Illumination for night fishing

[Whopper Stopper]

When fishing musky at night what have you found to be the best for lighting? Do you just use head lamps or do you have some other spotlights rigged up? I would have to think it would be nice to be able to see but does to much light scare them.

Thanks.......WS

[Swimmer]

Ive found that you NEED to start out on a lake you know well. Beyond the safety issues, this will help you determine your equipment needs. I use a good multi-LED headlamp -- only use this when you need to (landing fish, ect.) or you will not take advantage of your night vision. A small subdued light on low inside the boat is OK. THis year, I bought two blacklight/flourescent combo lights to mount on the outside of the gunwales on each side of the boat (Cabella's). I will use flourescent line with the blacklights on (I'm ichin to try the blacklight thing) while casting and only use the headlamp when needed. Also don't forget a spotlight for finding the landing and warning-off close approaching boats.

[Crankbait_Guy]

Swim,

Could you explain why the black lights are going to help you? I'm assuming it will just help you see things in the boat, right?

Maybe I'm missing something, please enlighten me?

Thanks

[Swimmer]

The black lights cause the flourescent line to flouresce while at the same time not affecting night vision. If you ever had a false strike at night and you did'nt know you only had ten feet of line out (lure was close to boat)...let's just say a pound of wood and hook whisling past your face is no fun. The black light should make understanding the location of the line/lure more assured. This is what "they" say since I have not had the chance to operate the system yet. Anybody else use the black lights??

[Crankbait_Guy]

I see. That really makes sense, as far as the line out thing. The few times I have night casted for muskies I recall having the thought that I didn't know where bait my bait was, and when I be figure 8ing.

Do you figure 8 after every cast at night? And, what's your favorite thing to throw?

[Swimmer]

I don't want to sound like a high brow expert or anything, since my Musky night fishing outings could be counted on one, no two hands. You want to throw something with a large profile and dark color. Noisy is good too. The most fun thing to throw is a dark noisy topwater like a TopRaider or Tallywacker type. Make sure you keep the defillibrater charged up! Also black bucktails/spinner baits, and dark jerk baits. There are certain spots (maybe where you had big girl follow during the day) under a favorable moon that can be dynamite...Joe Bucher has many stories about this...me, only one. Remember to keep the brewskies to a minimum...better yet, there is very little room for error at night, so leave them for later.

[JohnMickish]

I'm not sure but you might want to check the legality of the black light use in Minnesota. I know it USED to be illegal but not sure anymore.