Why and How Fish Attract Lights
Artificial lighting has been used for fishing for a long time. Hanging a lantern over the side of a boat was the most popular technique in the early days. Some of the older people believed that the light attracted bugs, which it did, and as a result, the fish surrounded the boat in an effort to catch food. Even while the ancient adage “more bugs, more fish” is still widely accepted, new technology has done much to contradict it.
By drawing a concentration of tiny microscopic creatures known as plankton, light projected into or on top of the water simply initiates a natural food chain reaction. Larger game fish move in to eat the bait fish and bait fish like shad and minnows are driven to the light to feast on the plankton. Under the lights, it’s not uncommon to see game fish dangling right below 15-foot-tall columns of bait fish. After 30 minutes, if baitfish are still not congregating around the light, go to a different location. Don’t waste time in areas without baitfish since game fish follow the baitfish.
What Is Basic
However, they are not magic. Rods, lures, fish locators, and underwater lights all help to boost your chances of consistently catching your limits. Fish must be present for lighting to draw attention to them. There’s a good possibility that the lights won’t be the miraculous fix if your dock is in 2 feet of water and you’ve never caught a fish there. Fish won’t be attracted to unhealthy water by lights if the water is unfit to hold them. Fish need clean water, places to hide underwater, and clear access to deeper water if they need to escape. The amount of fish you will draw to the light will be lower if your dock is missing any of these qualities.
Having said that, if your boat or dock is situated in water that is able to support fish and you go by the advice below, using artificial light will attract fish to it.
Fishing From The Boat
To for the lights to draw fish, the boat needs to be anchored. The food chain will come to an abrupt end if you are drifting since the plankton and baitfish won’t be able to assemble around the light. ANCHOR YOUR BOAT SO THAT IT CAN NOT PIVOT ON ONE ANCHOR LINE WITH AT LEAST ONE ANCHOR AND PREFERABLY TWO ANCHORS. The more paper you have, the better!
Set Up In A Fishing Spot
Lures and boats won’t do you much good if you’re not fishing in a spot where there are fish. Nothing will help you catch fish if the water is too deep, too shallow, or lacks enough structure. This is accurate whether you’re fishing from a boat, a dock, or through the ice! Fish ALWAYS respond to some sort of structure and the temperature of the water. This could be a rock pile, a drop off next to a river channel, or even underwater vegetation. Your chances of luring in or catching fish are significantly decreased if you aren’t fishing on or close to any kind of underwater structure.
Keep in mind that 100% of the fish are contained in 10% of any lake’s water. Whether or not there is light, the remaining lake remains empty water. An historic river channel that runs through the lake serves as a highway for fish to access other parts of the lake and offers cover and various water depths for them to forage in. It’s difficult to beat a point or bridge with the former river channel running alongside it. Look for a location on the point with a good drop off. You should initially set up in 15 to 25 feet of water if the peak depth is 10 feet and rapidly declines to 50 feet. If you are unsuccessful there, try a deeper or shallower location until you locate the fish.
It’s crucial to draw in bait fish! Move to a different location if the bait fish don’t appear within the first 30 minutes of your lights being on. It doesn’t necessarily follow that they won’t be somewhere else further down the lake just because they weren’t at one location. Large numbers of bait fish can be attracted by adjusting water temperature and dissolved oxygen levels. Less bait fish and game fish will congregate around the lights if the water is below 70 degrees or the oxygen level is low. Lights can draw millions of baitfish if your boat or dock is situated in good water with adequate structure.
How Many Lights Are Necessary for Boat-Based Fishing?
In most situations, it is ALWAYS BETTER TO USE TWO LIGHTS THAN ONE LIGHT, IF POSSIBLE. You may create a considerably broader radius of light by using two lights that are spaced 3 to 4 feet apart. This will also enable more fishermen to fish in various lighting zones. On the other hand, if your boat is smaller, one light will be adequate.
Utilizing two lights will also allow you to experiment with various color schemes to determine which one attracts more bait fish on any particular night. You can determine which light is drawing in the most bait fish at a given time, for instance, by starting with one white light and one green light. You can change both lights to the same hue once you determine which one draws the most fish. When experimenting, our brand-new Venus series 1000W LED fish light DUAL Color lights perform admirably.
Fishing From A Dock
Lights are merely a tool to help draw and keep fish to your dock; they are not magical. Even lights won’t increase the quantity of fish you have at your dock if the water is not fish-friendly. When placed in or on top of water, light only serves to establish a simple food chain. Plankton, the food source for baitfish, is drawn to the light by the latter, which also draws larger game fish that consume the plankton. Baitfish must be drawn in first since the food chain must have all of its components in place for it to finish itself. There is no chance of ever attracting game fish if you are not attracting baitfish. When it comes to luring and keeping fish near your dock, ALL of the elements listed below are crucial.
The essential elements for luring and keeping fish:
- Food
- Water depth
- Temperature
- Oxygen content
- Flowing water (current)
- Underwater building
- The deep water
Additionally, it’s crucial to ensure that your light turns on at sunset and goes out at the same time each night. Since the fish are aware of their limited window of opportunity to eat, it is usually preferable to have the light switch off after 6 to 8 hours as opposed to leaving it on from nightfall until dawn. Fish are creatures of habit, just like other animals and birds. They will relocate if they don’t have a reliable food source nearby every night. The same principles apply to birdfeeders. In order to draw birds to your backyard, you must provide them with food, water, a feeder mounted at the right height, and enough cover to make them feel secure and allow them to flee if necessary. If you take away any of those criteria, the birds will move to a feeder nearby where the conditions are better.
Above Water Lights
Our Venus series 1000W LED Above Water Lights are now the only ones installed by ALL of the electrical contractors and dock builders we sell lights to. Even though they don’t need to be maintained, above-water lights continue to draw the same number of fish as underwater lights. In addition to drawing fish to your dock, above-water lights are attractive at night. In addition to illuminating the surrounding water, boats and above-water constructions can also be lit using above-the-water lights.
