night fishing

[northdease]

i was wondering if anyone night fishes for pike and what kind of bait or presentation used so they can see the bait

[grumpymoe]

i think its generally accepted that pike dont feed at night, although i've seen an exception to that. last year during a summer evening, was staying at a hotel in ontario, and there was an angler casting off shore. stopped to chat, and he was catching northerns. it was totally dark but backlit from the surrounding lights in the area. my opinion is that you would not catch them at night except possibly on a moonlit night. grump

[Ice Troll]

wow grump......we catch northern all the time out west during the night. Moonlight does not seem to matter as we are fishing through 24 + inches of ice. I do use soft glow beads on my rigs which probably helps. I will admit we dont catch as many at night but since my honey hole is full of walleye, sauger, lake trout, catfish and ling(you may know them as Burbot or eelpout), we do fish all night.

[grumpymoe]

wow ice troll  its not very common, but i stand corrected. any other reports out there of night catches??? and what are you using???  

[Ice Troll]

Grump,
Usually use 5-7" live sucker or creek chubs. I am a big advocate of glow beads and an occasional spinner blade or rattle beads. I would have to say that the added visibility the glow beads add to the bait as well as vibration from spinner blades or rattle beads certainly cant hurt to make up for the lack of night vision a northern has. I have also on rare occasions hooked a walleye at night only to find that it has been swallowed by a northern by the time I got there. First time this happened I was kinda surprised to find the northern didnt have a hook in him, but did have a 12" eye stickin out his throat. Has happened more than once too.

[Ice Troll]

Icefishingbear,
I am from Wyoming but do most of my "hunting for water wolves" up in Montana. Hard to beat Ft.Peck Res for big norderns. The only place here in Wyo that we have a good population of Northerns is Keyhole in the north east corner of the state. I did live in Colo Springs though when I was stationed at Carson and have fished 11 mile. That is a pretty good fishery.

[LoWbLaZaH]

great info here guys...anybody else had any luck at night?

[Bob_D]

I've caught a few at night while walleye fishing, but they are few and far between. I think they will feed at night, but as a rule they are not as active as during the day. I catch 150+ pike a season and maybe 1-2 of them are at night. If you are targeting pike the day bite will be more productive.

[IceTroll]

LoWbLaZaH,
I do alot of night fishing but I am fishing for walleye, Ling and Lake Trout in addition to the Northerns in the waters I fish. These other species are all more active at night than the Northern are. Walleye are definetely low light feeders and the Ling are big time night feeders. I have caught Northerns at night as stated earlier with the help of glow beads, rattle beads, spinner beads and scent enhancers but they are truly far and few in between. The bottom line for me is that if the lake I was fishing had ONLY Northerns in it, I am not sure I would waste my time at night. The fact that I can target other species and take the occasional Northern at night makes it worth my while. Hope this helps and good luck out on the ice.

IceTroll

[PeRcHsLaYeR]

nope jsut crappie and walleyes

[IceTroll]

nope jsut crappie and walleyes

[Squirrely]

I have never really fished for pike at nght but have pulled many through the ice at night fishing for walleye. I use glow hooks on my walleye rigs and occasionally a spinner on top of the hook. Ive heard and noticed that pike don't feed at night but occasionally run into a bait and there temper sets in.

[hali-man]

I would think scent is the most important factor here.
If you put bait right in front of a sleeping pike's face he will probably bite.
Even if he can't see it.
 

[fishuhalik]

I donno if this is true or not, but I heard about some people that were fishing for northerns on Basswood in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area @ night & caught a bunch of nice ones, including one 63", that's right, 63"! As the story goes, the guy let it go cuz it was a two day walk back & he didn't want to end the trip short!  I don't know if I believe it, though, cuz I don't know anyone that wouldn't end a fishing trip to bring a world record home!