Northwest Fishing Reports

I was looking for people that like to go night fishing. I prefer to fish after sunset but I have no boat nd just looking for others than might like to go out and go fishing with. My dad and I go maybe 1-2 times a year, not often enough for me heh. I think my father-inlaw was joking when he told me I should take my pontoon to Waitts and go night fishing for silvers.....lol....i guess I could rig up a couple lights on it hehe....

Night fishing for kokanee is exciting and Waitts, Loon and Deer Lake are all good spots. An inflatable pontoon could work on Waitts if you have appropriate lights to make it legal, although it would be too small for the other lakes.
I recently moved from Loon to the Portland area but will try to upload some picures of night fishing rigs. Down here the guys at the sport shops looked at me like I was crazy when I asked about night fishing areas.

When jigging be sure to give a stright smooth hookset. If you jerk like fishing for panfish you'll tear through the silver's soft mouths.

Makes sense that night fishing right now would be more productive,..the fish have a harder time seeing our "lousy presentations",..LOL,..and all of their imperfections,..line,..boat,..non-lifelike lures and plastics,..I think at night we might be more inclined to get a reaction strike versus the day unless the top water action is on,..I'm definately gonna try this Friday w/the full moon and all and see what gives,..who knows,..I might get lucky!

I almost laughed when my father-inlaw suggested using the pontoon boat for night fishing....i envisioned being ran over by some drunk boater lol.....but really, it wouldnt be that difficult to rig up some lighting to run off a marine battery, and then add a float light......hmmmm....

Horseshoe has some reportedly good Kokanee in there but I've never heard of anyone catching them......

ruthven78 wrote:I almost laughed when my father-inlaw suggested using the pontoon boat for night fishing....i envisioned being ran over by some drunk boater lol.....but really, it wouldnt be that difficult to rig up some lighting to run off a marine battery, and then add a float light......hmmmm....

Horseshoe has some reportedly good Kokanee in there but I've never heard of anyone catching them......

Or you could just buy those stick-on LCD lights that run off AA batteries. They last a VERY long time.

What do the boating regulations say about lighting requirements @ night? I may install a couple of lights and give night fishing a try this Friday...

I just posted a similar question before seeing this. Since most boating equipment regs don't apply to float tubes, I'm curious as well. I'm planning on going out this Friday night, ordered my UV headlamp last night and it should be here in time to make for a great night of fishing with the full moon.

I am not sure about float tubes but I know from rowing in crew during college that for any vessel on the water between dusk and dawn (1/2 hour before sunset and 1/2 hour after sunrise is what I use to distinguish this for safety though I know it is not the "legal" definition) you need to have a minimum of a bow light and a stern light, blinking is best and a combination of red/white to distinguish the sides of the boats works fine. we used to just use some cheap Bicycle lights for ours (mostly because with so many small waves/bad weather possibilites they had a tendancy to fall off) but a good LED light would be perfect for a float tube or pontoon boat.

One night my buddy and I were late getting off Chapman (s. of Cheney) and noticed more boats were putting in than leaving. So we decided to stick around to see what everyone was up to, thinking maybe the bite got better just after dark.

There ended up being a pretty large group of guys fishing more or less right out front of the old hatchery building (kokanee) and jigging. Some had some pretty elaborate setups, with lanterns hanging over the side, fishfinders, etc.. We ended up staying till about 2am! We didn't have a lot of luck, but also didn't have any lights, etc. We baited hooks by the glow of our cheap cigars. LOL!

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because Chapman is a no-wake lake, and I would think you'd be perfectly safe on a pontoon or in a float tube -- day or night. Where all the guys were hanging out would be an easy kick or row from the launch. Or you could rent one of their flat-bottom rowboats ($6, I think?).

Great lake, one of my favs. And as I recall it has a pretty liberal limit on koks since they raise their own.

This picture was taken that night on my cell phone. We had a full moon, it was a fun night.

wow great picture considering no fake light from your phone. i dont know how i would feel about being out on a little pontoon or float tube in the night, i just cant help think of the movie lake placid..lol..call me a wuss.

sickbayer wrote:wow great picture considering no fake light from your phone. i dont know how i would feel about being out on a little pontoon or float tube in the night, i just cant help think of the movie lake placid..lol..call me a wuss.

Ever see Titanic? ;)

I feel perfectly safe in a float tube. It's the idiots who think they're hydroplane racers who scare me.

Maybe I'll just bring a flare gun and use that to signal my presence to anyone who gets too close hehe

Night fishing is where it is at this time of the year. Pay close attention to the solunar prediction tables, especially the major times and be fishing during those times. Full moon nights are just OK, you want the three days prior and after for the best fishing. I have been night fishing the last two nights and just killed them, bass that is. I am taking tonight off maybe and headed out tomorrow night.

cool Im going to have to do some "investigating" on the LED lights and what not, probably pretty easy to mount to the frames and maybe get a pole with a light on top too, maybe get a battery powered lantern and put a yellow film around it so I wont become a beacon for bugs.

Horseshoe Lake over here is a no-wake, 5mph limit, although in some spots its fairly deep, I'll get my fish finder finally rigged up this week...I can probably get grandma to watch her grandson next week since my wife will be down visiting a friend in California all week.

fish4brains wrote:I have been night fishing the last two nights and just killed them, bass that is. I am taking tonight off maybe and headed out tomorrow night.

Where were you fishing FISH4BRAINS? I live next door to you in Liberty Lake and am curious if you've been hitting lakes in this area or the panhandle? I have an ID fishing license too. Maybe PM me if you don't mind, so we don't hijack this thread.

ruthven78 wrote:maybe get a battery powered lantern and put a yellow film around it so I wont become a beacon for bugs.

My neighbor's an electrician so we took some conduit and bent a piece to mount to the side of my rowboat and hang a lantern off the end. We would have been better off with a big flashlight (what are the big square batteries??) pointed straight down, since the light just blinded us and didn't get down into the water. A floodlight pointed straight down at the water would penetrate further and not blind you in the boat.

Can't speak for Horseshoe, but Chapman is a pretty skinny lake, and where the guys were doing all the fishing you could probably cast from one side to the other. I think it was only 15-20 feet deep too, so I think you'd be very safe in a pontoon.

well i was thinking of the lantern as a "Im here dont run over me" beacon lol......I'd probably rig up a flashlight with some sort of styrofoam block and just tie it up to the frame to keep it from floating away, or just tie it up to the frame liek where my stripping apron velcros on. when I get home (Im at work at the moment) gonna google it some more and maybe put the frame together to see where the best locations would be.

I have a rather large marine battery (group 27) but Im already pushing the weight limit.....it says max is 400lbs, but of course they say less for the actual person....Im, as of this morning, 275lbs....so I dont think I should press my luck with putting that on the toon....was thinking of putting it and a trolling motor on it but not really sure on that one lol, i may be overlimit hehe....would have came in real nice the other day when I was at the north end of Horseshoe rowing to the south end to get the boat launch in a staunch wind.

I might be able to swing a night in the next couple weeks. I have fished Loon a couple times with very little luck for koks. I got more trolling in the day. where would you suggest? I will start looking for a day or so that will work for me..

AaronE wrote:I just ordered my UV headlamp last night and it should be here in time to make for a great night of fishing

AaronE's got it down. I ordered the Petzl Tikka Plus LED Headlamp from REI and used the promo codes found on the internet for a cheaper price...got it for something like $27.00+ shipping. Great deal. This headlamp is great for my use. Use it w/the fish cat 4 deluxe and all is good

:thumleft:

Here's a link to the one I bought (these are so money for night fishing).

http://www.rei.com/product/751757

kutthroatkilla wrote:

AaronE wrote:I just ordered my UV headlamp last night and it should be here in time to make for a great night of fishing

AaronE's got it down. I ordered the Petzl Tikka Plus LED Headlamp from REI and used the promo codes found on the internet for a cheaper price...got it for something like $27.00+ shipping. Great deal. This headlamp is great for my use. Use it w/the fish cat 4 deluxe and all is good

:thumleft:

Here's a link to the one I bought (these are so money for night fishing).

http://www.rei.com/product/751757

My wife has two of those for when she goes running after dark. I usually sneak one with me to the lake in case I want to stay late

That UV headlamp I ordered has blacklight LEDs on it, so fluorescent line looks like a freakin' lightsaber at night. You'll see every bump, twitch, and hit better than in the daytime. Fishing with UV lights at night is the way to go.

ruthven78 wrote:I was looking for people that like to go night fishing. I prefer to fish after sunset but I have no boat nd just looking for others than might like to go out and go fishing with. My dad and I go maybe 1-2 times a year, not often enough for me heh. I think my father-inlaw was joking when he told me I should take my pontoon to Waitts and go night fishing for silvers.....lol....i guess I could rig up a couple lights on it hehe....

warm days, cool nights, full moon, high pressure system....night fishing = :money:

good luck, now i even might try.

I need to get out there and do some night fishing:bounce: Tomorrow may be the day:-"

to keep it legal check out this link.

.http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templ ... 00053&rid=