Night trolling

[John Miller]

When I night troll I often wonder "should I fish my lures higher in water and if so how high off bottom or how far from surface.  Or, should I keep bottom contact like I do during the day."  Any thoughts ion this discussion are appreciated.

[Tony Scime]

Scott has good advice. Your line should always be over, and not under, the motor. Simply hold your rod up high.

[Brett Cournoyea]

I've had success both up and down current.

I rarely catch fish on a bait that works well for me up river and try to run it down. 

I generally will change to a slower action deep diving bait and head down through the deeper water.

Reaching depths down river takes a lot less line out, giving you some great control.

A bait with a very large lip will allow you to creep down river with the current and have your bait in the strike zone.

I like to use these large wobbling baits and do turns on the structure to give the fish a look at the side of the bait. 

Some bait colours produce a lot better at night than others, these colours seem to transfer from one bait to another for me.

Fishing the same spot over and over is one technique, fishing for active fish is another, my success rate has doubled since I chose one over the other

[John Miller]

Well you have given me alot to think about, but now I feel as though I have more questions since reading you post Brett.  Which colors seem to produce best at night and do you have better success working a spot over and over or looking for active fish?  I have probably 20 hrs in at night and only one musky.  I most searcyhed for active fish, but definately worked promising areas as well.  With only one fish caught on OB perch its hard to say I have a pattern. 

[Tony Scime]

I wouldn't fish one spot over and over. But you should have a milk-run of 4 or 5 spots you can work over the night. I may visit that spot twice in a given night (depending on how much time I have).

I haven't had any time after dark this year, so I don't know how things are at night this year. But it seems guys have caught some decent fish trolling - larger than daytime trolling. And most have been up or cross current.

There are a lot of things you can try. All I know is that what I've done in the past has been really productive for me, Dave Melfi, Jon MacSwan, and others. I'm hesitant to do much different for very long.

Like I said before, I like to keep things simple. I don't think color really matters (but hot perch, firetiger, gold and black, white, or black all work well). Troll across and up deep edges and holes and do a few figure 8s over prime areas.

Troll downstream if it works for you. Works daytime, but has never been my preferred method at night, even though I have caught fish doing it.

[Scott Kitchen]

I think for reasons unknown to me musky are sometimes near bottom and sometimes higher in the water column.  I like to troll near bottom night time or day time as I have had so many occasions where I bang off the bottom and then have a fish on.  I have also caught fish higher in the water column.  I have caught them cross current, upstream and down, but spend most of my time trolling down stream.  I work edges and make sweeping s curves in areas where I think that might help.  I am going to try doing figure 8s over known hot spots this year and see how many come in each section of the figure 8 (upstream, downstream and cross current). 

[Scott McKee]

The best way to catch fish at night is to fish at night.

[Scott Kitchen]

That works for daytime fish as well ;-)

[Capt. Larry D. Jones]

The key to night trolling for muskies is fishing know food shelves.Fish move in to feed and move back out,if your not there when they move in you can't catch them.I spent many years fishing the nights on the Upper Niagara River,most were spent trolling the same spot for as many as 8 hours.Back in 1998 I caught 97 muskies from one food shelf between 11:00 pm and 2:00 am trolling Hi-Fin Trophy Divers Jtd in Black & Pink cross current placing lures behind structure.I also troll slower at 2.5 to 3.0 mph,with lures just off bottom,always across current or upstream.The best time is the New Moon(darkside) or the period before the moon rises after sunset or before the sun rises after moon drop.65-68 degree water temp was always the most productive time to be on the water at night for me.

[Joe Z.]

All this talk of food shelves is making me hungry. I'm going lunch .

[Capt. Larry D. Jones]

Joe,If you go to the Grapevine Restuarant you can watch the fish swimin as you have a specialty fish sandwitch!

[Capt. Larry D. Jones]

Going out thursday night with one of my old night trolling friends,Tommy Rienhardt for a few passes on the Triangle and the Beaver Island Beach Run.Will report back how we did.Might even dig out the old Pikie Minnow 2600 series with Alex Drew bends in Horned Ace color for this trip.