Night fishing provides an alternative to summer heat

St. Joseph News-Press

Midwestern summers sometimes seem unbearable. Average temperatures well into the 90s make for less-than-optimistic fishermen.

The vicious, unrelenting heat of the day pushes many of us indoors searching for the relief of the air conditioning -- and that's fine, because rising water temperatures force the fish into the same mode.

Deeper, cooler, harder-to-fish water is the rule for the angler hardy enough to face the heat of the day. There is a cure for the frustrated fishermen of summer's dog days: night fishing.

Each evening, temperatures drop as the blistering effects of the sun fade into the western sky.

Anglers who take a little time to prepare can fish in comfort and enjoy success. The species makes little difference because nearly all game fish in the Midwest will feed much more aggressively after dark once water temperatures fall.

Aside from some sort of flashlight and insect repellent, everything a fisherman would use during daylight hours will work equally well at night.

Fishing for crappie after dark is the same as during daylight. The main difference is that the angler's vision is limited to the range of his artificial light. This reduces the effectiveness of casting for fish, particularly in heavy cover that crappie prefer. The best answer to this problem is to bring the crappie to you.

This can be accomplished by positioning yourself near deep water haunts. Boaters have a definite advantage over bank fishermen in this scenario. The idea is to put baits in the water as near to crappie's comfort zone as possible.

Crappie will move out of depths and into the shallower water of the flats after dark. Their search for baitfish leads them toward the surface. However, even at night, summertime surface water temperatures can exceed a crappie's comfort range. This forces the fish to move in and out of the shallows to feed, staying only for a short time as it raids the shallows for food.

There are two ways to attack this problem. One is to fish deeper, even after dark. Make sure to keep your bait in the comfort range at all times. The other is to employ the use of a floating light. This light draws small microscopic insects and animals toward it as illuminates the surface of the water. These insects in turn draw baitfish, which come to feed on these tiny creatures. The baitfish draw the crappie.

The angler who fishes near the surface with the aid of a floating light may have lulls in the action as the fish return to deeper water periodically. He can rest assured that when the crappie return to the shallows, they will come to his location.

Artificial baits will work well in this type of fishing. Small jigs of less than one-eighth of an ounce fished vertically can produce good action.

For a sure bet, nothing beats minnows after dark. A medium-sized minnow hooked beneath the dorsal fin and fished straight down with no more weight than a BB-sized splitshot is a killer at night.

Ever since people began, folks have been fishing for channel cat after dark.

Techniques and baits vary on how to catch channel cat. They range from fishing night crawlers on the bottom of a small river to drifting homemade concoctions across the flats of large impoundments. There is no end to the ways an angler can catch these fish.

Few catfishermen would argue that one of the easiest ways to put cats on the stringer is fishing the flats above or below deep water in lakes at night, or fishing the fast water of the outside bends in rivers.

Many anglers prefer to drift across the flats of a lake rather than limit themselves to one area by anchoring. A gentle breeze can help the fisherman cover large expanses of the flat in short order.

Contrary to popular belief, channel cat will aggressively chase a bait moving across the bottom. Shad sides or even whole shad laced with a single hook Carolina-rigged with a small weight of a quarter-ounce or so will work nicely in a drift in water less than 15 feet deep.

If the drift is in deeper water, the weight should be increased only enough to maintain good line tension and bottom contact.

Those anglers who prefer fishing in the flowing waters of a stream or river should focus on the bends of the river or stream.

Baitfish native to the body of water, such as chub or redhorse minnows work well as do nightcrawlers and shad.

The action in these bends in the river can be fast and furious and can last all night.

Anglers should use only enough weight to hold bait on the bottom in the current and hooks from 1/0 to 5/0 can cover almost any situation when fishing for channel cat.