black light or no?

[wolfe]

when fishing at night, do you use a black light?

i'm headed to clear lake tonight and may try at night to avoid the wind.

[Guest]

Depends on what line you are using. I use Yo-zuri clear which doesn't show up under a black light and find that using a black light distracts me too much. I much prefer to fish on feel vs sight at night anyway.

Usually this time of year I'll fish a spinnerbait in the evening until dusk or some sort of reaction bait (topwater, crankbait, ripbait, etc). Once 9:00pm comes I switch over to two basic rigs that don't require the use of a flash light.

1. A carolina rig with a 3/4oz egg weight. 3-4 foot leader (15lb main line and 10-12 lbs leader). I'll use that with a 10" berkeley powerworm in green pumplin or black w/ blue tail. If I'm not using that I'll use an 8" zoom lizard in the same colors.

2. A texas rigged 10" powerworm. With this setup I'll use the same worms and colors as the carolina worm and drag it on the bottom. Usually a 3/16 or 1/4 weight will do but I'll go as heavy as 1/2oz if I need to fell the bottom more. In this area I'll use this around areas of heavy cover, weeds or down rock slopes where the carolina rig gets hung up. In most instances I'll either fish this downhill or uphill on a rock bank, rock pile or break. Don't forget the red bead.


In either of these situations I can cover water, feel those rock transition areas and not worry about watching the line for twitches, etc. Also it gets me away from fishing too shallow or finding deeper structure that is overlooked by most other fishermen throughout the day and night.

I forgot to add that if you can't get your hands on a berkeley 10" worm in either of those colors you can easily replace it with a Reaction Innovations 10" worms. The berkeley worms are much softer and have much more scent, however you can dip the reaction innovactions worms in boiling water to soften them up. Once they get to the consistancy you're looking for you can store them in a seperate ziplock bag with scent to absorb into the plastic. Anything from smelly jelly to garlic PAM will do the trick.

Good luck out there, have fun this weekend and be safe.

[Johnny C]

Never

[ripbait]

Use the FORCE Luke at night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rod Martin]

light does better. I hook it to a 15' painter pole stick it in the air and fish. I guess the fish think its the moon, allows me to see into my livewell weight fish, and fish like it was daytime. Doesnt seem to spook the fish either.

[Cooch]

Since I started fishing with Fluorocarbon lines, my line sensativity level has climbed 10 fold, hence I find myself relying less on black light and flourescent lights at night. When I'm fishing places like LOP, ClearLake and some areas on the River, where there is very good lighting from human life and such, there really is no need.

Yet when I go to places like Melones, Pedro, Tolluch, Shasta or Berryessa, I still enjoy fishing with fluorescent lines under the black light, especially on lakes where I might be using smaller jigs to fish with. If I'm fishing topwater or other chuck and wind retrieve baits, that black light is not so useful to me. But when slowly bottom bouncing, it really helps to see lure placement and detect strikes that ya might not neccessarily feel. Plus it's cool, reminds me of my teenage days listening to Hendrix in my psycodelic poster & outerspace room, trippin' till the sun came up! HAR! HAR! HAR!

For me, there's an added allure and peace when fishing at night under a black light that I dont experience at any other time.