Night Shift – On Ice

Night Shift – On Ice

By Rod Woten

Having a full-time day job can sure cut into a person’s ice fishing time. It’s bad enough that our ice fishing season is short and seems to get shorter every year, but the fact that we have to spend five days a week wasting some of the best ice fishing hours working at our 9-to-5’s just doesn’t seem fair. If only there was a way to squeeze a few extra hours out of each day for some time on the ice. Well, why not fish after dark? Certain species of fish actually bite better after the sun goes down and all fish usually bite very well during that magical hour just before sunset. I can’t think of a better way to make the best of a short season and take advantage of some great fishing.

After Dark Species
In Iowa, the two most common species caught after dark are walleyes and crappies. While it is possible to catch bass, bluegill, and a host of other Iowa fish species after dark, crappies and walleyes excel at seeing in the dark, so they use this to their advantage to prey on the other, less gifted, species. If I had to pick a third after dark species, I would have to go with the channel catfish. The channel cat’s ability to smell its next meal rather than seeing it gives it a definite advantage once the sun goes down. Knowing how these fish feed and how they move as the light conditions change can ensure your success on the ice after the sun goes down.

The Magical Hour
One of the best times to be on the ice is just as it starts to get dark. That stretch of time between when the sun is at the top of the trees until it sinks below the horizon is typically a flurry of activity that starts at the very bottom of the food chain and sets the entire fish population into a feeding frenzy. As the sun starts to set, the dwindling light triggers all of the microscopic organisms in the water to rise up in the water column and become very active. This, in turn, gets the baitfish going as they begin to patrol the water column and feed on these super-tiny bugs now clouding the water. For the little bit of light that’s left, all the other fish at the top of the food chain– bluegills, crappies, bass, walleyes and the rest– begin feeding on these baitfish and bugs. As the light fades, fish like bluegills and bass, that don’t see very well in the dark, eventually give up the chase and slink back to their favorite hiding spots to wait for sunrise. Fish like crappies and walleyes that have a vision advantage after dark will often continue to feed aggressively.

During the daylight hours, walleyes are often out in deeper water avoiding the more intense light found in shallower water or hanging out in shallower water in a very lethargic state. Once the transition from light to dark begins, the walleyes start to become more active and start to move towards shallower water. Crappies, on the other hand, have typically spent their time suspended out over the main basin of the lake loitering until the light to dark transition starts. Once it does, they will begin to move shallower or move higher up in the water column and start to feed more aggressively. Knowing these critical movements can dictate how and where we fish for these low light feeders.

Set Up Camp
If you like to set up in one spot and wait for the fish to come to you, then nighttime fishing is right up your alley. Because these fish are actively roaming and chasing food, it is the perfect opportunity to find a prime location to set up camp and wait for the fish to come to you. Some of these prime locations would be weed edges, pinch points or breaklines immediately adjacent to deeper water. Nighttime feeders, especially walleyes, will use these features like mini interstate highways to travel from the deeper water to shallower water, chasing and ambushing prey as they go. If you can set up on one of these travel corridors, the action can be fast and furious all night long! There are some safety implications here as well. Ice is hard enough to read in full daylight, but in the dark it is downright impossible to see the difference between good ice and sketchy ice. At night, we often don’t see thin spots, spring holes, pressure ridges and the like until we’re right up on top of them. The last thing we need to be is to be wandering around on the ice after dark. If we can find a good spot and setup shop for the night, the chances of encountering a bad spot are greatly reduced.

Light It Up
When night fishing, I like to use lures that put lots of flash and vibration in the water. Since I am waiting for the fish to come to me, I want to make myself as easy to find as possible. Jigging spoons are my go-to for this situation. I can work them aggressively to draw fish in from a distance, and slow things down once they come into trigger a bite. Spoons with rattles put even more vibration and sound into the water and can draw in fish from even longer distances.

When I’m choosing a spoon for fishing after dark, I look for one that has lots of flash or lots of glow. Glowing spoons are just another method of making your lure standout under the ice and getting it noticed. Red glow is the brightest glow color but also glows for the shortest amount of time between recharges. Blues and greens, at the other end of the spectrum, have the dimmest glow, but can glow for long periods of time. For a rod that you are actively jigging, red works well because it throws off the greatest glow, allowing it to be seen from the greatest distance away, and since you will probably be reeling it up and dropping it back down fairly regularly, there will be ample opportunity to recharge its short-lived glow.

A lot of night time fishermen like to use submersible light to attract fish. The theory is that aquatic bugs are attracted to the light which attracts baitfish and, in turn, the larger fish we’re after. Some anglers swear by them, but I have such good luck with glow jigs that I’ve never really had the opportunity to try one. It’s really important before you use a submersible light that you make sure it is legal where you plan to use it. Some states allow them and others don’t, so make sure and do your research. I will also add that a light on top of the ice is NOT equivalent to a light below the ice. I used to fish Big Creek fairly regularly at night and in doing so, I learned very quickly that whenever I had my lantern burning, the crappies would disappear from my flasher, but as soon as I shut the lantern off, my flasher dial would light up with crappies.

Get Tipsy
Night time is also a great time to use a live baitfish on a deadstick to catch fish. Since we will be relatively stationary after dark, dropping down a second line with a live minnow to struggle and attract fish does not anchor us down like it would if we were trying to be highly mobile during the day. A deadstick is a great companion to an active jigging rod as well, because fish will often be attracted from a distance by the active jigging rod, but end up eating the live bait on the deadstick.

A tipup is a deadstick, of sorts, and is a dynamite tactic to use after dark as well. One of my favorite ways to use a tipup after dark is to find those travel corridors the fish are using. In Iowa you can use 3 lines if you buy the extra line license, so I like to actively jig with one rod while I have two tipups set up somewhere around me. I usually try to set one deeper than I am fishing and one shallower than I am fishing. If I eventually start to see one tipup or the other consistently get tripped by fish, I will know to adjust my approach to more closely match where that tipup was set.

When fishing a deadstick or tipup, keep in mind the glow spectrum. Since these types of lines are typically left to soak for long periods of time, this is the perfect place to utilize the dimmer but longer glowing colors like green and blue. Since you won’t be able to see the flag of a tripped tipup in the dark, you will also need to add some sort of light indicator to your tipup. There are many different kinds available, so find the one that works for you. I have to admit that one of my favorite parts of fishing with tipups after dark is when I see one of the tipups light up!

Lights Out
Even if you’re blessed with a job that allows you plenty of ice fishing trips during daylight hours, you should really give after-dark ice fishing a try. After an exhausting day of running and gunning, it can be very relaxing to kick back on a darkened lake and watch as your flasher dial lights up with suspended crappies on a feeding binge. It might take some time during daylight hours to determine where the fish are hiding during the day and figure out what routes they will use to move shallower at dusk, but it can pay great dividends once the sun goes down. There are some definite advantages to working the night shift…..on ice!