Night Fishing For Catfish

Catfish seem to be on my mind lately (see the biggest catfish ever caught post) and this post is no different.

Night fishing for catfish

Catfish were once strictly a night time angling target exclusively, but day time fishing has become a much more popular method for catching these great fish. However, there are many reasons to go night fishing including;

• The water to too clear.
• It is too hot during the day.
• Too many anglers and "pleasure craft" on the water during the day.
• Catfish (and other fish for that matter) will often be more willing to feed at night.
• The bigger catfish are consistently caught at nighttime!
  

To catch catfish at night try following the tips below;

• Try to be quiet catfish don’t have the best vision, but they are sensitive to noise.
  
• Try a big smelly bait to give the catfish the best chance of finding your bait - try shad, fresh fish fillets, chicken livers even hot dogs will work.
• Use a rig with the hook on the bottom (this is where the catfish are looking for food).
• Try not to shine your light in the water - this can scare the catfish.
• If you are fishing a river try working the pools below the damn where the bait fish will be schooling.

Good Luck - hopefully you will catch a big catfish like the one in the video

Bass night fishing

Many people do not understand that most fish activity takes place under the cover of darkness. There is research that suggests that over 90% of fish species feed almost exclusively at night. This means that night fishing can be a very productive method of catching fish.

During the day fish are not only less active, but can be spooked by boat noise and anglers making noise above the surface. They can also see your boat and lure presentation much clearer and there is the added risk of rejection because of these factors. Under the cover of darkness, fish feel more confident when feeding and cannot see quite as well as usual.

Night Fishing Tips
When night fishing for bass follow these few tips to success

• Use dark colored lures (color vision fades in darkness)
• Try fishing around areas of light like docks.
• Try a lure that makes some noise or a surface lure that "bloops"

Night Fishing For Bass
These two videos share some great ideas for night fishing for bass and are well worth watching - the first one is presented by Doug Hannon (The bass professor).