Floating Fish Lights?

[Moose1am]

At night I have a very hard time seeing the line and standing still while there are bugs flying around gets me nervous. I had a big problem with my rods as they were designed so that the line would catch around the tip's last guide but I fixed that. Now that the line is not catching on the back of the rods guide I can fish a lot more and spend less time untangling the line around the tip of my rods. I was about ready to quit fishing due to that problem. I got so mad. But I solved that problem with some JB Weld added to the tips to make a smoother transition from the rod itself to the guide. Only the very tip guide was giving me the problems. It was impossible to fish with those rods at night before I fixed and modified them. Now I am ready to give them another try. They are excellent rods for the money. They are not C Loomis rods but they are just as good IMHO. They look great and they are light weight and very sensitive and the guides are very smooth in the inner diameter. They are all ceramic type Fugi guides which grow increasing larger as you go from the tip of the rod to the butt end. That helps me make long casts with 6lb test trilene XL line



Yea that is what I am thinking. At night I need a bait that is moving around and making waves in the water or vibrations. Even crappie will have a problem seeing things from a long ways away at night. But the lateral line on the sides of the crappie should be able to help them zero in on movements of a struggling minnow. I have fished at night for crappie under the lights of a boat dock as a kid and really enjoyed that. Maybe it was because there were other people fishing on dock at night that I could talk to. It's not much fun being on the lake at night by yourself that is for sure. Now I don't mind fishing by myself during daylight as I can do what I want to do and goof of or fish hard depending on my mood. I usually have a radio headset and can be found jamming to some oldies but goodies music while I am fishing. LOL I found a radio station FM close to home that plays all the songs from the 60's and 70's. I have been in a much better mood these days. I went out a got me a headset radio (SONY) that works great. I dont' have to worry about the wires as the radio is built into the headset itself. Even the antenna has a light reflector material on the antenna's tip so I can walk around at night without getting lost or run over by a car.


I may go fishing this weekend up at Patoka Lake. If I do I may try to take the lights up there and use them. I still need a portable battery jumper setup to take along with me. I have wanted one of those ever since I saw Jerry Blake using one at the TeeZur Crappie Fishing Tournament Last Fall. I can't wait for the next TeeZur Tournament this fall. I still need to find out more about the lodgings and where the launch ramp is located.

Hey Moose , I've never used jigs at night so I can't comment on them but I've caught a lot at night on minnows.The livlier the better.Eric.

[rango]

when i set up at night, i use three coleman tube type propanes. I put two on the front and one at the back, all running off of 20 lb tanks. tank size is a matter of preference, from the one lb cannisters, five or ten lb tanks to 20 lbers . I have plenty of light in my boat and enough to share with any boats that wanna barge up with me. I will not fish in the dark. when the man upstairs said let there be light, i agreed and use all i can muster on my boat. in swamp country i can imagine the problems, but i dont live in swamp country. if i did, id try to figger a way around the bug problem. ive fished at night down at santee and dont seem to have a problem either that i can remember. thats swamp country down there. im never bothered by biting bugs like mosquitoes at night on the boat, but sometimes the gnats swarming around the lights are aggravating, not from biting but from flyin into everything., It seems tho that if the gnats are swarming, after awhile they thin out and arent a problem. a little bit of a breeze helps a great deal in dealing with the gnats. every once in awhile someone may get bit by a strange looking critter that looks scarey, but not often enough to cause concern. for some strange reason, getting a breeze on wylie this year hasnt been much of a problem. most nights ive been , the wind has been roaring down the main lake.
i use the qbeams myself and have total confidence in them. ive been using em for years and have never had one burn out, but have dropped several and busted them. my kids are notorious about breaking them, but then they aint buying em, nor do they replace one when they break it.
I dont sink em deep, maybe several ft. i want em shallow enough so they will reflect up and lite the rod tips making it easier to see the bite. use rods with very soft tips, tightlined over the side. forget the corks, they arent needed. just another item to clutter things up. occasionally someone will set a cork off to the side , but depending on the wind and current, theres only one position on the boat thats acceptable to keep the cork from drifting into everyones way and thats the down wind and current side. the one there can fish a cork and keep it out of everyones way. you can fish the cork close to the boat, but if you got soft rod tips so you can see the bite, its not necessary. if you using stiff rods, corks will help, as the stiff rods aint gonna show the bite. i carry four extra batteries on the beast for night light source. anything i buy that has a cigarette type plug for hookups, ill cut off the plug and put a set of aligator style clips on it . when using this stuff, ill move a battery within reach of the clips. night fishing works and is easy to learn . good luck

[Moose1am]

wind does help with the insects. I have one new coleman propane lantern and I have the hoses and the stand to use to attach the lantern to the 20lb propane tank. So far I have gotten by using those smaller disposable propane tanks. I have one of those mini coleman propane lanterns but it's not very bright. Together with the Quartz light they light up the area pretty good. You are right about getting rid of the corks. They are harder to fish that tightling. I can set up either way but I may try to switch to the tightline method along with live bait (minnows) and see how that works. The pits that I fish are small. Only 90 acres in size and I am never more than 100 yards from the shoreline anywhere on the water. There are numerous smaller bodies of water around this 2500 acrea F&W area. Lots of standing water and many waterfowl that live in the F&W area on a permenant basis. I wear lots of OFF or Cutters with 30% deet in it. That helps prevent the mosquitoes but it may also turn off the fish as it can easily get on the baits.

I cut off all the clamps that came on my underwater lights and added the cigarette lighter plugs to them. LOL I have two cigarette lighters on my boat. One at the box by the trolling motor and the other at the steering console. Both are using the Main Boats Battery ( Blue top Cranking Optima Battery). The Trolling motor only uses the deep cycle Optima Battery. If I really get into night fishing I will definately get the rechargeable portable battery operated jumping system that has a 12volt supply outlet. I can use that with my new American Angler 12Volt Electric filet knife.

Do you stay out all night long when you fish at night? I am just curious if anyone has found that the fish bite better at different times of the night or at different moon phases or times of the year. Of course most of my night fishing for crappie will be during July and August so time of year is a fixed variable for me. But I wonder if the full moons during July or August makes for better fishing for crappie at night? This could be a new topic for a long thread in and of itself.

when i set up at night, i use three coleman tube type propanes. I put two on the front and one at the back, all running off of 20 lb tanks. tank size is a matter of preference, from the one lb cannisters, five or ten lb tanks to 20 lbers . I have plenty of light in my boat and enough to share with any boats that wanna barge up with me. I will not fish in the dark. when the man upstairs said let there be light, i agreed and use all i can muster on my boat. in swamp country i can imagine the problems, but i dont live in swamp country. if i did, id try to figger a way around the bug problem. ive fished at night down at santee and dont seem to have a problem either that i can remember. thats swamp country down there. im never bothered by biting bugs like mosquitoes at night on the boat, but sometimes the gnats swarming around the lights are aggravating, not from biting but from flyin into everything., It seems tho that if the gnats are swarming, after awhile they thin out and arent a problem. a little bit of a breeze helps a great deal in dealing with the gnats. every once in awhile someone may get bit by a strange looking critter that looks scarey, but not often enough to cause concern. for some strange reason, getting a breeze on wylie this year hasnt been much of a problem. most nights ive been , the wind has been roaring down the main lake.
i use the qbeams myself and have total confidence in them. ive been using em for years and have never had one burn out, but have dropped several and busted them. my kids are notorious about breaking them, but then they aint buying em, nor do they replace one when they break it.
I dont sink em deep, maybe several ft. i want em shallow enough so they will reflect up and lite the rod tips making it easier to see the bite. use rods with very soft tips, tightlined over the side. forget the corks, they arent needed. just another item to clutter things up. occasionally someone will set a cork off to the side , but depending on the wind and current, theres only one position on the boat thats acceptable to keep the cork from drifting into everyones way and thats the down wind and current side. the one there can fish a cork and keep it out of everyones way. you can fish the cork close to the boat, but if you got soft rod tips so you can see the bite, its not necessary. if you using stiff rods, corks will help, as the stiff rods aint gonna show the bite. i carry four extra batteries on the beast for night light source. anything i buy that has a cigarette type plug for hookups, ill cut off the plug and put a set of aligator style clips on it . when using this stuff, ill move a battery within reach of the clips. night fishing works and is easy to learn . good luck

[big "E"]

Moose , I haven't ever trid the theory , but I've heard that the full moon decreases youe chances as the lights aren't as efficient.I guess this might point to the new moon being a better than average chance.All this is things I've heard , but dont know for sure.I bet Rango does though.Eric.

[rango]

Ive never paid much attention to what effect the moon has on the bite. now i think back over the years i wish id kept a log so i would have something to compare but i dint. up till a couple years ago, i was known for being an alnighter, and sometimes it was hard to find someone to go with me cause they had a problem with staying out all night. i did notice that the bite seemed to come in three different stages.. from dark to about eleven,, then theyd slack up to about one or so and hit for an hour or so,, then the best bite seemed to come froom around four to dawn. through the mid part of the night id usually wrap up in my army blanket and get some shut eye, waking up and fishing the 4am bite to daylight. these days im happy to fish year around but usually only stick with a half night of it. several weeks ago, i went several times around one or 2 am and fished the morning bite, but dint do anything to talk about. the best bite of the year, for catching the slabs and filling coolers seemed to be late winter/early spring., but then again, seems the past couple years we harvested a ton of slabs in the mid summer nights,, a time when we used to be pestered by the tater chips.. its a never ending puzzle with no permanent soulution thats gonna gurantee you a limit everytime out... if you find a method or location thats paying off, they usually will be consistant untill a weather change forces a change,of habits, then you start all over agiin trying to solve the puzzle.

[Moose1am]

I was reading these back posts and noticed this one. I said it was 250 million candle power which was only off by a factor of 1000. The units are 250 but it's KILO not Mega. So the Starfire II QBeam light is only 250 Thousand Candle Power.

It would be a bug zapper at 250 million candle power LOL


I still have not fished with this new light in a good spot. I have several spots where I can catch crappie most of the summer. These are on drop offs around bars that come out and top off at 10ft or so and drop off into 25 ft of water. I fished this spot today and caught 5 crappie as soon as I found the brush pile. Someone put in some brush piles in 25ft of water and the crappie are there. Someone else was fishing the spot before I got to it but he left to go pick up someone and I slipped into the spot for 30 minutes and fished it for 15 minutes before leaving. It looked like it was going to rain and I could hear the distant lighting's thunder. I figured 5 crappie was enough and as I left the other guy was arriving and reclaiming the spot. I told him there were still plenty of crappie there for him and his son. Now this spot is where I need to set up for some night fishing. Just need to do that soon before it gets cold. Then again the fish will be there at this spot all fall and winter too. They seem to prefer this spot spring summer fall and winter from what I can tell.

That's really, really good!! :D :D Started laughing out loud when I read that!! the mental picture of water steaming around the boat was just too much...... :D ..........

Interesting about the black light. I've used a unit (here again don't remember the manufacturer) for the better part of 12 years. This has bulbs about 10" long - UV on the bottom, white light above the UV. It's either black light or white, not both at the same time. I can say optimum range is pushing twenty feet - no way will it go to 50'. But it does work very well; 6 lb. test line "glows" to be the size of laundry line. the 14lb test I use for catfishing, well, tiedown rope would describe it best. This unit is powered by 6 "D" cell batteries, and lasts through a 6 hour night of constant use. The only thing I don't care for is how it mounts - two suction cups. I've never lost it overboard, but the lanyard that's tied to it proves I don't quite trust it either.

[Moose1am]

I am pretty well setup for 12 volt cigarette plug outlets in my boat. Plus I have those adaptors that have the clips on one end to attack to the battery terminals and a female receptical for the male cigarette type plugs. I have one cigarette lighter plug up on the front of the boat near the trolling motor and another on the back of my boat on the steering console. I can also add another cigarette lighter plug on the console for a total of three in my boat. With the adaptor that I can connect to the battery I would be able to use four. I also have the one to Two type plug( I have two of these actually) So any outlet on my boat could be used by two devises that have the male cigarette lighter type 12volt plug. Now I just need a few more batteries LOL. Actually I am thinking about getting one of the portable power supply battery jumpers things that has the 12v outlet on them. I am still looking at these and waiting for someone to make them with spiral type battery cells like they have in the Optima Batteries. I want to be able to charge it up fast like the optima's and also to have it stay charged over long periods of storage like the Optima Batteries. Sooner or later someone will start using those Optima Battery technology in these portable jumper units.

Moose - if you are referring to the $30 BPS Ultra Nightstalker III "black light" ... I have had occasion to fish from a boat with "small" units, similar to these. I didn't find them to be very satisfying in lighting up my fluorescent line (and I was using 12lb test BPS Excel at the time). They seemed to work OK if you held your rod directly over them and your line stayed close to them ... but they didn't seem to have that 50' range, that the Nightstalker III claims to have. For "my money" ... I'd go with the $40 Ultra Nightstalker (BPS # 38-564-903-00) -- and, just as a warning note, even this unit isn't set up the way I'd prefer it to be. The "black" light is on one side (facing away from the boat) and the "white" light is on the other (to light up the interior of the boat). Being made for "worm fishing for Bass at night" - these units are not set up to take the place, or augment a lantern or other type of light. The more expensive units have two bulbs (black/white or black/black) sitting one above the other, facing the same direction. And on those units with a white light, some have a rheostat switch to brighten/dim the light to the anglers preferrence. (but we're talking $$$ even for the cheaper end models of those units).

For connecting cigarette lighter plugs (which most Black Light units come with) to your battery ... there are several models of connectors to choose from - I found mine at Wallace World -- I have two different ones : one is a female cig lighter plug with two alligator clips ... the other is a male cig lighter plug with two female cig lighter plugs. I have two Black Lights - a BPS Nightstalker and a Stan Sloan/Zorro Fliptop ... both have male cig lighter plugs. With my two connectors, I can plug both lights into the male/2female connector - then that connector into the female/gator clip one - then to a battery. OR, as I usually do, just use the male/2female connector ... and plug the male cig plug into my portable jumper battery.
Sorry - neither of these connectors has a "brand name" printed on them ... but I'm pretty sure I got them at Wally World for around $5-$8 each.
And don't bother buying an "extra" black light bulb ... the original ones will probably outlast the unit itself. I've got "extras" ... one I bought as a "back-up" and the others came from a unit that finally died (after being used for 20yrs). I'm referring, of course, to the 16 inch long 12V / 15Watt light bulbs ... and not the shorter 12V/ 6Watt 8.25inch lights that the Nighstalker III unit uses.
And the Black Light units WILL draw bugs ... but they will also draw their fair share of minnows, too, even without another light source being turned on. I've noticed schools of Silversides and even Shad following along under the Black Lights ... as I eased along the banks at night, worm fishing for Bass.
I've also used the Black Light units in conjuction with the floating headlight type Crappie lights ... just to "light up" the fluorescent lines, especially on those rods that were away from the floating light's influence. I've never had to use any other "light source", when using my Coleman lantern .... that's probably why I prefer using it, to most of the "other" styles of lights, for night time Crappie fishing.

And thanks for the tip on the "Botanical Off" ..... though I'm rarely bothered by mosquitos, my partners are not so lucky. I should probably get some, just for them !! .......................luck2ya .............cp

[slab crappie attitude]

i usally find my spot on a deep creek or river channel about 30ft from the bank in about 25ft going to deep water real close, a dropoff if you will, put out my light and wait for the shad, then using a treble hook with a small weight and jig under the school of shad, it takes a littlte patience but you will hook or in most cases foul hook it. they really come to life, i throw it out away from the boat letting it fall toward the light, depth? you'll have to experiment but when you catch your first one do it again the same way. 2 hooks work twice as good, hope i could help.... larry