Try casting and retrieving at a slow, steady pace, providing walleyes a chance to zero in on and follow the lure. A couple times per retrieve, pause briefly to mimic a vulnerable baitfish and perhaps trigger a strike. Similarly, when longline trolling 75 or so feet behind the boat, use your electric motor to silently sneak and weave across shallow flats or along shorelines, moving at a slow and steady pace, just fast enough to wiggle the lure, to help fish find it in the darkness. To trigger additional strikes, occasionally sweep the rod tip forward, then drop back. This makes the lure suddenly rush forward like a panicked minnow, then pause like a vulnerable meal. Crunch time. The pump-and-pause is among your most valuable and deadly maneuvers in the darkness. Besides, the brief enhanced vibration as the lure speeds forward will telegraph through your sense of feel whether or not the lure has picked up a weed fragment that might detract from its natural action.

Fancasting or trolling cranks covers territory at a modest pace, but if potential fish-attracting areas are small and specific -- like the top of a small reef or a river inlet -- consider anchoring instead. The strategy now becomes one of repeatedly casting and straining the area for fish that periodically move in and out of the shallows. Cast and retrieve your crankbait, perhaps switching to a neutrally buoyant lure that hangs level beneath the surface, in the fish's face, for as long as you can stand to not move it. Ooh, that's nasty. Or slowly swim a jig tipped with a 4-inch plastic shad body, thumping along subtly in the darkness. But avoid overly fast or aggressive retrieves that make the lure harder to locate and strike.

When times are tough or when stealth tactics prevail, switch to a lighted slip-bobber setup and dangle a live leech just above cover or bottom, letting it drift and dance across the walleyes' noses. They can't resist. When the light goes out, the bobber's down. Time to set the hook.

Casting lightweight lures is best accomplished with spinning gear, typically spooled with 8- or 10-pound-test monofilament. Switching to no-stretch FireLine definitely increases casting distance and enhances your sense of feel, but if you're going to try it, make sure you first become familiar with its use during daylight hours. You don't want to be messing with line tangles in the darkness.

Longline trolling, meanwhile, is also easily accomplished with spinning gear, although some anglers opt for light casting tackle, and perhaps even line-counter trolling reels, to indicate exactly how much line is out. Line length affects how deeply lures might be running, since lengthening your line typically makes lures run slightly deeper, while shortening your line reduces depth. In a pinch, tie a bobber stop on your line about 75 feet above your lure, and feel for it to pass through your fingertips as you let your line and lure out for trolling.

Can you get more sophisticated and aggressive in your night fishing approaches? Of course you can. Will it pay bigger dividends? Possibly, but not necessarily. The basic premise is to employ simple techniques that you can comfortably apply in the dark without becoming all fumble-fingered and frustrated, tangled, and tense. A few select lures or baits, a flashlight, a landing net kept close at hand, and a silent and stealthy approach to walleyes, out there somewhere in the inky blackness, is the best way to start and often the top way to finish. Save the fancy tactics for daylight, unless you're an accomplished night stalker who functions better than most beneath a walleye moon. Speaking of which . . .

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