Night Fishing 11-1-09

[FishnDave]

I fly-fished last night after dark. Once again it was slow?but I found a few fish scattered in the shallows. Ended up with 12 crappies, 5 bluegills. BEAUTIFUL night to be out! It was calm... comfortable @ 52 degrees?I did get sprinkled on a couple times, but it never lasted very long before clearing up again. The almost-full moon kept popping in and out of the clouds, which was pretty cool.
You can see the yellow boa yarn leech I used in the picture below:

[AtticaFish]

Sounds like a good night! I fish alot for crappie with my spinning gear at night, but have never had much luck with my flyrod after dark. Guess I'll have to make up some of those flies get out and try a little harder. Fish haven't really come up very shallow yet tho.

[FishnDave]

I'm fishing ponds, which is key. The fish can't really get too far away from me...I just have to find the right area and depth for suspended fish, or just pick off those fish that come shallow along the shorelines to feed at night. I usually do the latter method, and use unweighted boa yarn leeches for that. Almost never get snagged up (not really much of anything to get snagged on!), but will occasionally get some dead weeds on the hook.

Fishing bigger lakes would probably be more difficult, but not impossible. Good luck!

[AtticaFish]

One of my fav. lakes is a small one, aound 25 acres and only about 8'-10' at the deepest. The fish "usually" come up shallow along the shore or suspend up high around this time of year to put on the feed bag. I had one day out a couple weeks ago with my spinning gear that I caught them in 2fow or less, then they dissapeared.... In nasty weather, they seem to hug the bottom - they are hard to get with spinning gear then - so I don't even try the FR.

[iaflyfisher]

I hit the ponds tonight right at sundown (boy does it get dark fast!) I threw a black boa leech with no success. I tied on a gold and black Springbrook Wunder (kinda like a woolly bugger but on a jig hook) and almost immediately got two nice crappies and a bluegill. I walked further around the lake with no action and decided it was too dark as I didn't have my headlight.

This night fishing is turning out to be a really fun thing!

Dale Sanders
iaflyfisher
Ankeny, Iowa

[FishnDave]

Hey, nice going, Dale!

I got out there a little after 7:30pm tonight as well. First cast I landed a crappie on a yellow boa yarn leech, thought that was a good sign! But, it was pretty slow once again. I ended up with 4 crappies and 2 bluegills all on the same fly. Also had several others shake free near shore, as well as maybe 1/2 dozen good hits that I didn't manage to get a hook into.

I amaze myself sometimes at how stubborn I can be about NOT trying other flies!