Structurally, target areas are really simple. Since there is a significant lack of pressure on the fish, comparatively, concentrating on the most classic areas -- basically the most popular spots -- is a good plan. During the daytime on pressured water, staying away from the heavily pressured spots is often advisable, and concentrating on more secondary, smaller spots, or even open water, hoping to be dealing with less-educated fish. At night, though, the prime larger structures are the way to go, places with distinct edges and turns, possibly several different types of structures -- weeds, rocks, wood -- with main-lake water access. These are the ones that jump out at you when you look at a map, and they usually have the muskie boats on them during the day.

These are great spots for everything they offer, but the odds of catching fish on them is often much better after dark when many of the smarter and larger specimens -- via some bad daytime experiences -- have decided it's a better idea to prowl under the cover of darkness. These can be very shallow areas or deeper structures, too. For some reason, there's still a general "idea" prevailing out there that all the fish go shallow after dark. If it's good structure that holds fish, it's worth fishing after dark, whether it be deep or shallow.

A good general pattern that I do consider is that it seems fish will be less apt to be in the heaviest cover on a spot where often they will be located during the day. This may be a pressure issue partially, where heavy fishing pressure pushes fish deeper in, or it could be that fish are hoping to be shaded from direct sunlight. In the case of weeds, they could actually be robbing oxygen from the water at night when there's a lack of natural or wind-induced currents to mix the water. They'll be more likely to be on shallow rock, and will just generally be in the open more.

Also, on waters you would likely fish a lot, pay special attention to "where" on a structure you got bit. It seems like after dark, there are more specific spots-on-spots that fish will relate to. I will generally concentrate on larger, more complex structures at night. And often, some key areas start to show where you can nearly always count on one being "there" -- when fish are in a feeding mood.

My general plan of attack after dark is to fish larger structures that I have completely to myself. I'll work them more precisely and slower at night, but nighttime is no different than day in that there are often feeding windows that open and close due to weather, lunar effects, or it just happens. What I do is continue to work the same spot rather than run all over. But if I start to get activity when it has been quiet previously on waters I night-fish often where I know the sweet spots, I'll start running around and hitting only what I feel are the best. Hopefully, this maximizes the results from a feeding period.