing
trip it is important to lay out the tackle and artificial baits
you want to use organized so the are easy to get to when
the sun goes down. For example if i plan going on a night fishing
walleye trip i always pre-set up all my fishing poles with a leader, and
night crawler harness already set up and ready to put in the water. i do
this for (4) night fishing poles. I also have extra tackle rigs all
assembled all i have to do is open the leader clip slip my pre-made rigs
on if i loose tackle, trust me this will save you a ton of time and
aggravation at night.
PROPER NIGHT
FISHING CHUMMING SET UP
Chumming and why it
works
Walleye rely on their senses at night to find and hone in on
their prey. They must either "sense" wounded prey moving or smell the
food. You can still catch good size walleye at night without chumming ,
but it has been my experience when you do chum in combination with the
night illumination devices the walleye get in a feeding frenzy.
Well
you guessed it! that is where the chumming comes in.
Here's how i do
it: Get your self a small mesh bag with small openings that you can close
with a string. Cut you dead bait up into small pieces and place in the
bag. (i always cut up about 10 chubs or bluegill's into small pieces and
put the chum in a a plastic storage bag and let them sit for a
couple of hours before i go out night fishing. Then i empty the storage
contents into my meshed bag. I use a 5lb weight that hangs from the bottom
of the bag and a line at the top of the bag and then lower the bag into
the water next to my illumination device. I also scatter all the blood
remains on top of the water to create a "slick" for the Catfish to smell.
YOU WILL BE AMAZED how this attracts fish. With the combination of the
illumination light click here to see the one I use.
and the chum
you will get allot of action in about 20 to 60
min.
There are many, many
methods to catch walleyes at night, but the one I do best at is using a
planer board system. You can make this entire system at home and save
quite a few bucks or you can purchase from Cabela’s or any marina that
caters to fisherman. I will identify a few places later in the article.
Planer board basics: (see illustration right below)
first i want to discuss the equipment you need to
have
#1 you need planer boards click here to see a simple patern you can make
yourself
#2 you need 2 planer board realer units
click here to see what they look like mine are from
cabela's
#3 you need at least 4 clip assemblies
click here to see what they look like mine are from
cabela's
#4 you need at least 4 rod holders
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