A submerged fishing light cast an eerie green glow off the front of the dock as Capt. Wes Carlton eased us into casting range with trolling motor. On a still and warm moonless night, darkness like an enclosure drew eyesight to the center of that luminescence, where occasional flickers belied the presence of feeding fish.
“No premature casts. That’s like being premature in bed.” Wes muttered as if he sensed the impatience of the two anglers in the front of the boat. “And don’t hit the dock either. They’re spooky on nights like this.”
Conditions were dead still in the back of a creek on Georgia’s Lake Lanier. It was approaching midnight, and we had been on feeding fish for several hours.
A week prior, Jody Pressley, of Dawsonville, caught a striped bass that weighed heavier than 45 pounds pitching live blueback herring to dock lights at night, but we were mainly fishing artificials. When you first pull up to a lighted dock, a big jerkbait like a Spro McStick reeled at a moderate pace through the glow is just the thing to catch the attention of a striper, big largemouth or spotted bass. Just be sure to switch out the hooks for stronger ones; a striper will straighten a hook designed for bass fishing in a heartbeat.
Once a fish or two falls for the jerkbait, the fish become wise. Then it’s time to switch it up on them. A slower, deeper approach with a 3/16-oz. Capt. Mack Farr bucktail jig dropped all the way to the bottom and retrieved steadily will sometimes draw a follow-up bite, and you also can’t go wrong with a live blueback herring nose-hooked and pitched weightless into the light.
From the bow, 15-pound braid spun off the open face of Keith’s reel when he fired his jerkbait. It landed with a plop less than a foot from the front of the dock. He had barely closed the bail when a long shadow streaked into the light and smashed the bait. Keith reared back, and a 15-pound striper erupted on the surface, thrashing around before commencing a series of explosive runs that ripped line off his undersized gear. Thankfully, the fish was headed for open water. Keith eventually brought it boatside. A beautiful long and sleek teenaged striper was just one of a dozen or more fish that made the evening well worth forsaking an early bedtime.
Whether it’s stripers, hybrid bass, largemouths, spots, walleye or even trout, scenes like this will play out in the dark on Southeastern reservoirs all summer long. As the weather warms and pleasure boaters and jet skis take over the lakes, night fishing will become both the most pleasant and productive way to fish.
On Lanier, this dock-light striper bite will end with a bang sometime this month when the big females return briefly to dock lights from their spawning grounds on the way to deeper water. On any lake, as surface temperatures rise into the high 70s and low 80s, most of the larger predatory fish will be headed out onto the main creek channels. But that doesn’t mean the bite around lights will be over. On most reservoirs, dock lights are good areas to target largemouths year-round.
For those species that seek out deeper, cooler, more oxygenated water, you’ll need to bring your own light source to the party.
Beginning in late June or early July, Wes goes to the main channels and drops two or more 4-foot-long green tube lights from his boat. Don’t forget the extra battery.
As with any fishing, the bite is all about the bait, and it takes from 15 minutes to an hour and a half for bait to swarm lights dropped from a boat. Once baitfish are thick and spinning around the lights like a green pinwheel, it should be no problem to drop a sabiki rig and load up the bait tank. Then there’s nothing left to do but downline those baits to the bottom of that bait ball you’ve created. Where there’s that much bait, fish will be there ready to eat.
This is pretty hard-core fishing with specialized equipment, though. If you’d rather take it easy, crappie are another great option for summer nights. Crappie fishermen – lit up by lanterns – will be tied up under creek-channel bridges all summer long.
No matter how you do it, night fishing is a great option for beating the oppressive summer heat on crowded reservoirs. If you’ve never done it, give it a try one night this summer. There’s a good chance you’ll see the light.
Capt. Wes Carlton guides day and night trips on multiple north Georgia lakes. For more information, go to www.georgialakefishing.com or call (770) 318-9777.