Walleye Night Vision - Lure Colors

[GLF]

Colors can not be seen after dark. Colors will appear in different shades of gray to black. Some will agree with this, and others will not.

Knowing this, what are your favorite lure colors/patterns for fishing for walleye after dark?

Who fishes glow in the dark baits or adds glowing the dark paint/tape to their baits?

[Priority1]

I don't fish for walleye after dark. I do use some glow in the dark blades and beads in low light and full sun conditions. Walleyes do actively feed at night, and their glowing eyes help them do it.

[Adam Bomb]

Im a big fan of glow for walleye during low light periods as well as night fishing. Ive had my best luck for walleye with natural glow. Sometimes they want it bright, but most often a dull glow works best. Sometimes ill cover a portion of a bait so that only part of it gets illuminated. It something you have to feel out each day. I usually go subtle and work up from there. Im not a big fan of ultra glow for walleye unless your fishing in dirty water...And as much as theyll hit glow, sometimes they want nothing to do with it and your better served to fish a bait without it.

[Walleye Express]

Overall, I've caught more walleyes at night both on the bay and the rivers using plain colored lures. My best nights on the Saginaw Bay are calm, clear nights during the first quarter moon. My best cranks on the Bay are large #18's Rapala's, fallowed closely by #14 Husky Jerks. Best clear night colors overall is the Natural Black top/White/Silver belly in the #18, and the Blue/Silver/Orange bottom in the husky. Cloudy nights are Firetiger and the Orange/Gold and Chartreuse/White.

All these are ran (most nights) very slow and very shallow, as slow as .08 and as short as 18 Feet behind the In-Line planer boards. Walleyes can see well in dim light, not only because they have lots of rods in their eyes, but because of the tapetum, a reflective layer of cells behind the cones that reflect light back toward the cones and that give the fish its characteristic creamy white glow. Walleye can see nine times better then the human eye in their environment and are built to forage at night. Along with that, their eyes (like a pike) are on top of their heads, so they naturally look up to see their prey silhouetted against any dim light on the surface. There are times when Glows work well though. I use them sometimes on the river at night, when the river is off-colored from run off. My favorite glow killer is a special #7 and #8 Green scale color/Red hooks, made especially for the Gander Mountain stores. My other favorite that catches them when the river waters are cleaner is one that Rapala don't make any more, called the Silver Shiner.

[Walleye Express]

An interesting fallow up.

I would agree about the night vision of the walleyes,. Being from the West side I fish Muskegon lake after dark, and have seen big walleyes cought on 1 lure/color over another. It depends on water temp,clarity, barometric pressure,speed,lure/color choice and water conditions. I think the schools of bait fish available (and their size) at the time is a factor also. The above mentioned night conditions by Dan were right on and I fish 4-6 different lure/color combo's at the same time and only have 1 lure catch fish, Then switch every rod over to the hot lure and all catch fish.

We go out the next night same above mentioned conditions same program and not catch a fish until we change things up color,baits,speed....ect. The best lures for me are as follows...... Rapalas,Smithwick,Reef runners, Hotntots. Not in any favorite order. Last December-Mid January we were doing best on 3 ways..... Smithwick (clown) and stinger spoons(pink/orange) trolled @ 1.5/2.0 mph and cought allot of BIG walleyes. The year before that if I cought1-2 fish on the mentioned program I was lucky. I have allot of buds that fish Muskegon lake and we all run same program after dark that is the hot method going.

Al.

The 3 way rig being successful after dark kinda surprises me. Especially rigged behind such a shallow diving lure as a Rouge. What's the program when using this rig? How long of a lead from the 3 way swivel is both the crank and spoon? How fast is your trolling speed when using this rig? Does it vary (or need to) when fishing different depths? I thought about trying this on the Saginaw after dark, because of the several distinct sizes of the baitfish I see in the river. Using both the body bait and the spoon at the same time can cover two baitfish sizes, and hopefully duplicate the size they are zeroing in on that night. Capt. Dan.

Capt Dan,

It all depends on the area,depth,contour,break I'm fishing. I normally run a 4'-6' leader off of the snap swivel to the 3-way. I then a use a 6'-8' leader on the bottom (deep diving crank bait) and a 3'-4' leader on top (stinger spoon). I try to run the top 1/2 the length of the bottom so it doesn't tangle that much if at all.

The Smithwick (deep super rouge) I can get down 16'-18' with 140' behind the board

The Rapala( Deep husky jerk) I can get down the same with same line out as Rouge.

The Reef Runner (Deep diver) will go allot deeper @ 140' back about 26' to be exact.

The speed really is determined by the walleyes and the water temp. I normally try 1.8-2.5 mph and adjust from there. This method is a hard way to fish but is very productive when doing so. I have been doing this type of trolling for awhile now and it has worked out, But I have lost many rigs this way too. If your fishing any type of structure,reef,bars,breaks......ect you've

really got to be on your toes and watch your electronics. Al.

Edited October 2, 2009 by Walleye Express

[Nailer]

Plane and simple, the best night time West side lures.

[GLF]

Plane and simple, the best night time West side lures.

Do you add any glow paint/tape to any of them?

[ALLEYES]

For Muskegon it HAS to have a orange belly. Notice in Ken's pic all but two have that characteristic. And I whole heartedly agree with his picks!