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Night Fishing with Lures - 5 Tips
By Cameron Cronin
With winter all but upon us, the days have well and truly begun to shorten and for many of us, going for a quick afternoon fish in daylight has become a thing of the past. However, many anglers, myself included, look forward keenly to this time of year, where an early sunset creates new opportunities to get out for a fish under the cover of darkness, without having to stay up all night.
Naturally, if you aren’t familiar with lure fishing at night, a few questions might spring to mind: Can the fish see my lure? Do I need to fish differently than during the day? What lures work best? Not to worry, in this article I’ll be sharing 5 of my top tips for getting started with night fishing with lures, answering all these questions and getting you well on the way to catching a few next time you head out for a night session!
Tip 1: Use light to your advantage
Despite what you might think, most predatory fish can see very well during low light periods. It can be hard to imagine, but complete darkness for us is often perfect feeding conditions for a fish such as a mulloway, flathead, mangrove jack, bream, and many other species, who will take advantage of the comparatively poor night vision of baitfish species.
This means that it is possible to target fish with no artificial light at all during the night on lures, which is often overlooked by many. Look for areas of shallow water where bait congregates during the day. Fishing these same areas at night can often result in great catches as large predators feel more comfortable entering and feeding in the shallows under the cover of darkness.
This being said, it is no secret that fishing around artificial light is a sure-fire way to fast track your success during the night. Overhead lighting from bridges, wharves and footpaths creates an oasis in the desert of darkness, and in many cases, baitfish such as mullet, garfish, herring, prawns, and squid seem to be drawn to the lights. This creates an excellent opportunity to catch the predators that pursue them.
Predators will often use the area of darkness at the edge of the light pool to sit and wait for baitfish to move past, before launching a lightning-fast attack on their hapless victims. With this in mind, retrieving your lure from areas of light into the darkness seems to work extremely well in most situations, and I have had a lot of success targeting mulloway, flathead, estuary perch and bass in my part of the world, as well and barramundi and mangrove jack up north using this technique.
Tip 2: Fish off the bottom
With the cloak of darkness hiding their presence from prey and predators alike, fish that are often associated with living near or on the bottom will often raise up higher in the water column to actively chase baitfish near the surface. Most baitfish like to cruise on or near the surface, so by feeding in this top layer of the water column, it is much easier for predatory species to pin baitfish between themselves and the surface, instead of chasing them around the entire water column.
I have seen this method of feeding in mulloway, bass, estuary perch, barramundi and mangrove jack in various locations, however less likely suspects such as flathead and bream will also get in on the act as well. As a result, I have found that most of my strikes at night come well off the bottom, or in the top 1-2 metres of the water column. For this reason, lightly weighted plastics are usually a go-to presentation of mine when fishing at night as they will remain in this strike zone for longer, while offering a more natural fall rate.
I am a big fan of slow rolling (slow winding) paddle tail plastics and in my part of the world this is usually a ZMan Slim 2.5” SwimZ on a 1/12oz or 1/8oz size 1 TT HeadlockZ jighead for the smaller species, such as bream, flathead, bass, and estuary perch. I’ll then step it up to a 4-7” paddle tail, such as the ZMan HerculeZ, SwimmerZ or DieZel MinnowZ when chasing mulloway or big flatties (with 6/0-8/0 TT HeadlockZ HD jigheads to match). It goes without saying however that you will still catch fish throughout the entire water column, and I have had some excellent winter sessions in the past catching everything from estuary perch to mulloway hopping small 1/8oz to 1/4oz TT Switchblades across the bottom as well.
Tip 3: Don’t be afraid to use heavy tackle
Whist not always necessary, fishing at night often means fishing around lit up areas, which go hand in hand with heavy structure. Wharves, bridges, and rock walls are all working against you in most locations, and this only becomes more difficult for anglers like me, who are primarily fishing from the shore.
Often, it is very much a case of hook the fish first and worry about landing it later, with quick thinking and heavy drags often the difference between a landed fish and a frayed line wafting in the breeze. For these reasons, I always use heavier line at night, and I am sold that due to reduced visibility, most fish will not be put off by heavy leader at all. As an example, my normal daytime mulloway tackle for boat fishing might consists of 10 or 15lb braid, matched up to 20-40lb leader. At night I’ll rarely dip under 30lb mainline, and 50-60lb Platypus Hard Armour Leader is my starting point.
It may seem excessive, but it has really helped me land more fish from tight situations, with the bonus of bringing the fish to shore with plenty of energy left for a healthy release. By all means, if the terrain allows, fishing light can have its advantages when it comes to presenting very lightly weighted lures. If you are worried about landing a fish at your chosen location though, don’t be concerned about increasing your mainline and leader strength to make this happen.
Tip 4: Use colour to your advantage
Before we get started, I am a firm believer that any colour will work on most species, given the right situation. However, when night fishing, there are some attributes of lure colour that I will look for when selecting a presentation. The first of these is selecting solid colours over more transparent options. Due to the limited availability of light at night, I will nearly always go for a solid colour, which is not see through. This will mean that more light is reflected by the lure, making it easier for predators to track and eat it. On the contrary, some light will pass through transparent lures, making them more difficult to see and lock onto.
On a similar token, I will often select a lure with some sparkle or flash embedded, that will grab the attention of hunting fish when exposed to light, and often elicit an aggressive strike. Finally, I like lures with a strong contrast. Two tone lures with a different top and bottom colour are easier to spot in poor light, and once again are far easier to locate for feeding fish.
At this stage you’ll probably notice a common theme here, as in my experience colour selection is all about getting noticed by the fish, which will then trigger a bite, provided the fish is hungry or angry enough. A few of my favourite night colours in the ZMan range, that follow the above formula, include Sexy Mullet, Sexy Penny, Gold Rush, and Pearl Blue Glimmer, although it does pay to carry a wide range of colours to match the water conditions in your local system.
Once exclusively the domain of squid fishers, it’s also worth a mention that glow lures can be very effective at night, especially when fishing in total darkness. I have had great success on the ZMan 7” Scented Jerk ShadZ and ZMan 8” StreakZ XL in the Glow colour on mulloway, large tailor, and flathead, using a quick flash of my head torch every now and then to ‘charge up’ the lure when required.
Tip 5: Go big!
For most species, night is a time where caution can go by the wayside, and they will feed far more aggressively. This means that fish will often take larger lures without hesitation, and in many cases using larger lures can even provide an advantage over smaller presentations. Going back to the previous tip, I think the biggest advantage of upsizing your lure is it getting noticed quicker by a hungry predator. This is especially the case where there is little to no ambient light present, and I have noticed a definite increase in bites when using a large lure in these situations.
When I think of large lures, the presentations that immediately come to mind are the ZMan 6” HerculeZ, 7” DieZel MinnowZ and 8” StreakZ XL, aimed at large flathead and mulloway. Despite this, the same tactics can be scaled down for other species, and I have had a lot of success fishing for big estuary perch and bass on relatively large lures, such as the ZMan 3.5” GrubZ, 3.5” Trick SwimZ, 4-5” HerculeZ and 4-5” DieZel MinnowZ. Some of these lures might seem unnecessarily big, however I believe that larger models of any species are more willing to expend energy chasing down one larger meal, instead of multiple smaller meals, when given the choice.
It isn’t all about big fish however, and although a big offering may reduce some bites from smaller sized fish, it never ceases to surprise me how keen even modest sized fish are to hit a large lure at night. All in all, while I will always take a variety of plastics with me, I will usually tend towards using larger offerings when practical for the reasons above.
So, there you have it, 5 quick tips that will hopefully help kick start your night fishing journey. I know these tips help me catch more fish every time I’m out on the water, so I hope you can also find some benefit in trying these out next time you head out for a fish.
Cheers, Cam