Just got done fishing for the day and saw a couple guys on their way out as I was on my way in. Does anyone fish at night? How do you do that? I mean, I usually fish until I can’t see the fly anymore. I used to fish for catfish with a flashlight in hand, but I’m clueless when it comes to dry fly fishing at night. Any help?
Letort,
Done it for SM and walleye ('cause it was legal … check your regs).
Moon light !!
used headlamp to get strung up and out onto a beach.
Cast a while WITH the lamp. after a while, my eyes ajusted enough and my night vision settled in enough to fish in moon light.
It was PRODUCTIVE, but not really fun. (imho).
PS: Wear safety glasses !!
Christopher Chin
Jonquiere Quebec
[url=http://pages.videotron.com/fcch/:ca1c2]http://pages.videotron.com/fcch/[/url:ca1c2]
Letort,
I fish at night for Largemouth. It helps if there’s a full moon. It’s a lot of fun!! Since it’s very hard to see, you usually hear the strike and then feel it. I use a green headlamp from streamlight. [url=http://www.streamlight.com/grn_trident_info.htm:9f8a4]http://www.streamlight.com/grn_trident_info.htm[/url:9f8a4]
I fish Lake Taneycomo at night. I use a brinkman head lamp from Wal-Mart. It has two white leds and 1 red. I use the light to rig up and get into the water, I only do this if they are not generating. It is more of a fell the strike. I have a blast and wife sits on the bank where it is cool and bug free.
BillMc
Dear Letort Run,
I’ve done some night fishing for trout. You really have to be familar with the stream you are fishing, otherwise wading can be an adventure.
Most serious night fishermen pre-rig a couple of big wetflies on a stout leader and enter a pool at the head and slowly walk down casting the flies towards the deeper water and strip retrieving them.
There used to be a ton of old time wet fly fishermen that fished at night in north Central PA, but I think a lot of them have passed on and I don’t know if anyone else still does it.
My one buddy who died a few years back gave me a couple of huge size 2 wet flies rigged on a 1X catgut leader that he used to use for night fishing.
Regards,
Tim Murphy
I used to camp and fish the North Fork of the White River below McNary, AZ…35 yrs ago. Life took me away and now I am back trying to learn how to fly fish for trout. Ferget the time warp…the thing I want to mention was on evening back then, after dark, as I was sitting in the moonlight by the campfire…a young man came walking downstream past our camp. He had a rod and reel, and the old wicker type wooden creel on his hip with a strap over his shoulder. He said he was GOING fishing! I couldn’t believe it…but a little while later he walked back thru with several nice trout in the creel! I had never seen that done before. I still don’t know what he knew then, that I, and apparently nobody else knew how to do. I still don’t know how he dood it.
Around here we get caddis hatches that start at 10pm and last until 2 or even 3am. Then at 3am if the time is right the stoneflies start to hatch, and that lasts till 10am or so. (anotherwords, we have stayed out ALL night a few times!!). We just take along a headlamp, food, and lots of big dries! Tons of fun! The whole world just goes silent at night too, and every now and then you’ll hear an owl hooting or the yip of coyotes. Great experience, but you do need to know your river and the area you’ll be wading VERY well. I wouldn’t advise going without at least one friend.
Brian 
[url=http://bowcrow.tripod.com:b35bf]Bowcrow Fishing Adventures[/url:b35bf]
Absolutely!
Especially where legal. Stripers, LM’s, troutoids, carfish, whitebass, BG’s, crappie are some of the stuff that it has been necessary to shine a flashlight on to see to hand.
One thing we find VERY handy on a full line for night fishing is to put a small nail-knot of mono on your line (at about 35’-40’) for an AUDITORY referrence spot. When we use shooting heads, we already have one.
…lee s.
Nicely written Urses. Youve got me contemplating a trip.
Some of the heaviest hatches of certain flies here in PA occur after dark, and most people aren’t there to see or fish to them -thankfully. You can have some splendid dry fly fishing after dark, in addition to the wet fly fishing already mentioned.
I now spend my summers in the northwest US, and as Bowcrow mentioned, there are rivers there where there are hatches throughout the night, or there are lots of recently dead, or dying flies, floating in the currents and eddys, that can make for some exciting fishing.
A couple years ago, a guy I sometimes fished with after dark caught and released a 35" brown on well known western river - and the fish and game warden was there to measure and take a picture of it for him. I knew there were really big fish in that river, but I never heard of another trout there that was quite that big.
John
[This message has been edited by John Rhoades (edited 05 June 2005).]
Man I like this thread. I really like the sounds…silence?..of this type of fishing. Especially the quiteness and sense of nature and wildlife. Not going to run into very many people in your spot at night I bet. I gotta get a book…
Jim
Golumph!!
That is about the best descriptive word I’ve ever heard - I know EXACTLY what you mean!!!
Some of those rises to your fly when it’s close to you at night actually scare the pants off you - and then you remember to set the hook after that!
Brian
[url=http://bowcrow.tripod.com:950f3]Bowcrow Fishing Adventures[/url:950f3]
How about when a bank beaver comes up behind you and whacks his tail!
Just got back from fishing the green drake spinner fall on Penns Creek in central PA.
Fall starts at about 8:30 and gets stronger as the night gets longer. If my buddies hadn’t pulled me out of the water to go eat, I would have been fishing till dawn.
It is the most intense fishing I’ve ever experienced. Vision is out. Its sound and feel. No worrying about drift, presentation, … Just cast above the spot you heard the last splash. If you hear another splash in the vicinity of where you think your fly may be, then set the hook.
A friend showed me a fly that worked perfectly for this spinner fall. It was a 2" piece of white polly yarn with a webby, grizly hackle palmered over black dubbing. All on a #12 dry fly hook. Worked 10 times better than anything else.
I think for next year, I am going to make a post for it out of Krenik glow-in-the-dark white thread.
To those who’ve never fished a massive spinner fall or dun hatch in the dark with hundreds of big fish splashing all around you, take a chance and do it. It is something to behold.
Frank Reid
I don’t know, the night is fraught with problems that we don’t meet during the daylight hours.
A short story here…a few years ago, on a club outing, one of the most experienced ffshrs in the club managed to hook himself in the eyebrow while casting at night from a float tube. Fortunately, barbless hook, two M.D.s on the outing, and he had on safety glasses. Otherwise there would have been a lost eyeball and a ruined week-end for everyone else who was there.
Sorta dampened my enthusiasm for night fishing, but if I ever do go, one thing for sure, I’ll wear glasses. (maybe a full face mask would be more appropriate?
For sure for sure wear glasses.
Snow on the roof but with fire still in the hearth
‘nuther story…this doesn’t really conflict with my earlier suprise at night fishing for trout. This was back in my Huck Fin days as a barefoot kid. One weekend with nothing else to do me and a friend had mom take us to the lake and come get us next day. We thought we were fishing for bass, bluegill, or catfish. We threw out our bobber with a hook and worms and propped up our cane poles and went back up the hill about 100’ to our campfire. We went down hours later to check our poles, thinking we were fishing like the old timers…a trot line…? Don’t know spelling. People set a line out with bunch of hooks and go check it in the morning? Anyway my bobber was gone, I pulled up my line and a 3’ snake fell off at my feet and my light went out! Explain it…? NO, I dunno. Just true story that’s all.
Jim
I wasn’t going to respond to this post because i thought the subject had been well covered; how peaceful and beautiful it can be, how effective it can be , the care and saftey considerations, but JC’s golumph!!! has completely distracted me.
Anyone who has heard it, especially at night when you are so focused on listening
knows how exciting it can be. Usually the bigger the the fish the lower pitch and more hollow the sound.
One night during the hex hatch on the East Branch of the Ausable in MI the flight bugs were so thick it looked like bats comming out of Carlsbad Cavern. The bugs formed a black clattering ribbon above the river heading upstream. My fishing partners laughed at me but I had young legs and got out of the river and chased them upsteam as best I could in the the dark, and I did catch up to them or at least the tail end of them.
It was a phenominal night. The focus and highlight of the night was the grandaddy golumph I had been working toward for over an hour. The fish were lined up an i carefully caught or broke off each fish in line working toward the huge fish in the corner.
I cut back my leader got into position and made my first cast. The fish rose just before my fly drifted over him and I almost hiperventalated but i did not rip my fly off the water as every instinct told me I should. The amount of water this fish moved(not splashy)when it took a bug was unnerving. It took me three more drift’s to get the timing right. The fish rose and I gently but firmly set the hook.
Nothing happened, the fish simple settled to the bottom and analyzed the trembling my hand was transmiting through the rod and line.
I was hopelessly out gunned. I tried different angles of pressure thumping on the butt of the rod nothing worked. Finally the fish just got tired of me an I felt 2 slow sweeps of its tail and it moved
up around the corner at a steady and unrelenting speed that i could do nothing about.
I had a brother in law that was upstream from where i was who could hear my reel and when I could follow no further and my line parted he said it sounded like a 22 going off.
Golumph gives me shivers!
My most productive fly fishing outings have been after dark. I personally love it. If the fish are feeding, (which it seems they often are) less than perfect drifts and other presentation mistakes seem to be less important. The fish just seem to be hungry, or have lost some of their fear. Besides the water is more likely to be all mine. I am always amazed when fishing and hunting, and I venture into the field before or after daylight how much “night vision” we humans actually possess, once we get away from the light pollution we live with every day. To summarize, I often wait until quite late to venture out.