Another Night Out Under the Lights

[K Swirve]

Blackbeard and I went out last night around 10 pm. Hit up some coves and found some good lights on. We broke down and got a pint of shrimp and we were glad we did. We caught about 15 specks, but only 6 were keepers (up to 19 inches). We had about another 6 that were about a 1/4 of an inch short which was a bummer. We got into some reds, but they were all undersized (still a hell of a fight when you are using some micros). The sand trout are also out in full effect and they are some beasts. We kept a couple that were close to 15 inches. We caught a total of 50 fish not counting the hardheads, it was a fun filled action packed night. Too bad we didnt catch a few more keepers.

[Milkjug]

Nice job on the keepers. Hard to beat live shrimp when they are finicky. If you are fishing underwater lights, wouldn't it technically be a night out above the lights?

[WestEndAngler]

Good report!

MilkJug... I do believe your correct.

[imhammer]

Great report.....Thanks,

[nokatchin]

very nice job.congrats

[GHSmacker]

Thanks for the report

[sfef84]

I can attest to that... except I did not catch ANYTHING (no live shrimp).

Friday and Sat Night were RIDICULOUS!! In laffite's cove i kept hearing splashes of bait jumping out of the water and then the giant boom of the trout eating under water. I heard this around 100 times.. they were ALL OVER THE PLACE. I tried top-waters, shads, frozen squid, trout rig, sub-walks, rattle-traps, Berkley GULP shrimps... AND NOTHING... not even a bite. and the specks were everywhere. Guess I need some live shrimp

[K Swirve]

We were having the same issue for the past few weeks, so we broke down and got a pint of shrimp. PROBLEM SOLVED. The only problem is that there were much larger fish that we could see but its first come first serve when you are using live shrimp.

[sfef84]

I am glad to hear you solved the same problem I had. I couldn't get over how much action there was in the channel!!

I was frustrated because a) the fish were obviously there. b) they were obviously feeding. c) I threw my entire tackle box at them.

Did you have them hooked under a float or on a jig?

[K Swirve]

I just free shrimped them b/c all the action was near the top of the water. Then wind started blowing so I just added a split shot and we were still able to catch them.

[WestEndAngler]

Kyle, good job on working the water column until you located the fish... Just because you can see them doesn't mean they are going to bite, you have to get it down on the level that they are feeding...

I have always had a lot of success with my fly rod when that kind of condition presents itself.

[sfef84]

When using shedogs, spooks etc (any top water) at night... do you guys
a) cast, pop them and wait?
b) slow retrieve only
c) combination?

I am new to the night fishing so bare with me...
1)Do you guys work your baits only around the lights? or can you cast out in the middle of the channel with no lights around and catch fish?
2) do you retrieve your bait straight through the middle of the lights.

Obviously, if you are using live, you can put it wherever you want.

Thanks

[K Swirve]

have had little to no success with top waters around the lights. They are very loud and seem to spook the fish. Most fish are caught reeling the bait right through the light even using live bait. If you dont see fish in the lights let it fall near the back side and bump it off the bottom. I have had good success doing that. Usually a nice red will hit it. Caught a 25 inch red in Lafitte doing this before.

[Race1Mopar]

Great report. I also noticed they got reall finnicky in the last week under the lights. I only caught three on soft plastics and tight lippe on all other artificials so I threw a cast net and grabbed some shad (Menhaden- don't get me started... there the same fish). With the shad I was able to coax a few more but they were so finicky that it had to be a free line presentation and the hook had to be small. Even with the small hooks I saw one about 27 inches run up to my shad, stop short and look at it then turn off. Part of it may have been that the shad didn't run off so fast and his predatory instincts said something is wrong, but we know they get smart at times, and that's how we get the big ones!

Thanks again
Joe

[CarolinaSkiffin]

Thanks for the report. I bet a few cold ones went down that night too