# Night Fishing - White Bass



## Captn C (May 21, 2004)

I've been reading up on the subject and seen it mentioned to not use bright lights. The utube video I watched they did use a small lights so the light I have might be too bright. It is about a 4' long light used for sword fishing at night. You think it might be too bright to fish in 10 to 15 feet of water?

I want to give it a try and was wondering if you would set up at a spot you are already catching Whites?

Would setting up on a hump near a deep water channel draw more Hybrids?

Bait; I would like to use jigs and spoons, but would go to minnows if the need arose. What would the best bait be? I was also thinking to chum a little with dog food or cat food to help draw bait...good idea or bad?

Thanks for the help...


----------



## fishin_envy (Aug 13, 2010)

pm sent


----------



## texasGG (Mar 12, 2007)

I was kinda thinking of doing the same thing. Its so hot I thought I might fish in the day alright but maybe stay late and fish for some blues and maybe stripers or anything else that might bite. I'll probably be on the lake Wednesday through Friday. Drop me a note if you are going to be out and maybe we can compare notes. White bass and stripers are definitely out of my field of expertise.


----------



## denimdeerslayer (Feb 23, 2012)

I agree its so hot. We just up and left fish biting saturday to go cool off.


----------



## fishinganimal (Mar 30, 2006)

Lights at night may attract a ton of lake bugs. You might need a dust mask! An underwater light may not be too bad though. I would much rather beat the heat as well.


----------



## denimdeerslayer (Feb 23, 2012)

Id be very happy if a green light attracts crappie.


----------



## SeaOx 230C (Aug 12, 2005)

I have caught many a white bass and striper at night with and with out lights.


I have seen green under water lights, white lights of various types, car head lights in Styrofoam, even 12 volt incandescent household type bulbs. All worked fine if there where fish and bait in the area.


----------



## Sunbeam (Feb 24, 2009)

Growing up on the old west Texas lakes I learned to fish WB (sand bass) under a coleman lantern.
In the heat of the summer three or four boats would gather over a hump out on North Concho lake each with a lantern or two, Close together ....like 20 feet apart. The more the merrier. Fished minnows straight down near the bottom. 
Everyone says the light attracts the minnows. Can't ever remembering seeing a minnow except the ones in the bucket. (three dozen for a dollar)
Trolled the old Bomber bait with a bucktail trailer in the spring.
Deer hunted in the fall. NOBODY fished in West Texas in the winter when that three strand barbed wire fence north of Amarillo blows down.


----------



## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

I personally want to send encouragement your way on this project.
Be sure to post a detailed report!
I have not tried in many years on Livingston, but when I did I had the same results as most people I know who have tried.
Plenty of shad get under the lights quick and soon you catch a zillion undersize white bass and yellow bass. I did try daytime white bass spots.
I do know who some guys who were successful at it and they said the fishing was best with some wind. They used a slab on the bottom and one or two drop leaders with minnows. One shared with me the gps numbers for some of his spots and I was surprised to learn they were not in day time white bass spots.


----------



## Momma's Worry (Aug 3, 2009)

we were fishing the hill tops next to the river channel between the island and state park couple years ago this time of year ..real hot ..was catching good till the sun went down ...turned on all my lights and waited all night ...nothing showed except a ton of shad and ton of very small blue cats...blanked out the Lowrance sonor! ....down to 10' in 25 fow.....no whites or striper showed .....I was baffled for sure over this....but I will try it some more and we'll see..wb should have showed up


----------



## Captn C (May 21, 2004)

That's what I would suspect would happen...WB are already there...bait should gather pretty quick...sounds like a perfect, sure fire method of loading the boat with WB and Hybrids. ...


----------



## fishinganimal (Mar 30, 2006)

*Lights*

MW did you use underwater or overhead lights? I would think at the island in the shallows or points when the water cools a little could be the ticket.



Momma's Worry said:


> we were fishing the hill tops next to the river channel between the island and state park couple years ago this time of year ..real hot ..was catching good till the sun went down ...turned on all my lights and waited all night ...nothing showed except a ton of shad and ton of very small blue cats...blanked out the Lowrance sonor! ....down to 10' in 25 fow.....no whites or striper showed .....I was baffled for sure over this....but I will try it some more and we'll see..wb should have showed up


----------



## SeaOx 230C (Aug 12, 2005)

I should add that my night time white and striper fishing has not been on the Lake but in the River.


----------



## fishinganimal (Mar 30, 2006)

This is it ^^^^^^! If you have Matt at the helm! Or rent the barge for the evening.


----------



## Momma's Worry (Aug 3, 2009)

fishinganimal said:


> MW did you use underwater or overhead lights? I would think at the island in the shallows or points when the water cools a little could be the ticket.


4 AC over head dual bulb 48" florescence,soon the be LED, fixtures ....with generator ....

probably the wrong location ..next will be on the "Lump" out of beacon Bay

15/ 17 / 20 FTW


----------



## Captn C (May 21, 2004)

My White Bass fishing career is only a month old...so bear with me...

We have spots (I'm talking a lot of spots) that hold fish from about 8am to late afternoon, but from day break til 8am there is not much going on there at those spots. They are in 8 to 12 feet of water...

So this has me thinking that I don't know where they spend the night, which means I'm not going to be in the right spot to fish for them at night if I fish a day time spot at night.

None of the video's tell where they fish...water depth, shallow, deep, river channel, on a hump or on a flat. It's all about what to fish with...I'm pretty sure I can figure that out pretty fast if I have a big school of Whites holding in the light under the boat. AND! I'm not talking about lat/lons...just a simple where?!?!?!?!?!


----------



## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Type, type, type, somebody go try it.
And give us a report, we have a lot of hot summer still to go.


----------



## Ragecajun (Oct 31, 2011)

*My experiences*

We fishing many of Nights on Lake Buchanan in the summer with great success.

The water is clear with a granite bottom, (nothing like Livingston), so not sure if the advice will help, but here goes...

We fished in 35' of water with Medium Lake Minnows as bait. We fished simple clip on 3/4oz sinkers about 18" up the line and a gold barbed hook.

Our method was two cranks up off the bottom when you felt the hook touch. Several nights, it never made it to the bottom, when the fish were biting.

We used several different colored submerged lights and none seemed to make a difference. My FIL use to fish with 2 Coleman lanterns hung over the side of the John Boat with his dad and caught them, but there were a lot more bugs.

Over the years, We caught Bass, Crappie, Striper, Hybrids, and Cats.

We did notice that a little wind kept the baits moving on the bottom, and waves kept it moving up and down. On slow fishing nights, we would let out line by the foot and try different depths, to see if one paid off better than the others.


----------



## Momma's Worry (Aug 3, 2009)

I have fished a lot at night ,all saltwater.....but right at sun set,turn on the lights and don't move.....except to go home ....moving around don't work


----------



## texasGG (Mar 12, 2007)

Going out tomorrow night will tell the good or the bad when I get back in...


----------



## Whitebassfisher (May 4, 2007)

When I tried on the main lake on summer nights I didn't do very well. But in the river near Riverside on April nights was very successful.


----------



## fishinganimal (Mar 30, 2006)

Lanterns hung over baited tree tops back in the 70s for Crappie all night. Below the dam at the same time for whatever would bite. I can remember the gar anglers using whole Chickens for the monsters. It was crazy down there with that old ramp near the discharge. Lanterns all down the river.


----------



## Captn C (May 21, 2004)

Ragecajin,
How did you pick the spots you fished?
Was it a known daytime spot?


----------



## texasGG (Mar 12, 2007)

Well we got distracted so my report doesn't answer any questions. We went out to Pine Island at about 5:00 pm just looking for white bass, nothing. We then went over on the north side of Cape Royal and found pockets of white bass along the edges of the drop off in about 10 -15 ft. of water. The largest concentrations were where some small coves came out into the lake, again right on the drop offs. It was HOT! So we decided to ride back out to Pine Island more to get some air blowing to cool us down than to really do anything else. We got back to the west end of Pine Island at 7:00pm and the white bass were schooling on top in 5 to 10 ft. of water. They were moving not staying in one spot so we followed them all the way around the south side of the island until they went down, about 7:30pm, they never came back up. We decided to anchor up and get set up to catfish and white bass for the night. We had live perch for catfish. We set up between the island and the river on the drop off and threw in out baits just as the sun was setting, thinking that when it got darker we would put out our lights for white bass. That never happened, my cousin who was with me got a call to go in to work early the next morning so we knew we would have a short night of fishing. We caught our biggest bluecat, about 15 -18 lbs. within 5 minutes of setting out our rods then caught and broke off blues and gar until we left at midnight. We were getting steady bites until we left and left them biting. We really never had time to set up our other lights to even think about white bass. Not what we intended to do for the night but you just have to improvise and take what the lake gives you at times.


----------



## Captn C (May 21, 2004)

Thanks for the report...school will be starting soon so my weekday trips will end for a while. The only way to beat the weekend crowds will fishing at night so I'm going to give it a try.

If any of you try a night trip be sure to post up how you did and what made you pick your spot.

I know I'm going to pick a known daytime spot that is on a hard drop off into a creek bed.


----------



## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Wow nice report TexasGG!
Some of friends tell me there is a heck of a blue cat bite going.
And that the fish are full of eggs and milt.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## fishinganimal (Mar 30, 2006)

Great report TGG. No sunscreen required!


----------



## texasGG (Mar 12, 2007)

I'm planning on trying another night time trip next weekend if the weather allows. Is there anyone else on here that wants to give it a try? I'm trying to talk my Brother in to taking his boat also. It would be nice to meet a few more of you guys.


----------



## Momma's Worry (Aug 3, 2009)

*Night trip ....LL*

if someone enthusiastic would come over and get me worked up...get tackle ready,help get a few little things ready and have a game plan ..I would come up and light the place up ....need a productive location as I don' t have a clue right now.... for whoever wanted to circle the wagons .....I 'll

be more than happy to do it ......my freezer is still near empty

D Lawrence

Liberty,Tx


----------



## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

So who went?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------

