Getting Fish to Bite in the Dark?

[bigmack]

Hi All - we have been fishing close reefs for Snapper and we notice a couple of things.

If you get there early, anchor and berley - you see fish but no snapper will bite until the light just comes up; starting to get pink and the 40 minutes or so until sun comes up. Usually the reds shut down again once it gets too light and they get spooky. So its 40 minutes of mayhem which is fun.................but it would be nice to get a bite in the dark.

now at the other end of the day - the fish dont come on until it gets a little towards dark - pink again going towards dusk and then as soon as it gets too dark. Bite shuts down................

So the question is - do Snapper need light to feed actively? Has anyone had luck with lumo beads, tube inducing a bite in the dark. ??

I belive this is also common for all who fish the banks and the bit shuts down when dark.

Under a moon is different - its just when its dark?

Any thoughts or observations

Cheers
Phill

[Jeremy87]

I don't think its the amount of light that is important more that the light is changing. Predatory fish have better vision than bait species and the changing light makes the bait venerable and brings the predators onto the bite.

[Nowhere Bob]

JOKE JOKE JOKE

As in the venerable Bede?

ADJECTIVE:

1. Commanding respect by virtue of age, dignity, character, or position.
2. Worthy of reverence, especially by religious or historical association: venerable relics.

Love to see a yakka wearing a dog collar and a pair of half rim glasses.

changing light makes the bait venerable .

FWIW I totallly agree with Jeremy87's call, it's just the advantage a predator seeks. I have caught Snap @ 11 in the morning and @ midnight. That said the bite certainly picks up in the change of conditions.
For example; A mate & I were playing with trevally one evening up at DI, 3 in the afternoon session[2-5:30ish], 9 over dusk / dark and 3 until 10pm when the swag called. Same pattern with tailor.

[-spiro-]

Mate burley hard before bite time and keep a trickle going over all night. Also you will find that the snapper rise after sunset and seem to go back down on sunrise.
lUMO BEADS AND SQUID work well i use them all the time. When the bite slows down try dropping some lead off and get the bait up higher in the water. a GOOD BURLEY IS THE KEY

[Noelm]

it all comes down to the fact that a lot of fish are NOT nocturnal, they go to bed!! and Snapper will normally taper off the bite as it gets darker in the evening, sometimes you may get a few on and off, but as a general rule they do not actively feed at night, come morning as it gets light, they get active again and tend to taper off as it gets much lighter (except in deep water) though some fish like Jewfish and Tailor will readily feed during the night, and some fish will ONLY feed at night.

[Dono]

Ive had success at night using a glow liquid, it was green and released a trail of fishy type oil in the water.
Havnt used it for a long time but i did get a decent Mowong 3+kilo one night by squirting some on my bait, from memory i was using squidly?
Sorry i cant remember the name but youve got me thinking now and i might try to find some for myself.

[tunaticer]

glowbait is what you are thinking of maybe?

[finding_time]

Mate burley hard before bite time and keep a trickle going over all night. Also you will find that the snapper rise after sunset and seem to go back down on sunrise.
lUMO BEADS AND SQUID work well i use them all the time. When the bite slows down try dropping some lead off and get the bait up higher in the water. a GOOD BURLEY IS THE KEY

Spot on Chris


Get the bait up higher with good burley later on at night, that's when you'll pull a trophy fish The bigger fish are well up of the bottom

[bigmack]

Thanks for all the replies - its a very interesting subject to discuss.

We were burleying hard, fishing no lead or just a small pea and feeding floaters out with the current. And as soon as it got dark - somebody just turned the switch off. Now this is different from bream for instance which will happliy feed in the dark and snaffle mullet gut or dough around the rocks etc - SOOOOo it would seem that Snapper are predominantl predatory feeders and rely on sight to feed - not smell, while something like bream are both predatory and scavengers.

Just a pity we didnt have a moon coming up the other night because the sounder was full on fish - but not biting.

Cheers
Phill

[-spiro-]

Phill some nights we have had the snapper thick till 11pm. The other thing is they like different baits at different stages through the season. Some times they will eat nothing but pillies, then squid. We also use gar at the start of the season. The only bait we find works all the time is livies-scad,slimies. They love'm

[Dono]

Tunaticer sounds good to me, i take it it is still on the market?