Late-night angling around lighted structure may not always yield epiphany, but it can produce large numbers of stripers.
Ask any seasoned angler on Florida’s western or eastern coast, “What’s a good tactic for big snook?” and they’ll tell you, “Fishing at night under a lighted dock.” These anglers know that the lights shining under bridges, marinas, or even a single dock attract many types of baitfish and crustaceans— and the predators that eat them.
Fishing the lights can yield astounding results, and it’s not only effective for snook. I first heard of angling under the lights for stripers back in the early 1980s while hanging around a local bait-and-tackle shop near my home in Brooklyn. A young stripedbass angler named Frank Montalto kept telling me that he was catching 30- to 40- pounders every night. I simply didn’t believe him, but one morning he strutted into the shop with a pair of fish that combined to weigh more than 70 pounds. Immediately, I began begging him to show me how and where he was finding these trophy-size stripers. A month of coercing finally convinced Montalto to share his secret.
One night, we met at the tackle shop and drove to the Marine Parkway Bridge, which links Brooklyn to Queens in Jamaica Bay. We parked at Floyd Bennett Field, climbed onto a concrete stanchion supporting the bridge, then walked about 50 yards out over the water.
Montalto said, “Prepare yourself for something fishermen drive all the way up to Cape Cod to fish for, only you’re going to see it in your own backyard. See how the streetlights above the bridge cast a shadow on the water? Keep your eyes on the light lines.”
Less than five minutes later, a fish that appeared to be 40 pounds or more came out of the shadows and swam slowly into the light line. At that moment, I knew that I had just been taught a life-changing angling lesson.
After that fateful night, I began fishing under the lights of that very bridge. Over the next few years, I caught and released many large stripers, including a 46-pounder. Since that time, I have found a host of other lighted areas that have produced scores of great fish.
The tactic of angling the shadows is growing among insomniac stripedbass fishermen, and anglers looking to hook up under the lights need to run a couple of reconnaissance missions to locate lighted structure and determine whether or not the areas are holding bait. Once you find the bait, you are almost assured of finding stripers homing in on this free and easy food source.
Seasons and Patterns
When it comes to fishing for stripers under the lights, anglers have biology on their side, and the favorable circumstances begin with planktons. During the day, planktons remain low in the water column, where they are likely to be unnoticed by predators. But in the evening, according to Dave Mohler, a fisheries biologist with the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, “Both zooplankton and phytoplankton migrate up the water column. It is only natural that the baitfish will follow their food source and be high in the water column as well.”
Naturally, this creates a domino-like feeding effect. The plankton move up in the water column to feed. The baitfish feed on the plankton and take refuge around lighted structure. Striped bass, in turn, hunt for the baitfish. And a savvy angler enjoys a good night of fishing.
Please understand, however, that the baitfish will differ with the seasons; therefore, the patterns you fish will need to match the primary bait the stripers are chasing.
Over the years, I have come to the conclusion that both mature and baby bunker are the most likely bait source to be found under the lights. In the New York–New Jersey area, mature bunkers are the most important prey during the months of May and June, and peanut bunker will predominate from August through October.
But I have friends in New Jersey who fish the light lines when shrimp are hanging around. For years, Glenn Lakatos, owner of Down-N-Trout fly shop located in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, has been swinging shrimp flies under the lights of the Route 35 Bridge between Brielle and Point Pleasant.
“I like throwing an eight-weight rod rigged with an intermediate line,” says Lakatos. “Using a short six-foot leader, I fish the outgoing tide and allow the current to swing my flies from under the bridge out into the light lines.” In New Jersey, the best time for fishing the run of shrimps begins in late spring and lasts through early summer.
Tackle and Tides
When fishing for stripers under the lights, it is important to make sure that the tackle is sufficient. Your choice of rods and lines will vary based on the conditions where you plan to fish as well as the type of bait you try to imitate.
If you’re fishing for schoolie-size stripers, an 8-weight outfit is more than enough and can handle fish up to about 15 pounds or so. When I lived in Connecticut back during the 1990s, my outfit of choice was a nine-foot 8-weight rod matched with a good reel capable of holding 150 yards of backing. In the fall, when baby bunker were plentiful in the rivers and coves, the best fishing could be found beneath lighted bridges and docks. The currents were not very strong in most of these waters, so I stuck with an intermediate fly line, which allowed me to swing flies just beneath the surface.
The same outfit also held up well in the late spring and summer evenings, when those same lights attracted small shrimps. But when cinderworm hatches came off during the new and full moons of June, July, and August, I switched to a floating line and cast either small black sliders or Paul Dixon’s cinderworm pattern and retrieved them right on the surface. If I happened to be fishing in waters with a fast-moving current, then I tossed subsurface flies with an integrated shooting head of about 300 grains.
Most striper anglers, however, don’t stay up all hours of the night to fish for schoolie stripers; all-night anglers are generally after the cow bass. And when you’re after cow bass in big waters, such as the big fish found down in Virginia or Maryland, specifically beneath the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, the correct tackle can mean the difference between catching the fish of a lifetime versus talking about the one that got away. In my estimation, nothing less than a 9-weight will do, but I really prefer to fish a 10-weight when hunting for big fish.
You’ll also want to choose your tackle based on the type of structure you will be fishing around. For example, marinas offer a great opportunity to find fish cruising under the lights, and most marinas, either a public or private, are well lit. But with the many docks and slips found in a marina, you had better have a fly rod that is stout enough to put the brakes on a hot fish should you hook one. If not, you may find yourself maneuvering around and dodging boats, outboard motors, cables, and pilings. None of these obstacles are very friendly to your expensive fly line.
You’ll also need to be familiar with the tides, which play a key role in finding feeding fish in lighted areas. Every fishery is different, and it is important to try to figure out just when the fish will looking for a midnight snack. Just because you see fish in the lights does not necessarily mean they will be eating. There have been many nights when I would see plenty of fish but just could not get them to take the fly.
Speed up the learning process and find success quicker by putting in time on the water to learn the tides. Fish will feed on various stages of the tide (incoming or outgoing) at a specific location. Only through trial and error will you begin to figure out at what particular time of the tide the stripers not only will show up but will also be munching. Once you have the tides figured out, angling the lights can be like picking fish out of a barrel.
I have also found certain moon phases to be of particular importance. In my experience, the most productive fishing usually occurs three days before and three days after both the full and new moons. There just seems to be more baitfish and game fish movement during these periods.
Since that spring day some 25 years ago I have always scouted lighted areas when fishing any saltwater environment. Whether the light source is on a bridge, in a marina, or even a lone dock in either the bay or an estuary, fishing under the lights may be the single most productive and consistent way to catch striped bass. From Maine to Virginia, lighted areas are a magnet to stripers, and this tactic gives anglers an opportunity to catch not only great numbers of fish but also trophy-size fish. Try fishing under the lights this season; it might just brighten up your fishing!
Henry Cowen is an SFF contributing writer who now guides anglers to dock lights for landlocked stripers on Georgia’s Lake Sidney Lanier.
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