Late Night Sunfish

[FI Guide]

Well this ice fishing year has been a crazy year by far. In order to catch your fish you have to be using glows and a variety of glow colors. Also the big temperature changes that have been going on have made the fishing very different from the past couple of years. But the one thing that has got me thinking is why im out at midnight in my walleye spot catching bluegills. Last Saturday for instance I went out to a metro lake and fished during the morning and caught some very nice panfish. Later i went out at dark and decided to stay out overnight to catch a few eyes. Around 10 PM the vex lite up from the bottome to around 3ft off the bottom. I thought here are the eyes i was looking for, but after 10 min of no bites on the minnow i changed to a jig packed with waxies and right away i got a bite. I reeled the fish in and to my surprise it was a bull gill. This action continued for another hour with the fish biting very aggressive. We got a few nice fish but I was puzzeled why were the panfish biting better at night then during the day? Has this ever happened to you?

[mudman]

FI GUIDE

If you are talking about the lake I think you are, YES!!!

I usually go out at 9pm and stay unitl 12 or 1am

I think it has to due with all the traffic! That lake is a ZOO during the daytime. I have been fishing that lake during these times since 1995 and it seems to be the same pattern every year. Deep water with decent structure with in 100yds and they come in droves and the bite lasts for about 10-min or so the dies down and then picks up again. It cycles like this the entire night.

[CrappieJohn]

Sunfish are , for the most part, daytime feeders due to their poor eyesight after darkness falls. This does not mean they are unable to target food. Some of your largest sunnies will come to the ice at this time of year during night bites. Jigging those bugs makes a lot more "noise" down there than you know and is probably another reason they were able to target your bait.

The comments about the noise on the ice is probably more true than most people want to think. I think all fish will get pensive after a winter's worth of racket on the ice and maybe even do as deer do, get nocturnal. Nice post...Good observation!

[Matt Breuer]

11pm to 2am! Can't beat it for monster 'gills on many lakes that people aren't aware of!

[delmuts]

11 - 2 ?? i know we talked about that last year, but gees Matt do you ever sleep ?

[P.DONA]

We did well with the calico/crappie after dark, too. A glow marmooska tipped with a maggot produced well. they were from 6" off the bottom to about 5 feet up in 20+ feet of water.. Caught some gils after dark, too.

[FI Guide]

Mudman i am sure we are on the same lake. What depth are you fishing? I have been looking for the eyes all winter never found any but found a nice surprise in this spot. Have you caught any eyes this year? Feel free to shoot me an email and we can talk more about this. My email is [email protected]