Question about fishing off dock at night
 

Sunday night, I was fishing off my dock in Big Lake (Old Settlement) and waiting for the high tide to come in. Predicted high tide was around 1:30 a.m. My pier had the only lights on around me. It was incredibly calm, with winds, if any, less than 2 knots. Water color was ok (could see bait about a foot down. I started fishing around 11:00 p.m. I saw trout all over the place hitting minnows (?) - bait fish on the surface. The lady fish, that had been there early in the evening, were all gone. I threw several plastics and didn't get a hit. Then I threw a pink Corky's Fatboy and caught a nice trout. I then threw a Vudu Shrimp (natural) and caught a very small rat red. Nothing on the Vudu after that. I thought game on for the Fatboy. I caught about 10, but only 5 keepers over the next 2 hours. The trout kept exploding on the surface hitting the bait fish. I could see them hit the surface. I didn't have any live bait and rarely fish with live bait any way. By the way, it was a pretty full moon. I tried several other plastics in several different colors. Some success (a few), but nothing big. I had 8 different rods from my fishing trip that day. I even tried top water baits like top dogs, she dogs etc. My question - what would you have thrown in this situation? Was I doing anything wrong? I saw so many trout that I thought I was going to caught a 100. Thanks for your tips.

You need to throw a bait that sits less than inch under surface and small in size

Like sparkle beetle with 1/32 jighead or slow slow sinking bait "small"

Had the same problem as you last summer. I tied on a small tsunami and it was on. One after the other!

When we fish the lights in the Winter time in the ship channel we use a white bait. Normally a cocahoe minnow, tandem rigged.

Sometimes we also use a white and yellow shad rig, if one is catching more than the other switch both to that color.

http://www.hhlure.com/speckandredfishrigsnew.html

Also, cast into the shadows and swim the bait into the light.

Weightless white baby fluke

Glow grub on a light jighead or weightless

live mullet

dynamite...lol

Clear small sparkle beetle lip-hooked on a small kahle hook. Twitch and pause, find out how they want it. Might want to tie it to a two foot or so leader - doesn't really have to be fluoro - and barrel swivel to cut down on line twist. Other good baits are Deadly Dudley original in the junior size in glow, Sand Eel Jr in glow.

If you want to really get technical (and save a few baits), attach hook to a screw lock thingy (Tailgater I think is what they're called) and fish it that way.

Mirrodines can work at times.

I've had the best luck with these in those situations.
Lightweitht and stays just under surface with steady retrieve.

Buddy fished Sunday night, tore them up on a clear Deadly Dudley.
I fished with him last night, the Deadly was mostly dud-ley.
We caught a few on Tsaunami then I went to live mullet freelined and reeled slowly just under the surface - Game On. I don't like live bait either but I don't like casting everything in the box and catching nothing when they are blowing up like crazy. If the mullet went down to the bottom you caught small white trout, hardheads or gafftops. Unusual night.

I like the clear sparkle beetles with a red tail or glow sparkle beetles, sometimes sand eels and Ive tried gulp with a little success sometimes.

a friend of mine from lake charles an i took of work from conoco one night an went to a warf on biglake that was his familys .we walked to the end an turned the giant round lights on an sat around about 30 minutes an the bugs an small fish started showing up an the bigger fish started hitting top.im not a big saltwater fisher but was enjoying not being at work my friend was fishing cocohoe minnows an other plastics an caught a few.i had a old taklebox in my truk with freshwater baits rapala bangolures purpl worms,well i said to my friend i was seein white flashes way out on the edge of the lights he said it was spekld trout so i said ima try this broke back shiner which was my favorite to use for bass.i made a few cast an caught a six pound trout an another on around three lbs my friend then ask if i had another one an i declined so the went searching lake charles for another on with no luck so they returned to the dock an we took turns with the only one i had .ended up with 50 by morning an cuple flounder.he knows now about how good that silver blackback jointed minnow is at night ... believe

I use the gulp eel hooked wacky style. I like the gulp worm-looking thing with the very ribbed body, also hooked wacky style for fishing under lights. Last summer some guys rented the camp next to us and were throwing streamers meant for fly rods. They smoked 'em! Been wanting to get a fly-tying vise ever since then.

Fish a small swimbait 2" with 1/8 oz head in glow (spike the tail chat.) slow steady ret. They will kill it

I had a interesting conversation with a friend that went out to a rig at night with a commercial fisherman. The old commercial fisherman said that fish feed in waves. first will be the cats. then they go down and then it will be.....I actually forget what the second is....CRS getting bad. maybe it was reds. Then he said the third wave will be the trout. He didn't fish the first two waves and when the specks showed up they started hammering them. Anyone ever notice this phenomenon?