Night Fishing Walleyes

Night Fishing Walleyes


Night Fishing Walleyes – Tips and Techniques

By Terry L Alexander

Night fishing walleyes is tougher than fishing them in the daytime. Nothing surprising about that as it’s just harder to see when you’re fishing at night. Don’t let that stop you though.

I’ve caught lots more bigger fish just after sunset than I have during the full sun of daytime. Walleyes are probably the fish most fished for at night, up north. Probably bass or crappies down south.

Fall is, to me, the absolute best time for night fishing walleyes.

The water has started to cool quite a bit and the prey fish that walleyes feed on have moved in closer to shore in most fishing lakes.

The walleyes know winter is coming and go on a feeding spree before the good fishing lakes freeze over.

For night shore fishing walleyes I used live bait about 99% of the time.

Casting was just to much guess work when fishing from shore. Considering I was fishing walleyes it was very rocky and snag filled where I fished.

Live bait and lighted bobbers worked very well for night fishing. One of the things that may surprise you the most about shore fishing at night is the fact that you don’t have to cast out very far at all.

Walleyes see very well in the dark and some nights you can actually see their eyes reflecting light from flashlights.

We made sure to be at the lake every fall starting around Oct. 1st. Never before the first freeze of the year.

Anyway, after a few overnight lows below 32 degrees we’d get to the lake just before sundown, get baited up and start fishing.

The frogs would be migrating into the lake and when we’d shine the spotlight out about 20-25 feet from shore, the depth was only about 2 feet, you could see the walleyes lined up should to shoulder and facing shore, just waiting for the frogs to come to them.

Kinda like the people at at a good buffet line in Vegas.

The walleyes weren’t picky about what they bit on. Anything that was alive and wiggled would catch walleyes. We used live minnows around 3-4 inches long and lighted bobbers.

Just a simple lighted bobber, a couple of split shot and the hook tied directly to the end of the line. I’ve also used fluorescent lures at night with a good deal of success.

The trick is to keep them glowing and I accomplished that by using the flash from an old 110 camera. It would make those lures really glow. You see, it’s not the length of time exposed to light, it’s the intensity of the light that makes the lures glow so bright.

One things for sure, there aren’t lots of fishermen fishing at night. Most are daytime fishing people. If you don’t like crowds grab your fishing rods and head for the better night fishing spots that you know about.

Fishing at night can be a lot of fun and night walleye fishing can be great. You’ll probably have a better night catch than you do in the daytime.

I’ve been fishing for over 60 years and I’ve learned a lot of little tricks and tips during that time.

If you want to catch big fish check out this article I wrote on Northern Pike Techniques. You might also like my blog at Freshwater Fishing Tips. It’s full of tips and tricks you can use to catch more fish.


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