not really a tip, just a comment... I have a hard time staying away from sand bass at night, so any help yall might have on that would be helpful. Also, not sure many on here have much advice for ice fishing, but we may all be surprised.

Use good line because all those limits of 3 pounders you will catch ................ j/k lol. No really id have to say allways come prepared because things get more difficult after dark.

IMHO...
Time? Anytime you can go
Full Moon? Best under lights when the moon is dark
Bank vs Boat? BOAT!
Live bait?
Aritiical bait? Dark colors either with or without blade (Roadrunner or plain jigs)
Black Lights? Helpful in the boat
Cap Lights? Mine has 6 LED's
Types of fish? Crappie ONLY!
Depths? Seasonal. Now, 15-25 ft with fish suspended
Docks? ? ?
Ice fishing? Only on the North end of Palestine
Bass?
Crappie? ABSOLUTELY!
Walleyes?
Stripers?
Other equipment; DW MUST HAVE NATY LITE's

i dont know about that one

Just curious why the black lights

Black light are used inside the boat for seeing
Line tying
and more

Here are more details (Click here..Black Lights)

Good thread Bob and

I have never been night fishing but Allan promised to take me this summer. You better take some notes man...

Wont be long...

Time? Set up 1 hr before dark. Then kick back, drink a beer or two until it gets dark enough to hang the lights.
Full Moon? I've done well on high light illumination nites as well as low light illumination nights.
Bank vs Boat? Boat on a deep stump.
Live bait? yes...couple dozen minnows.
Aritiical bait? yes, jigs.
Black Lights? No.
Cap Lights? Head lamp is a must; just don't be blinding your fishing partners.
Types of fish? Prefer crappie, but I usually run a 60/30/10 percent ratio of crappie/sandy/catfish.
Depths? 15-20
Docks? no
Ice fishing? you kidding?
Bass? Fun on light crappie tackle; but still trash fish when its said and done.
Crappie? Yes
Walleyes? What's a walleye?
Stripers? I wish.
Other equipment: AM/FM radio if there's a Rangers game on.
Etc: Be prepared to stay late if the bite is on. Also, bring bug
juice if there's no wind.

Time? Summer Middle of the day with the Bimini Top up. There is only one place for them to be. deep in structure (25 ft plus).
Full Moon? Helps me move around better. Down below we still need some light.
Bank vs Boat? Definitely boat, Snakes got the bank covered and I don't do Snakes--I'm just sayin
Live bait? Medium Shiner Minnows
Aritiical bait? White and Chartruse and Or Black and Chartruse Jig @1/8 & 1/6.
Black Lights? Never Tried
Cap Lights? Never Tried
Types of fish? Crappie Striper, Sand Bass, Catfish On different Occasions.
Depths? Variable according to fisha and water Temp.
Docks? For Black Bass and Crappie---I do fish for Perch also Sometimes.
Ice fishing? Never Tried
Bass? Yes
Crappie? Yes
Walleyes? Never Tried
Stripers? Yes
Other equipment Yes

Spool your reels with Fluorescent Mono filament line
Black light will make the line glow and look like the size of pencil. Some of
the popular brands are Berkley which makes a great flame green fire line
florescent line that works well with black light night fishing as well.

The reason this particular line works so well is that the florescent coloring is
not painted on the line, but rather is chemically mixed into the actual line
during production, which means the color lasts much longer than other
brands.

#6
Choosing The Best Fishing Times

There really is nothing complicated about this at all; it's just a matter of knowing
ahead of time exactly when the sun and moon will rise and set. Fish are most active
during 90-minute windows surrounding each of these four daily events; that's 45
minutes before and after these four daily points......

Moon calendar for 1930 to 2020..to increase your fishing limits

Tip #7
Pre-tie enough leaders and rigs to last you the entire night trip. Reason you will get lot of hang ups as opposed to daylight fishing.

Get one of these. You'll be amazed at how well they actually work for all kinds of bugs. Doesn't work as well if you're moving around a bunch but if you're fishing one spot you'll notice a huge difference after 15-20 minutes of it being on.

http://www.mosquitorepellent.com/

Night fishing game fish are less weary as compared to daylight fishing because they can't see your line.

Attracting GAME FISH at night, fishing becomes a matter of either or:
1.)Smell of food (chum line) or bait scents.
2.)Movement of shad gathering around source of light.

Experiment reflection
Light & water test
Take a flashlight at night stand on the shore line point the beam at 45 degree
and the light will bounce off the water upwards into the trees.

The reason for this is light is reflected water not being unobstructed. Very small
amount light will be absorbed by the water itself in this test.

Reflection underwater
Same effect will happen in reverse with submersible fishing lights. The rays
will bounce off underneath the water surface and particles floating in the water
and boat downward into the water.
Creating a mushroom effect. Adding more rays of light

Submersible fishing lights
have been proven to be more effective, so when shopping for
fishing lights give it deep consideration for submeriable lights.

Above Water Lantern Lights
Have an are being used, but gas & flames are not the best idea!

Awesome thread!

Great thead! Do you offer discounts to fellow TFFers?

Thankyou for the nice comment
To answer your question
Free shipping (Runs about $6.00-$8.00 depending on location)
Offering FREE LED cap light $6.95

You subtract those two items making the light about $34.00
There is not much room to add additonal discount and stay in business.

iphone users -

Good app is the "Fishing Calendar" by SIS - show solar and lunar phase, best days and times of those days for fishing, expected sunrise and sunset times, expected moonrise and moonset times, Moon overhead time, and moon phase %. I've been using it and it's fairly accurate.

Another good app is the free Google Earth map, with GPS tracking, satellite terrain type view option and pan/zoom etc. You can save your map views for future reference, with GPS coordinates included.

Time? 6am
Full Moon? it makes me crazy
Bank vs Boat? boat
Live bait? you gotta eat sometime
Aritiical bait? yes
Black Lights? Who doesn't like to to party?
Cap Lights? I dont wear a caps
Types of fish? living
Depths? 1-32'
Docks? shoot yes
Ice fishing? Im a Texan damn it
Bass? cut bait
Crappie? 100%
Walleyes? is that a fish?
Stripers? I thought you said strippers

Tip:
When fishing with submersible fishing lights for the lights to be most effective should be about 2' depth.
This gives the light a chance to reflect and bounce the rays off the underside of the water back down.

To maintain 2' foot depth use a snap ring on your electrical cord, attach 2" bobber........works great!

(freshwater fishing) crappie eyes are built in the top of their heads and they are always looking up.
Therefore makes sense to have the light above the game fish.

Help your light attract bait fish
by adding a chumming bag on your
light or near the light.

Would suggest a small bag about
the size 2" x 2" so as not to
overburder the light with weight.

Fill the bag with cotton, add your
favorite scents, or dry dog food etc.

That's an interesting idea. What kind of bag do you use as the chum bag?

I have found this tip very very helpful... Go to an army surplus store. Buy a bunch of those crack and glo sticks. Find a good brush pile. Tie a heavy weight on the end of the line of an old fishing reel (no pole needed). As you feed the line into the water, tie a glow stick about every 5-10 ft on the line until you reach the bottom. You will have light at all depths and you and you partners can experiment at different depths without being in each others way. IT WORKS!!!

I bought painters lamps the kind that have the clamps on em and put those high efficiency (curly) bulbs in there and point them down off the side of the boat. To run them I bought a DC to AC converter and since i don't use my TM much night fishing I use it's Deep Cycle. It runs them all night long I think the painters lamps were like 6-8 bucks. When you need light in the boat just turn one around and light your whole boat up. The converter was about 30 bucks I love that dang thing you can plug all sorts of stuff into it blender for margaritas, cell phone charger, TV, microwave .......... Won't run em long but it's a party while it lasts !

Good luck

------------------------------------------------------------
Question:
I'm up here in Maine, and have been thinking about ice fishing at night with a light for crappie. I'm 71, but willing to try something new :)) What do you use for batteries to power these lights? I usually don't bring any heavy batteries...just rely on my flasher and auger batteries. Any other info you could supply would be appreciated..

Answer:
8 batteries AA type equals 12 volts and will power L.E.D. Lights upwards of 20 hours with light rays to spare. Using the small batteries can cut down on weight as opposed to lugging around large car batteries. Purchase a 8 pack cell battery packthen you can either hang it around your neck or off your belt




---------------------------------------------------------------

Question for Bob Glen:
Doesn't the diode produce white light which then passes thru a green plastic which filters out all the other color wavelengths and only allows the green wavelength to pass thru to the outside? If so then that effectively lowers the light output and would make white the brighter choice.

Also how do I take advantage of this offer seen above?:

"Free shipping (Runs about $6.00-$8.00 depending on location)
Offering FREE LED cap light $6.95

You subtract those two items making the light about $34.00
There is not much room to add additonal discount and stay in business."

Question for Bob Glen:
Doesn't the diode produce white light which then passes thru a green plastic which filters out all the other color wavelengths and only allows the green wavelength to pass thru to the outside?

Answer:
Yes the LED are pure white and does pass thru a GREEN tube.

Question
If so then that effectively lowers the light output and would make white the brighter choice.

Answer:
The White light is brighter above water, but when you use Green light under water the rays pentrate the waters deeper than the White Light

Light Deflections click for details

Question
Also how do I take advantage of this offer seen above?:

Answer
"Free shipping (Runs about $6.00-$8.00 depending on location)
Offering FREE LED cap light $6.95 OUT of Cap Lights,

have been sending Crappi Candle as a bonus not as a promotion, Have about 6 crappie candles left

Bump

Just ordered a 75 led version in green, can't wait to try it out!

The description is kinda goofy but I see it's green:
Reel75- LED-White (Free shipping): "GREEN 75 LED" (Free Shipping

Hopefully a crappie candle is left :-)

You are right......about the description.......have not had time to correct it.....
been building lights.....will change it today

Yes you will get a crappi candle......being sent out today
you should have it by Friday.......if they dont hold up mail

Enjoy
bob

Awesome service thank you very much!

I really like the aspect that LED's don't burn hot. My wife pulled out a "normal" bulb fishing light from the water about a month ago and set it down inside the boat, she was in the back and I didn't realize what was going on until I smelled burning/melting plastic... Fire and boats don't mix!

I ordered my light...hope you still have some crappie Candles.

Thanks 14inchbas & Crappie Kyle
for the comments

CrappieKyle will get you a crappie candle!

The object to fishing at night is to attract zoo plankton than minnows than game fish.

To be must effective the boat should be anchored in the front and back of the boat to attract the zoo plankton.

The reason is that the boat will pivot around one anchor with the evening breeze and the zoo plankton will have a hard time staying
with the boat, thereby not allowing the minnows to school up.

When anchoring make sure that the anchor is lowered slowly to avoid scaring the game fish.

In addition avoid having the anchor disturb the brush cover, as game fish could already be located in the brush piles.

BobGlen where do you get one of those poles?

Not for sure what you are referring to. Believe you
are looking at the rope lines to the anchors??

Would going to green emitting led's have any advantage?

Well if you are going to tell someone to use a anchor at least tell them the right anchor to use. The picture of the anchors that you display are not the best anchor. The mushroom shape archor will not hold the boat in postion if there is any wind at all the boat will rock back and for and the next thing you know you are pulling the anchor thru the brush pile and some people really get up set at tearing up the brush pile. So lets try this way of teaching someone how to use a anchor. Buy a anchor that is the proper size for your boat the best type of anchor is one that looks like a ships anchor do some research go on line at Bass Pro or Cabela's (a super hooker 8 lb)but one that digs into the mug. Than get (3)ropes about 3/8" in diameter each one being of different color (easier to untangle)get 3- 100' ropes make sure you tie them to the anchor well.Now you are going to use two of the 100'ropes on the front anchor and 1- 100' rope on the back anchor. Make sure to have the anchors laid out with ropes all untangle one on the front (200') and one laid out at the back(100')watch your feet when releasing them into the water you don't need to throw them just ease it over the side. Now you are ready to anchor your boat.Next step find the outer edges of the brush pile and mark them with a buoy once you have done this move your boat into the wind trying to judge your distance from your marker about 100'away (useing the 200' rope up front)drop the anchor into the water now back your boat trying to keep in line with the buoys that is marking the brush pile. Back all the way up to the end of the 200' of rope (be sure to tie one end of the front rope off be for starting to back up)at this time turn off the motor and then drop the back anchor. Tie the back anchor rope off and go back to the front of the boat and start to pull your self with the front rope back up to your marker bouy just take your time adjusting back and for with the two anchor ropes until you have your boat position over your brush pile and tie up good and tight. Don't retrieve your markers unless they get in your way of fishing it lets you know how your boat is sitting with the brush pile all night. You might want to change boat position some times during the trip so don't move unless you just need too. Now this is the most important part of the lesson to retrieve your anchors without tearing up the brush pile that may be someone else put down for us to fish. Untie the front rope you can either just tie a floation device to the rope and just set the rope free to float which at this time it is just out of the way and frees you up retrieve the back anchor. Pull the boat all the way back to the anchor where the boat is straight over the anchor at this time either pull and work the anchor loose by hand or if it is really stuck in the mug pull all the loose rope up and tie it to the front of the boat cleat and very carfully with the boat motor push away from the brush pile untill you see the anchor turn loose belive me you will know. Very quickly retrieve the anchor and once this anchor is in the boat now go after the other anchor follow the same steps to retrieve your last anchor. Now notice I have not told you to retrieve your bouy markers this is because I want you to show the proper respect to the person that put the brush pile down the person who did all the hard work so that you could have a good fishing hole. The markers show you at all times where the brush pile are so that you keep that anchor away from the pile and not drag the anchor through the pile and mess it up. If you get caught up in a corp pile you will lose your anchor unless you go swimming. Now after you have both Anchors out of the water go get you markers and safe boating. Hope this helps

Doug

Nice work Doug, it made me want to buy a boat just to try this out!

I'm glad this thread popped back up. I've learned quite a bit from it.

-----------------------------------------------------
Answer

Using same wattage in comparison to different colors:

Any color White or Red will work "IF" light is bright enough

Green & Blue will penetrate the waters
better than white or red.

Blue will pentrated the waters upwards to 200-300 feet

As mentioned depending on wattage
Green is best for freshwater fishing
Blue is best for saltwater fishing

But many old timmers use either color



---------------------------

Credits to
Technical jargon

Light Spectrum.
Water selectively scatters and absorbs certain wavelengths of visible light. The long wavelengths of the light spectrum—red, yellow, and orange—can penetrate to approximately 15, 30, and 50 meters (49, 98, and 164 feet),

respectively, while the short wavelengths of the light spectrum—violet, blue and green—can penetrate further, to the lower limits of the euphotic zone. Blue penetrates the deepest, which is why deep, clear ocean water and some tropical water appear to be blue most of the time.

Moreover, clearer waters have fewer particles to affect the transmission of light, and scattering by the water itself controls color. Water in shallow coastal areas tends to contain a greater amount of particles that scatter or absorb light wavelengths differently, which is why sea water close to shore may appear more green or brown in color.

Read more: Light Transmission in the Ocean - river, sea, depth, oceans, percentage, important, plants, source, marine http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/La-Mi/Light-Transmission-in-the-Ocean.html#ixzz0xkHmirC4

Thanks for the reply Bob,

I think I miss worded my question. Would going to light that did not have to be filtered to get the chosen color be any more efficient or is there much loss due to the filtering. I just did not know if there is much loss at all from the color filter.

I like the chart, it is really nice and easy to understand.

Filming and doing photography underwater for a four decades, I learned a long time ago that light loss (due to refraction not suspension) follows the same order (pattern) as the light spectrum order in a rainbow. ROY G. BIV; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. (see I was awake that day in 8th grade science). But is hard to convey sometimes. the graphic is great.

Nice lights.

Phill

My humble opinion is a filter light to achieve a color
would have a loss as compared to to direct light. Example: green globe where light passes thru. Or direct green bulb.

But willing to bet that the human eye would not notice that much of a difference.

PS
Thanks for the compliments

Hey Bob you have another order your way from me - this time a 100 LED in green.

For anyone on the fence about this light it's a solid unit. Every component is thicker/stronger than the goofy mass produced chinese products.

Wow, thanks for the super nice compliment

Your order will be shipped Monday
Enjoy

Catching crappie at night is fun for sure. My best luck is on small glow spoons like the PK red dot glow. They work really well for crappie that are at just about any depth. My favorite sizes are the 1/4 and 3/8 oz ones. There seem to be a lot of good posts on this forum for sure. I got some good ideas to take with me to the water next weekend.

Why do minnows swim in a circle in the same direction by fishing light.

AQUILLA LAST NIGHT,CAME HOME WITH 57 KEEPERS.CHEAP WAL-MART POLE & REEL.WET MINNOWS.,24 FT OF WATER FISHED 14 FT. DEEP. IT WAS A GOOD NIGHT.




ROD

Did you use green lites last night.

Not for sure the answer from r63pappy
But willing to bet that the color he used was green.

That would have been my selection

Wow!!!! That's alot to take in....

i just go to the lake and drop a minnow.no high tech, no jigs,
just catch,catch, catch !!!

Lites attract zoo plankton, in turn attract minnows.

The picture below was submitted by a customer (aka alslabber) using a Reel Lite
showing the minnows swimming in a circle.

Why do minnows (shad) swim in circles?

They swim in a circle because they are filter eaters. When they swim around the
light it keeps the plankton in one area and they swim through them with their
mouths open eating away. They are like Cowboys herding up cattle. On outdoor
shows on TV they show whales, and dolphins doing the same thing.

January 2011 Moon Calendar

Alright I will answer number 11 since no one else wants to give up their ice fishing secrets.

First on our home lake we had a ice house (grumpy old men style). These were nice because you took them out after enough ice and left them there all winter. Had a wood burning stove, a table to play eucher, 6 holes to jig through and a couple cases of coors light. We would go out there after school on friday and stay until sunday night. We used three tip-ups per person with a treble hook and a shiner....this caught walley and pike. we would jig fish in the house with wax worms and ice jigs for panfish and walleye. On lakes that were not our home lakes we would take the 4 wheeler or snowmobile along with our auger just go drill and try different spots. Thats all the depth I am going to go into, because most of you dont care about ice fishing...LOL



now on a serious note, what structure are you looking for at night? same as the day, fishing over brush piles or are you looking for creek channels?

this is a great read

I didn't read all of the posts but mosquito spray is good to have if you are going to crappie fish at night.

Something I do when ever I bait fish is I take a snap and glo stick tie it to my weight, about a 2 ounces, and cast it out there long with my bait. This attracts fish to the bait and I haven't caught anyhting with it but I've only tried it once. If we take the boat out at night I have this same rig down along with all over our bait.

This is awesome thread
over 10,000 views and climbing

just go !!

To help all you folks understand what a walleye is, it is when you mount your prize crappie. One eye will be out and the other eye will be considered the wall....eye.

bumping this......

I can get 5 meters(16 foot) of 5050(the bright ones) LED lights for under $20 shipped.

These are the waterproof ones.... You just glue them to the side of the boat.....

Low amp draw.... looks like a good deal and setup.

I understand from this thread that the reflection loses a lot of light.... But, heck, 16 foot of light running the entire length of the boat that I can turn on & off with a switch sounds like a winner to me.

I see that there is a guide on TFF that has a similar setup.... don't know what he paid for it.... I am sure it was more than $20 + glue for the same setup.

I kind of like the idea of having the ambient light there.... so I would think this is a decent setup. Maybe as good as those submersible $20 fluorescent.

I already bought a few 18" strips for the inside of the boat.... white lights.

recently took my 18" alumacraft down to the ribs and rebuilt it up with wood/carpet/ect. ...... just ran a few extra miles of wiring for little things like this. so the wiring is ready to go.

Moon is on the rise for those who like to fish by it

http://www.reel-lites.com/moon.html

* I hang 1000 watt halogen over the water and fish in 20 feet of water. From 10' to surface I catch crappie. From 10' to bottom I catch white bass.

* Take a long handled minnow net. Once the light has been deployed over the water for 30 minutes you will be able to catch live minnows as you need them straight out of the lake.

* Use a Thermacell to keep the mesquitos away. Put one at the front of the boat and one at the rear. They work so well that they will even keep the bugs away from your hanging light and lantern. Fish hate DEET. If you get DEET on your hands and transfer it to your line or hook you're done. Might as well pack it up.