Ice fishing at night with underwater lights

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Permalink Reply by David Merical on December 5, 2008 at 10:56am

Good question.
I do know that one can catch bluegills while ice-fishing at night without lights. I don't know if having lights nearby would help or hinder fishing...or maybe not make any difference at all?

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Permalink Reply by 2lbgill on December 5, 2008 at 11:02am

I don't see why it wouldn't work. We catch big Gills all night long while fishing Trout using an under water light. In fact you'll catch more big Gills than little ones after dark.

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Permalink Reply by David A. Ross on December 5, 2008 at 11:21am

I will give this a serious try this winter and let you know the results..

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Permalink Reply by Bruce Condello on December 5, 2008 at 11:35am

That's a great question. I haven't tried it personally, so I don't have a good answer, but I would like to add that the dissolved oxygen levels will drop after dark in smaller, more fertile water bodies. Consequently nighttime fishing for bluegill and crappie in ponds with lots of single-celled algae sometimes drops dramatically. I'd be interested if anybody has any insight in general about bluegill fishing at night under the ice. My guess is, that the bigger the water body, the more effective it might be.

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Permalink Reply by bluegillboogieman on February 20, 2010 at 6:19am

I have no clue how I even found this discussion. BUT......I was talking to a local gill guru yesterday and he mentioned recently seeing a fisherman in a boat that had about 5 marine batteries and lights mounted all around for night fishing for gills. The deep south lake he was on is probably 100 to 150 acres. Now crappie fishing at night is big down here but not gill fishing. He said this fellow did it on purpose.
We had some ice on ponds down here back in January! Nobody was drivin' around on it. So even though we don't ice fish, some of us do use lights for night gill fishing.

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Permalink Reply by Lord of the Fly , Rods on February 20, 2010 at 7:23am

Bruce is right about oxygen levels, with all the catfish ponds in my area , the oxygen level is the lowest just before dawn, thats why everone uses aireators in their ponds. Now if you take a small compresser out on the ice and drop a weighted air line to the bottom with a piece of soaker hose on the end of the air line to diffuse the air bubbles you now have the best of both worlds , light and water with an increased oxygen level, this would draw fish from all over and keep them in a collum under your ice hole, next chum them a little ,and the fishing frenze is on.

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Permalink Reply by bluegillboogieman on February 20, 2010 at 10:29am

I know nothing about aireation but I have my ideas. My idea is that it occurs at the surface of the water through movement of the water. Wind, wave action and personal watercraft on large bodies of water takes care of it. Just kidding about the watercraft. As to bubbles from the bottom, don't they just rise to the surface and make the water move, therby oxygenating the surface? Then wave action and heat of day circulate the O2 from top to bottom. A little hole in the ice doesn't doesn't seem like that would give enough oxygen, especially if you have a shack over it and are sittin' around blowin' hot air. I ain't never been ice fishin' but I've been boat fishin'. Hot air is hot air, low in oxygen.

Yer Lorship, are you sayin that tiny bubbles seepin' out of that soaker hose will mix with the water down there and oxygenate the water down there, bypassing the surface? Or are you sayin' the fish will suck up the tiny bubbles and get oxygen from them. I'm being serious, I said I know nothing about it. I'm just real curious about not gettin' enough air cause I never got enough out of them Fire Dept air packs and eatin' food was the last thing on my mind. And I had a shore nuff soaker hose with me. You could take a big hose and nozzle set on wide spray, hold the spray pattern just inside the edge of an open window, spraying from inside out. Open a window on the other side and blow all the heat, smoke and poisionous gases out the spray window. It worked like a giant exhaust fan. Then the GOOD air came in the window behind you, refilling the room with cool fresh air. If you tried it without that second window letting the GOOD air in, you just blew hot air around the room. Straighten out my thinkin'. Blow some bubbles my way.

Turnin' Blue Boogieman

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Permalink Reply by Lord of the Fly , Rods on February 20, 2010 at 10:45am

Smallmouth like oxygenated water in the shoals , fish like the bubbles in the aquarium, the tiny bubbles at the bottom of the lake cool faster and oxygenate the water, blow co2 into water at 36 degrees and you got club soda, hey they dont call it brain surgery , you just have to be smarter than the fish, and they hang out in schools. Put the air hose deep in the water and let the bubbles float to the surface

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Permalink Reply by bluegillboogieman on February 20, 2010 at 11:12am

I get the shoals thing, it fits my theory, surface action oxygenates water, moving water mixes it. Aquarium fish DO NOT hang around the bubbles. The bubbles do stir the surface, again fitting my theory. Tiny bubbles at the bottom cooling faster and oxygenating the water is over my tiny brains head. I ain't never heered of such. What has cooling air bubbles got to do with mixing with water? OH! I get it! You're blowin bubbles my way, hot ones! I'm cool with that.

And "let the bubbles float to the surface". I suppose you learned your lesson about tryin' to stop 'em? Come on now LOFR, don't leave me gaspin' fer air. Does it ONLY happen up top or do them tiny bubbles really mix down there? Or are you like me and just don't know?
And where do single celled algae come in. Do they consume the oxygen, or do they exhale it?

Bluefaced Boogieman

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Permalink Reply by 2lbgill on February 20, 2010 at 6:29pm

I just ordered a new underwater light for night fishing Gills as the one we have been using quit and was quite effective. The light is a Optronic Fish-N-Lite and uses a 55W halogen bulb and has 300,000 candle power according to the mfg. The best position we have found is just under the ice. As soon as the light is turned on the lamp is surrounded by thousands of plankton. This year the fishin has been really slow until we put down the light about an hour before dark. The bite lasts about an hour than it gets a lot slower but the fish are still there and are not interested anymore and just ignore the bait. In the summer a bluegill will eat half of his weight in a week where as come winter under the ice he only eats 1 % of his weight, and according to studies by the WI DNR a few years`back and if I remember right they only feed heavy every 4-5 days. I can recall back then that there was group of fishermen on Lake Geneva (WI) that didn't come out until well after sundown and they told me the best bite was between 10 and 12 midnight. We also have used a Green Glow Stick at times too.

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Permalink Reply by Lord of the Fly , Rods on February 20, 2010 at 10:36pm

Next year , me and boogerman , big dan , and phishead want to try that ice fishing, if you can guarentee that ice wont break under us

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Permalink Reply by bluegillboogieman on February 21, 2010 at 5:32am

I don't know who boogERman is, I'm just glad Boogieman weren't invited. I played in our rare snow down here last weekend, for about 2 seconds. If I go out in the cold, somethin' better be on fire! Soon as I put the fire out, I'm goin' back to bed!

The reason them ice gills eat for an hour and then just hang around doin' nuthin' is the same reason I hang around a pot bellied stove. 300,000 candles is WARM!

BoogieWARMBLOODEDman

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