my experience and reading knowledge has been very similar to what Lee S responded with. Which is that at some point just after sunset the fish may go off the bite due to "lighting conditions" and due to the visual acuity or light adjustment period of the fish species. Seems we may have read the same article about fish eyesight.

Also, I have personally experienced hot and cold bites on the same night, same waters. And it does appear to be cyclical or time related -either earth rotation or length of time after bright daylight fades to dusk(hot bite) and then dusk fades to dark(no bite) and then a period of deep dark moving to moonrise(medium bite) and then back to no bite later in the evening. (which is really a long way of saying it is earth rotation making the difference) Partially, it also could be the fishing pattern and how "worn out" the waters get from staying in one place too long.

Just some ideas. If you do a lot of both day and nite, early and late fishing you may notice a similar pattern during your daytime forays. For example, on a small pond that I know quite well, if I go at dark thirty in the AM and start fishing right away-hitting all the spots where the fish "are", I get nada! Zip! zero! but right at sun-up I start to see a change and get the onezee and twozee fish. Then say between 7-9AM the action is hot! hot! hot! then the sun creeps a little higher and the bite dies; even if I change tactics, fish deeper, different flies, etc. When it dies, it really dies and I pack it in. however on an overcast day the bite may last another hour ......and then of course there are weather fronts to contend with. yea.....lotsa rambling but you can see there is a pattern to be discerned from your fish and my ramblings....good luck. HTH!
Steve

------------------
I fish, therefore I swam.


[This message has been edited by featherchucker (edited 19 April 2006).]