Slow nights.

[D-I-A]

I went out Friday and Saturday night and fished a couple of green lights and a couple of boat dock lights and it was slow to say the least. Caught a lot of silvers and a few small specks in the boat dock lights and in the green lights the rats were feeding on shad and crabs the size of a thumb nail.

The good news is that the white shrimp are moving back in they were getting chased out of the water by the silvers into my kayak, but they are also small.

[trseato]

Bait fish (menhaden?) in the lights all night long and nothing seemed to bother them. Floated shrimp across the light all night and never lost a bait?
Clue me in. What am I doing wrong?

[D-I-A]

That is menhaden, sometimes the fish are not in the canal that you are in. I have gone to many green lights where there is plenty of bait but no fish under them.

The key in fishing lights is to match the hatch. So on slow nights if you don't see fish in your light catch those shad in your cast net and keep them alive and let the bait ball rebuild and then fish the outer edge of your light free lining your live shad with a bb split shot.

This will increase your catch. Another key is to be very quiet and if you do hook up into a fish, keep the fish low and out of the water quickly if you let the fish get a bunch of head shakes at the surface you will have to wait a while for the fish to come back in.

[trseato]

Thanks! All help appreciated. I'll have to wait a while and let them grow a bit. Right now they are so small they would go right through a cast net.

[52M-28]

I have the same thing in my light a lot of small bait, the trout and reds move in and out at different times. Tide affects them as well as noise and the vibrations of a hooked fish. At least 15 min. after one is caught before they return. Last week-end I flipped a Glo curly tail jig in the edge of some really nice trout got a good tap on the bait set the hook connnected with one of the largest hard-heads I have hooked in a long time. Go figure.

[D-I-A]

That's why it's always best to go with what is swimming in the water. Try some crappie assassins in salt'n'pepper or phantom with very light jig heads.