What kind of bobbers for night fishing?

[Tube4Slabs]

All of the lighted bobbers I've seen are huge and will probaly snap my line when I try to cast, and the chances of a finicky slab taking it under and holding onto the bait will be very slim b/c of the resistance. Has anyone found a good lighted bobber for night fishing. Walmart had some of the small glow sticks about an inch in length and I'm gonna rig these on my floats until something better comes along. Any suggestions?

[dsacalaitman]

i personnally like the blue fox lighted bobbers u can clip on line or u can run your line threw the center of it .
i purchase mine at academy sports and outdoors or bass pro shops

[CrappieHead]

I purchased two packs of those small glow in the dark sticks and was planning on using them on my smaller bobbers. I got some larger bets bobbers that have a plastic stick on the top. I figured I could attach those glow plastic tubes to the top of the bobber with rubber bands or something. I have not even opened up the packages yet.


Let me know if you find them worth while and how you attach them to your bobbers. Also tell us which type bobbers you used and if they worked well with these glow light things.

I wonder just how long they last.

I like the glow sticks myself. I have only used them on my rod tips so for but thinking of using them on my slip type bobbers as well. I have been looking on e-bay for large amounts of them at a cheaper price.

[CrappiePappy]

I've never used a "lighted" float ... never owned one. But, let me play the "devils advocate" here :

why not use "fluorescent" floats ? - something like this: http://www.tackletour.com/reviewesb.html

If you're concerned that the line will break, throwing these larger/heavier lighted floats - why not use heavier line ? If you think the heavier line will keep the fish from biting - use a leader of smaller pound test.

To combat the heavy resistance of a larger float ... add more weight on the line - until the float is more than 3/4 of the way submerged, but still floats. This may require heavier line, but a lighter line leader will still allow the bait to present good action.

Have you considered using very light floats (like Thill's Balsa ones), and painting the top half with fluorescent paints ?


I checked on the prices of some of the "lighted" floats ... between $3 & $8 apiece And replacement batteries ... another couple of bucks apiece !! That's a pretty substantial investment, for a half dozen floats. Does the production level of these type of floats, make that investment a viable one ?

Here's a link to some bulk pricing for "glo-sticks" ...... http://www.mammothglow.com/showProdu...b0028587364089 (just FYI) ... luck2ya ...cp

[crappie66]

The best bobber to use is a small slip bobber. It doesn't need to glow, its doesn't need to have a battery, it doesn't need a bulb in it, it doesn't need to cost more than $1.50. The smaller the better, that way you will see the light bites better. When fishing at night under the lights you generally fish directly over the side of the boat jigging your minnow under the bobber up and down.

What truely amazes me lately when reading all of my message boards is all of the gadgets that have caught the fisherman. The fish really don't care how much you spend on this and that, keep it simple, and the fishing will be much more enjoyable.

[chef]

undefined I do a lot of night fishing and don't
use a bobber. I paint my rod tips a florescent color, usually white,
and concentrate on watching the rod tips. I tried bobbers, but on
a light bite, I do better watching the rod tips.
Chef

[unknown 5]

I do quite a bit of night fishing with bobbers. I am a coonhunter, so I use my coonhunting light for night fishing. My light head attaches to a hat, so I have light where ever I look. I have a red lense I snap on my light so it won't attract bugs. I use regular small foam bobbers in either chartruse or orange colors and I have found these bobbers usually shine well enough to be seen well at night. But, if I wanted to, I could use a little reflective tape on the bobbers and on my rod tips. They would shine alot farther than I could cast and could easily be seen with my light on dim and a red lense on it.
If you want to go to some reasonable expense, Nite Lites can be bought for arount $100 at www.huntsmart.com. These are rechargable lites that have heads that can be worn on a cap. If you night fish much, they are money well spent. I use my $300 Coon Buster light. I can put it on spotlight mode and it will easily outshine a car headlight or shine across the lake I fish. It is great when navigating in hazardous areas. I mostly run my light on low and it will shine all night with more than adequate light. I can see wherever I look with hands free. There are similar but cheaper lights availible at Bass Pro but if you fished much at night, the $100 Nite Light would be a wise investment in my opinion.

[kunes]

If you aren't nitefishin with lighted bobbers you are leaving fish behind. I don't mean fishing next to the boat. Either a soft tipped rod with a white painted tip or a small slip bobber is adequate. Casting a minnow under a lighted bobber to an area out of the influence of your baitlites will often put more fish in the boat. Sometimes one or two and sometimes alot. You can use styrofoam floats and attach a glow stick. Rod-N-Bobs come with a figure 8 piece of rubber that attaches the glow stick to the bobber stem. Thill lited bobbers work well also as do the Nite Bobbies. In the colder months we often freeline a minnow 3-4 feet below a Nite Bobbie. With no weight the bobber will lie on it's side until there is a strike at which time it will stand up. During the spawn a good nitefishin tactic is to set up in deep water that is within casting distance of the bank. This will put you over staging fish and you can cast to the spawners up in the shallows. One nite last winter I was set up in 25 feet of water tightlining. I cast a lited bobber with a minnow 2 feet below the bobber toward shore. The bobber drifted toward a laydown and went out of sight. I landed that fish and did it again and caught another. All the fish I caught on the tightlines that nite were average. Without using the lited bobber I doubt I would have caught these two:

[Rick]

I put reflective tape on my slip bobbers. When you fish with lights at night they really stand out.

[KARL]

...as noted in Kunes post....put on cheap styrofoam stick-style floats..directions on package show putting light close to bait..anybody try that????..results???...think I may give it a whirl next time.....I haven't caught any slabs like in Kunes pics.....but have picked up a few bigger than rest on floats in dark area's.............my $.02
........cp...thanks for link to glo-stick bulk...