Trolling at Night (longlining)

[Papa Dawg]

My partner finally got around to trolling at night. We went to Oconee last night. It was a great night to fish. Winds 1-2 mph. The moon came up about 11:45. No boat traffic. No bugs. We trolled from 8:30 to 1:30 so I guess you can say we gave it a good shot. Caught 4 crappie and 5 catfish. I wonder if on another night the result might be better? I don't know. We put glow light on the tips of our rods so it was easy to see if you had a hit (not many hits though) and you could see hangups, ect. Getting lines untangled at night is a booger. But we fortunately did not get many lines tangled or caught on tree tops. We trolled in deep water (20-40 ft) using double 1/16th and 1/24th at .8 to 1.2 mph. I tied on a mini rattle trap but never got a hit on it. We saw lots of fish mostly at 12-18 ft. Water temp was around 87 (probably still too hot). I might do it again but hopefully with a little better results. Got to bed at 3:30 and my eyes popped open at daylight. I could use a couple more hours sleep.

[papasage]

sounds like fun . dark nights are better for fishing especiley for crappie unless you shooting docks back in the dark aeras .

[gabowman]

Thanks for the report. I know where fish are that can be caught during the daytime right now and have been considering trying it at night but havent gotten around to it yet (dont really want to loose that sleep youre talking about:rolleyes. If I ever do get around to trying it I probably wont pull more than an hour or so then start catfishing unless the bite goes well.

[badbull]

I haven't ever went out to troll at night...I have kept trolling after it got dark and continued to pick up fish. I knew fish was on by bend in the poles. Any one else try this????