Night Fishing for Browns

Many of you fish for brown trout at night. This is probably the most productive way to fish for them in smaller wadeable rivers and streams. 10:00 on a hot July moonless night appears to be the bewitching hour and most mavents will fish till 2 or 3 in the morning. Here's a few hints.

I like to fish the evening with dry's or film cadis. This usually requires a 5 or 6X leader. When you switch over to #2 muddler or such for night, you want a shorter hefty leader maybe around .009" or .011". I tie a perfection loop at .009 on a 9 foot tapered 5X leader and handshake the rest of the leader to the dry. Then when the sun goes down and the pines turn black, I can unhitch the dry and handshake a level .009" leader with a pretied muddler. You can do this almost in the dark and you don't have to switch on your headlamp and be eating bugs for a few minutes.

Secondly, most use a headlamp to check dangerous wading spots and check distance to the streamside cover. You only turn it on for a second to get oriented and not spook fish. If you hear a brown feeding close, you never turn it on and just guess the distance to the brown. Try this. Get one of those little laser pointers or a flashlite with an imbedded laser and shine it towards the streamside vegitation. With a little practice this can allow you to guess distance w/o turning any fish spooking headlight at all. The fish will not see it at all because they are not looking for a little red dot on the bushes.

Lastly, I use a glow in the dark line from RIO. I don't seem to spook fish with it and it does help with line positioning.

Godspeed,

Bob

Night fishing right after sundown is spectacular but don't limit yourself to just streams. Fishing lakes and ponds after first dark is the best time to catch the big trout, be they Rainbow, Cutthroats or Browns. They all come out to play.

Larry ---sagefisher---

In Scotland there is a knowing band of anglers that fish "The Gloaming" & well into the night. Not for the faint hearted. Too often have seen anglers crashing about the bank with loud raucous voices to their friends scaring every living thing for miles around. Why do they do it.....bcause they are scared of the dark I reckon. Night fishing is not for every one but as others have said it is the time to be out & about for the big boys. Be quiet to study & study to be quiet I say.
Couple of things I will pass on though.
1. Do not be quick to start. The evening rise might be petering out but wait a while for the Trout to be accustomed to the dark & the change to a different fly life Sedge (caddis) & moths. Chill out for an hour or two, get your night vision, then proceed.
PS Keep a torch use to a minimum. I use a Maglight with a red filter hung round my neck on a cord & a couple of spare batteries is useful.
2. If you can have a look at where you intend to fish during daylight hours,note any obstructions etc that way it will give you an idea of any pitfalls when wading in the dark.Do not stride out, more a shuffle if anything.
3. Make of some spare tippets with flies attached, saves a bundle of time fumbling about in the dark.

But most off all enjoy.
Tight Lines

Done a little night fishing at a local fly fishing only lake. Most fish this lake from a belly boat or pontoon boat. I fish from an eight foot pontoon. I have had good results using a shrew pattern on the surface in close to the bank. Quite the experience as you can't really see the fly but you can hear the take and then the line comes tight with a large brown on the end.

I tried it a couple times, and found that I caught fewer fish per unit effort than I did in the daylight, the fish weren't any bigger, and the risk of breaking my neck stepping in a beaver hole is MUCH higher at night. You guys can have it.

DG,

It takes some practice and it isn't nearly as nice as a pretty summer day with the sun on your back fishing a caddis hatch. But I have never caught big (18-22 inch) browns during the day in rivers like the Ausable in michigan. Night is when the big boys come out. It's just the way it is. Isn't really fair, is it?

Bob

When I stop catching big browns in broad daylight, I might try it again.

I've never heard of this glow-in-the-dark line. I better do a search for it...I fish public ponds after dark quite often for crappies, bass, bluegills, catfish. On the darker nights, it is very difficult to see the line...and seeing the line is very important for detecting strikes. So...this Rio line sounds interesting. Does it need to be "charged" prior to a night's use to make it glow properly?

Dave,

You would have to contact RIO direct. They only make limited runs of it and it is not a regular catalog item to my knowledge. It is also made for salt (night fishing for snook off a dock can be productive) and that will work fine for hot summer nights in fresh water. They usually have it at the spring flyfishing show in Warren, MI at their booth. BTW I was born in Council Bluffs and went to school in Ames. I have driven through Ankeny many times in the 60"s.

DG

Sounds great, catching big browns during the day. I do far prefer fishing in daylight. Let me know where you fish and with what. I'll give it a try. Give the prolog of this a read. It is about the night.
http://www.hatofmichigan.org/uploads...lies_ebook.pdf


Bob

A "culture" in Patagonia Argentina is to go for the big browns at last light and before sunrise. Mouths of big rivers are the best spot where these predators go for prey as crabs and minnows. Rio Grande in Tierra del Fuego comes alive with the first stars in the sky. Not only the classic WB,s, muddlers or diverse other streamers are good for the job, but (I love to do use it) Bombers, mice and giant MadamX, correctly walked-skatted are explosive surprises. Is amazing how productive are the last 5-10 minutes of light. I mean just when the night begins and one can't see any more light that the bright of the stars. Time for browns!

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Originally Posted by Bobinmich

Dave,You would have to contact RIO direct. They only make limited runs of it and it is not a regular catalog item to my knowledge. It is also made for salt (night fishing for snook off a dock can be productive) and that will work fine for hot summer nights in fresh water. They usually have it at the spring flyfishing show in Warren, MI at their booth. BTW I was born in Council Bluffs and went to school in Ames. I have driven through Ankeny many times in the 60"s.Bob

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I lived in Anes for 4+ years while attending ISU. There's still some excellent smallmouth bass fishing in the Skunk River around Ames, and now the DNR (seasonally) stocks Ada Hayden Lake (the old gravel pits just north of Ames) with trout, and they also stock walleyes and wipers in there.

Dave,

At the risk of hijacking the thread - oh wait a minute - it's my thread - did you ever fish the Ledges in Boone. I attended ISU in the mid 60's and we went over to the Ledges a lot chasing things other than trout. Just wondered if there was any fishing going on over there. We used to hunt the gravel pits north of Ames for pheasant. You could hunt them with a rock in those days, there were so many. And you could hunt fence rows without even asking. It was just the way it was done. Nobody cared. I was a Kappa sig when I was there. I was co-oping with Ford so I was on a swing schedule and couldn't hold a dorm contract, so I pledged. Good old days.

Bob

Fishing on those dark nights in Michigan is an awesome experience. Stumbling around in the dark getting bugs up your nose all while casting blindly and setting the hook to the sound of any rise in front of you is good stuff.

Gutbomb,
Sitting in an AuSable river boat and casting towards the slurps at 1 AM ain't bad, either. :)

Ed

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bobinmich

Dave,

At the risk of hijacking the thread - oh wait a minute - it's my thread - did you ever fish the Ledges in Boone. I attended ISU in the mid 60's and we went over to the Ledges a lot chasing things other than trout. Just wondered if there was any fishing going on over there. We used to hunt the gravel pits north of Ames for pheasant. You could hunt them with a rock in those days, there were so many. And you could hunt fence rows without even asking. It was just the way it was done. Nobody cared. I was a Kappa sig when I was there. I was co-oping with Ford so I was on a swing schedule and couldn't hold a dorm contract, so I pledged. Good old days.

Bob

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I've waded the small stream in the Ledges many times. We used to go there when I was a kid, and I've taken my own kids there a number of times. In the stream, there are various minnows, creek chubs, crayfish, green sunfish and assorted aquatic bugs. The fish are pretty small. When I was at ISU, a small mixed group of us took several canoes down the Des Moines River from the lower dam at Boone to the Ledges, we fished here and there along the way. I don't remember now everything we caught, but I do recall we caught channel cats, flatheads, and freshwater drum. I know there are walleyes and white bass in that stretch, and there should be smallmouth bass as well.

the few times i have night fished I have always been the net man.
The wading in the water in darkness always reminds me of the time I hyper extended
my knee backwards.

Low light yes...

No light NO THANKS.