My club has at least one annual tournament that runs overnight (7 or 8
PM to 6 AM). First rule is: Don't fish a body of water for the first time
at night. Make sure you are somewhat familiar with the lake during daylight
before you get out at night. Second thing is a GPS can be very valuable at
night. Not only for helping you find any spots you may have marked, but
also for finding your way back to the launch in the dark. Another thing is
it may be safer to consider yourself under electric power in the dark. I
see too many guys running around at some speeds when you never know if
someone is out there with no lights or you get a little too close to
structure or rocks or whatever, even floating debris. The spotlight can
help but like Ronnie mentioned, it can turn the fish off so be careful not
to point it where you or others are fishing. Just use it above the water to
get a general view of any nearby obstacles.

Rich P


"Todd Copeland" wrote in message
ink.net...
Now that I have a boat with a livewell, I'm looking into entering a simple
tournament. Just to put this into perspective, I'm not looking to win, I
just want to give it a try for the fun of it. I live in Florida and I've
noticed that many of the tourney's are at night (6pm-9pm or 9pm-2am). I've
fished until dusk before and then stopped as it just becomes difficult to
fish when you cannot see anything. I'm wondering how people fish at night.
Do you use spot lights to see the shore, tree limbs, surface vegetation,
etc? Do people usually fish off shore for the most part? Any insight you
can
gie would be great!