Fishing at night can be incredibly productive. But when you are planning to go out night fishing, it is important to take into account the temperature of the air, the phase of the moon, the season, and the specific species of fish you’re pursuing.

Large predator species can’t see well in the dark and usually aren’t out at night, which means that their prey will often emerge from their heavy cover in search of food. Some of these freshwater panfish include rock bass, redder, crappies, yellow perch, small bass, sunfish, and bluegills. Some predators like carp, catfish, and sturgeon, who hunt by scent, are often out and about at night because visibility is not an issue for them.

You’ll want to adjust your fishing technique to account for how fish behave after dark. Remember, they aren’t using their sight to track down food, they are using senses like scent and sonar. Many of the fish most active at night have very sensitive nerve endings on their face and down the centerline, and they use these to pick up on movement in the water. So keep your lure in motion to attract their attention.

Fishing at night can be incredibly productive. But when you are planning to go out night fishing, it is important to take into account the temperature of the air, the phase of the moon, the season, and the specific species of fish you’re pursuing.

Large predator species can’t see well in the dark and usually aren’t out at night, which means that their prey will often emerge from their heavy cover in search of food. Some of these freshwater panfish include rock bass, redder, crappies, yellow perch, small bass, sunfish, and bluegills. Some predators like carp, catfish, and sturgeon, who hunt by scent, are often out and about at night because visibility is not an issue for them.

You’ll want to adjust your fishing technique to account for how fish behave after dark. Remember, they aren’t using their sight to track down food, they are using senses like scent and sonar. Many of the fish most active at night have very sensitive nerve endings on their face and down the centerline, and they use these to pick up on movement in the water. So keep your lure in motion to attract their attention.

Night Fishing Tips and Techniques

The three core requirements of fishing are these: be near a fish, put the correct bait on your hook, and present that bait to the fish the right way. All you need to do is adapt these to the setting of night fishing.

Select the Right Location

The fish patterns in a particular body of water can totally change from day to night, because very different fish are active. Many fish will use the cover of night to venture up into the shallow waters in search of food. Nighttime tends to bring out more cautious prey fish from rocks and other hidey-holes, and areas that seemed dead in the daytime can really come alive at night.

Many predatory fish like to do their hunting close to cover, like inlets or nearby residential docks. The noise and activity from people and boats make them barren of fish in the daytime, but at night they provide plenty of cover for these fish to come out and start hunting.

Use Live Bait

To draw fish to your lure at night in water that are calm or only have a small chop, remember to use lures that are noisy and active. Chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, and spinners are good choices for clear water, and topwater lures do well in murky water.

Night fishing in surf can be great, but your bait choices will be slightly different, as you won’t be trying to outcompete the sound of the waves. Instead, use weighted lures that glow in the dark and sink down to a least two feet of depth.

When you can get it, live and local bait is a great choice, as the scent of it will certainly draw fish to you. But do remember to take note of regulations and bylaws regarding night fishing in general, and what fish species you are permitted to target.

If you’re night fishing in salt water, you can use all kinds of bait fish like sardines, bonito, mackerel, herring, and squid. If you’re able to land a small fish early on in your night, you can chunk that one up to use as bait. This methods matches your bait perfectly to whatever local food items your target fish usually goes after and can significantly increase your chances of a bite.

In fresh water, artificial lures like soft plastic worms, spinners, and poppers are quite popular and widely used. However, live worms have the edge in productivity, whether you use mealworms, nightcrawler, or red wrigglers. They appeal to a whole range of species, from bass and trout to catfish and crappie.

Use the Right Lures

When it comes to lures you have a lot of choices, so choose based on the species of your target fish. Lures that are have light colors are more visible in low light, and topwater lures like poppers, frogs, prop baits, spooks, and jigs that stir up the surface of the water all work well. If you’re targeting one of the nighttime predator fish species, try using a glow in the dark lure—those fish are attracted by their brightness and color patterns.

There are many different types of lures that will work well at night, and your choice should depend on the species of fish you’re fishing for. In general, lighter-colored lures are easier for fish to see in low light. Topwater of all kinds are great choices for nighttime fishing. Spooks, poppers, frogs, prop baits, jigs and anything that makes a disturbance on the surface can work well. Predator fish are also particularly attracted towards glowing lures because of their starting color pattern and good glowing eye.

And remember: if you can use live bait, do use live bait. There is no substitute.

Use Lights

One place where light and visibility does come into play in night fishing is beneath docks or piers. In these small ecosystems, the lights illuminate a food web that really works to the fisherman’s advantage: the lights draw small organisms like plankton as well as insects, and smaller fish will approach to eat these. These smaller fish then attract larger, predatory gamefish, and those gamefish attract you, the angler.

Using lights to draw fish is most common in fresh water lakes by a boat, pier, or dock, but sometimes in salt water deep sea fishing anglers will rig their line with extra lights in order to attract species like swordfish.

Don’t wait until it’s dark

You want to be set and ready by the time darkness falls. Your navigation, set up, and first observations on fish activity will be much easier to accomplish in the evening before the sun goes down. After all, humans, unlike carp and crappie, need their eyes to get around.