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Is saltwater fishing good during the night time?

I'm a little disappointed. I went saltwater fishing about a half hour in from the ocean one morning and caught many fish. The conditions were horrible, windy, choppy water, and cold. Today I checked out the water and seen it was perfectly calm and desided to try during the night. I went for around 5 hours (8pm-1am and didn't get anything except a few stingrays. The weather was warm-cool with little wind and nice calm water. Is saltwater fishing just bad during the night time or what? I'm along the east coast of Georgia

Public Comments

1. well where you from what part of texas,where did u fish it ddepends , i do the best at night ,im from brownsville texas and i land monster trout at nite.i fish at lighted piers and use live bait. if you wanna land good fish go to public lighted piers for fish, heres a tip use braided line and make a 30lb leader attached to the end of it with a size 6 trble hook followed with a bobber float attached about 2feet above the hook, with some live shrimp and i gurantee youll catch more. now if you really want to catch, catch some live menhaden(shiners) or mullet (finger size) with a cast net along the banks, thats what i use and i never go home empty handed , i end up happy .also use a 3and half inch lure called killer diller shrimp (glow) it works well
2. There's nothing wrong with saltwater fishing at night. Time of the day have some effect on fish but tidal change is more important when it comes to saltwater fishing. If the current isn't moving, many fish are less willing to bite. Checking a tide table for your area will be better than checking your watch. Species like sharks and rays will be more active at night. Certain species won't hang around their "day time hangouts". Some species that feed around mid water column during the day will feed closer to the surface. Some species will come closer to the surf. You have the option to use light to attract fish. Your favorite day time lure might or might not work. You'll have to try different colors and different retrieval speeds. Saltwater fishing at night is just a little different sometimes.
3. It depends on many factors, mainly tide, the moon and the direction and amount of wind. There is also the baits to be used and what type of fish you are after. As you stated, upon fishing during the day in stormy conditions you caught more fish than at night on a still water, this may be due to the bottom being stirred up by the stormy seas providing good feeding for the fish. My best advice would be to speak to someone who knows your location well and glean as much info as possible, therefor increasing your chances. Best of luck from a fellow angler.
4. Actually, full moon nights are better than during the day... most saltwater fish will feed LATE at night on a full moon... like last tide-change of the night late... nice water movement, it's not oppressively hot, and there's plenty of light. (Which is why the bite sucks in the morning when it's been a full moon). Focus on tide change... you don't want to be wasting time during slack-tide in salt water.
5. If your catching Rays, I'm gonna guess your fishing a bottom rig with dead bait? If your fishing at night using dead bait on the bottom your odds on catching a good fish aren't very high! Hard-head Catfish ("trash" cats), Sail Cats, Rays, Eel, small Shark & Toad-fish would be your average catch. Your "best bet" for fishing at night would be to find a pier/dock/bulk-head that has LIGHTS. Lights attract baitfish, which in turn, attract gamefish, (like Redfish, Trout, Flounder, Etc). I suggest you use a float rig with live Shrimp around some dock lights. Fishing around dock-lights ups your odds of catching something good by 50%! Hope this helps ya? Good fishing!
6. around the uk, i find it better after sunset, catch better fish
7. i may be a woman, but night fishing isn't always bad. i went with my husband, son and daughter. the guys on the boat tore those fish up. i of course was sick as a dog, inside the boat. but there were about 15 other men outside with my husband and son. we came back with a crap load of fish. they had shark, reds, everything. so, no the fishing at night can be very good. and this was also out in the ocean. my husband and son, love to fish at night. they can do really well. we are in south carolina and they go up around mertle beach. so it just depends on the night i guess.
8. no one mentioned barometric pressure. I think the day you went in horrible conditions (for you) it was perfect conditions to them (the fish) trying to figure out what they want, need and have to have in order to eat and feed when we (the anglers) are around looking for them is always big news and changing and is always being studied we call this love of ours " fishing ", it's a crap shoot, but some day with more inventions and new toys we will be calling it "catching" instead. I love fishing at night and thinking about it I started using the baits for the night feeders I was out there targeting and caught many more with each outing when I used dedicated baits for dedicated fish.