The goal of this blog is to share some of the successful strategies I have learned over the years for fly-fishing at night and to provide some tips learned the hard way that can increase your success and make your time on the water more enjoyable. The approaches presented in this two-part blog address night fishing as follows:
Part 1. Using surface flies
Part 2. Using sub-surface flies (i.e. streamers, wooly buggers, girdle bugs, etc.) fished on sink-tip lines.
There are a limitless number of ways to catch trout. The strategies and concepts presented in this blog represent a mere drop in an ocean of information available today for success in trout fishing. Every time I talk with someone on the river, I am amazed that after almost 50 years of stream trout fishing, I learn something new from everyone I meet. I humbly provide my limited experiences in night fishing in the hopes that that they will accelerate your learning curve on how to excel in this wonderful hobby.
In this first part, the focus is on safety tips, parameters for choosing surface flies, and going through some surface flies I have found to be productive. In the second part, the focus is on parameters for choosing sub-surface flies, going through some sub-surface flies I have found to be productive, and sharing some hard-earned tips for do's and don'ts while night fishing.
Why Fish at Night?
There are at least two good reasons to fish for trout at night. First, fishing at night ups your odds of landing larger trout as they often feed during darkness when they are safer from predators. Secondly, when summer water conditions are low and very clear, it can be very difficult to catch fish during daylight hours as the fish become impossibly skittish. Fishing at night relieves that problem and can be quite productive. As an example, last week I started in a shaded run before sunset and did not see or flush any fish for nearly 2 hours. An hour and fifteen minutes after sunset, the switch turned on and I caught 12 fish between 15" and 11" inches in an hour and a half!
When Is it Dark?
Dark begins roughly between 1-1 ½ hours after sunset at night and ends roughly the same amount of time before sunrise in the morning. Details on why this is the case were presented in a previous blog, "When Is It Really Dark." Please refer to that if you wish to know more.
A Word on the Leader
Unlike daytime fishing where the tippet size and length of the leader is critical to your success, at night the fish are not leader shy. A 5-foot leader made up of equal lengths of 20-pound and 10-12 pound-test monofilament or fluorocarbon is sufficient. Each has its own benefits; monofilament is more supple while fluorocarbon is more abrasion resistant. If you are like me, I use whatever I have on hand. The shorter leader is helpful for turning over the bigger flies you will be using and will hold up when you hook a big brute!
Before getting into the thick of things, let's review some safety guidelines.
SAFETY CONCERNS
If you are going to try fishing in the dark these are some important safety guidelines to make the outing enjoyable and safe. I have not gotten into trouble yet but I have gotten close enough to realize the following are good “rules of thumb” while fishing in the dark.
- 1. Unless you are being guided, it is highly preferable to fish areas of a river that you have waded previously and are familiar with the location of deeper holes and other hazards.
- Fish with a friend if you can.
- If you are going to fish alone, tell someone where you are fishing and the approximate time you intend to start and finish.
- If there has been a significant rain in the previous 2-3 days check on-line for stream data for river gage height to see if it is safe to fish. Alternatively, arrive at the river early enough determine if it is safe for night fishing, or wait for enough light in the morning to determine whether it is safe to fish.
- If there is a significant rain occurring while you are traveling to the river watch the river height carefully while you are fishing. If it rains hard enough, run-off can come through in a tsunami-like fashion.
- If you are fishing a tailrace fishery near a dam, pay very close attention to the water level as it can rise rapidly when the gates are opened. This is increasingly important the closer you are to the dam.
- Do not fish if you have seen lightening or heard thunder in the last half hour. This is especially important if you are fishing in the mountains where weather changes occur more rapidly. Many fishermen have been killed fishing while it is lightening.
Choosing Between Surface and Sub-Surface flies
Keep in mind the old adage, "rules are made to be broken" holds in any type of fishing. However, the following generalizations are guidelines I have developed and found productive as I continue exploring fishing at night.
First, and foremost, let the fish tell you what they want. It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking you know what the fish want because yesterday I slayed them on _________, you can fill in the blank with the fly you used. If you are not getting takes on surface flies after trying three or four different types, switch to sub-surface flies and vice-versa if you start with sub-surface flies.
Let's say you start with surface flies. I give each fly 10-15 minutes to produce a take or two. If nothing happens, it's time to try a different style surface fly. If I don't get a few takes after 30-45 minutes using 2-3 different flies, I switch to sub-surface flies. These same guidelines apply when you start with sub-surface flies. If nothing happens after 30-45 minutes using different colors and styles of sub-surface flies, I switch to surface flies. That's why I bought a new reel so I could have three spools. One is set-up with a dry fly line, one with a short sink-tip line, and one with a longer faster sinking sink-tip line. It takes me 6-8 minutes to switch over in the dark. I timed myself several times to convince myself it doesn't take that much time.
Using Surface Flies while Fishing at Night
The Influence of Water
Temperature: Surface flies tend to work best from late spring to early fall. The water temperatures in this period run from the upper 50's to the upper 60's. (It is not recommended to fish when the water exceeds 68° Fahrenheit as the stress on the fish as you play it can be lethal.) It is always worth trying these any time of the year. However, don't spend too much time with them if you are not getting any action.
The Different Types of Takes on a Surface Fly:
Takes can vary from hearing nothing on the take and the fish is all of a sudden on to an audible kerplunk like someone dropped a medium-sized rock into the water.
No Sound Takes: It is fairly common to hear nothing and all of a sudden feel the weight of the fish on the line. When this happens, you don't need to set the hook, just keep the line tight. The fly will seat itself as you play the fish. I use barbless flies for ease of catch-and-release on the fish and myself. They penetrate faster than barbed hooks. My experience has been I lose more fish trying to set the hook in these instances. My theory is that as you try to set the hook, no matter how hard you try not to, you move the rod slightly forward to get more oomph into the hook set. That creates a momentary slack in the line which allow the fish to get off.
Kerplunk Takes: These are the most fun and often mean it is a larger fish. When you hear the big kerplunk take, steel yourself, you have to wait until the fish turns after the take before setting the hook. Last week I made a cast and the line got fouled on my vest. I was busy trying to free the line when I heard a kerplunk take. It took a second or two to find the end of the fly rod and set the hook. The fly was entirely in the fish's mouth and lodged under its tongue. It was a good reminder that waiting to set the hook in these cases is the way to go.
Bloop Takes: Many of the takes on a surface fly make a sound like when you purse your lips together behind your teeth and pop your lips out and away at the same time. It is often quite soft, but it is very distinct bloop-type sound. It can be difficult to recognize the sound when you are near riffles or when the wind is jostling leaves. I fished three times with a guide and spent most of each night with him asking me, "Did you hear that?" Eventually, I told him, "If I had heard it, I would have set the hook." He thought that was pretty funny. I finally heard the sound several outings later on a windless night in the middle of a deep slow stretch. As soon as I heard it, I thought, "Hey, that's probably a take!" and set the hook. Having the thought and deciding to set the hook gave just enough of a delay that I hooked the fish. Now that I know what the sound is, I can hear it behind me when I am fishing a hatch during the day.
Splashy Misses: These are annoying more than anything. I have tried setting the hook as soon as I can and delayed for a couple of seconds and rarely hook a fish on these takes. I recently read a blog where the author suggested that these are most often smaller fish that are trying to kill the fly so they can take it on a second attempt. This assuages my ego for missing nearly all of these and it sounds like a reasonable explanation. So, I have elected to accept it with no supporting evidence other than I rarely hook fish on these takes.
It seems like almost anything will work on the surface. You will notice that the Gurgler is about 2 inches long and the Killer Beetle is around 3/4". On any given night one of these may be preferred. It is a good idea to cycle through each of these until you find one that is working. Also, the preference may be different in different stretches of the river on the same night. I have not found color to be super important. However, I have no doubt that occasionally it will be. I have avoided the traditional spun deer hair mouse patterns as they are harder to cast and prone to being blown around by the wind. All of these are fairly compact and cast reasonably well.
I just recently ran across the Morrish Mouse fly. Unlike traditional spun deer hair mouse flies, it is flatter and more compact. I decided to test it out and discovered it not only cast reasonably well, it also caught fish. It had been a somewhat slow evening and nothing had happened for the last 20 minutes or so. I had decided if nothing happened on the next cast, I was going to call it an evening and go home. After two strips with no sound at all, my rod bent over and the line began to hum. Bigger fish often pull the line taut enough to cause this line hum so that was a good sign. It took a while before I saw the fish and immediately I knew it was a good fish. As I tried to lift the net, it became quite evident there was some heft to the fish. It turned out to be a big fat 18" brown with a bulge in its stomach! Even though the fish had clearly eaten it was still on the prowl.
Catching this fish also reinforced the need to vary the retrieve until you find what triggers the fish. Earlier in the outing, it was sufficient to slowly strip the fly and jostle the rod tip to trigger takes. Eventually, that style of retrieve stopped producing takes. I tried a series of different retrieves and discovered that a hard short strip with a short pause retrieve started producing splashy misses. So, I stuck with that retrieve even though the fish weren't getting hooked. Perseverance paid off with the as it eventually produced the biggest fish of the night. It converted a decent outing into an outstanding one.
The pictures below show the size of the fly, how the fish chewed up the new fly, and how the fly produced line twist in my leader. Initially, there was no observable line twist with a 2X tippet which is 10-pound test . However, as the evening progressed, I started seeing some line twist which worsened to the point that after catching the 18" brown my line caught the rod during my false casting and produced the tangle shown in the last picture. Apparently, the wings of the fly caused the line to twist. When you see this, go up one or two tippet sizes until the twisting is no longer observed. After several tries, I determined that using 2 ½ feet of the butt section of a 2X leader with 2 feet of 25-pound test tippet prevented line twist with the Moorish Mouse. Most other flies will not require such a heavy leader to avoid line twist.
Earlier this summer I missed what I thought was a good fish and came back the next night and fished the same spot earlier in the evening to no avail. I came back 2 ½ hours later and recast the same fly. The water exploded as the fly hit the water. It turned out to be a gorgeous 17" brown that fought like a 20+-inch fish. This points out the importance of covering known good spots well and more than once on the same evening.
I used the same Peacock Herl Caddis on the night I caught 12 fish between 15" and 11" inches in an hour and a half after catching nothing before dark. A week later, in a different portion of the stream, nothing was interested in it. I switched to a large Chernobyl Ant and immediately started getting fish!
Ger's mouse (named after the guide that taught me how to night fish) has been a staple and seems to work most nights. The weird part is it seems like the more the fly gets battered, the better it works. Below is a picture of a battle-worn Ger's mouse that keeps catching fish besides an unused new fly. I have no idea why this is true, but the fish love the beat-up version! So, I intend to keep using it until I lose it or everything falls off the hook!
A few years ago, I took my son night fishing on October 15th, the last day of our season. We started shortly before sundown and it had been a fairly slow until just past sunset. He could barely see the fly but it didn't matter as this 15" brown in full spawning color did a kerplunk take. Ben set the hook and the rest was history! Persistence eventually pays!
When to Switch to Sub-Surface
Flies: Obviously, if you aren't getting any takes, it's a good idea to switch to sub-surface flies. The tougher situation is when you are getting takes but the fish are getting off frequently. This is usually an indication that the fish are not fully committed and it's time to go to sub-surface flies. There have been outings where the fish in different runs preferred different presentations requiring two or more changes between surface and sub-surface flies. Fortunately, these have not been that common in my experience.
Hopefully, Part 1 has equipped you to know when to use surface flies and get you started with some flies that have worked well for me. Let me know if you have any questions in comment section below.
In Part 2 we will focus on parameters for when to use sub-surface flies, going through some sub-surface flies I have found to be productive, and sharing some hard-earned tips for do's and don'ts while night fishing.