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Ever since watching the Joe Humphries DVD on night fishing about ten years ago, I have been fascinated with catching trout in the darkness. Then I met good friend and excellent fly fisherman, Tony Scuderi. It was all over then! He has night fishing for trout figured out like no other.
The takes are violent, and there is usually no one else on the stream. I think that its the height of excitement in fly fishing… well maybe a fierce hatch and ensuing dry fly madness might rival it.
We were going to fish the big river, a tailwater in New York but with an increased release of 1,100 cfs, that curtailed our plans. We instead tried a smaller area tailwater stream. We knew the fishing wasn’t going to be as good, but what the heck, we gave it a go!
We had a total of 8 tugs and we landed 7 of them. Not bad for a small stream. Large streamers hand twisted did the trick. The largest fish was around 22 inches.
08-03-2010, 09:56 PM
sholgate
Re: The "Night Game"
I have got to try that. Do you wear head light gear?
08-04-2010, 09:29 AM
tim_y
Re: The "Night Game"
Aaron,
Nice fish!
Were you guys using unweighted streamers or were you getting them deep with weighted flies or a sink tip. I've done well fishing at night skating unweighted muddlers or zoo cougars over the top, but never had much success going deep.
08-04-2010, 10:04 AM
AaronJasper
Re: The "Night Game"
I never use a sinking line when night fishing. I weight the shanks of the flies with lead wire. I put the different weighted flies in various Zip Lock bags in order to keep them organized and reduce bulk. I do not wear a vest when night fishing. My gear consists of 3 Zip Lock bags, a few spools of leader material, 1 fly box, a camera, and headlamp. Make sure to get a really nice one as the inexpensive ones tend to break after a short period of time.
08-05-2010, 07:35 PM
mcarl
Re: The "Night Game"
Wow, my login still works. It's been a long time. Since I saw one of my favorite topics, I had to post something. As far as night fishing goes, when I do get the chance to get out at night, I'm targeting the larger nocturnal trout and therefore use big stuff too--large wets, nymphs and streamers. Most people who also are hardcore nighters do the same too. But, there in lies a big mistake as well. Night fishing isn't always just using big stuff. Sometimes you have to go small to continue to be successful at night. This summer in CT has been very hot & dry and the Farmington has been at a great level. A lot of insect activity that normally takes place around dusk and into early evening has been pushed back to almost daybreak.
A quick lesson: 2 or 3 weeks ago, I fished at night and started with big Harvey Wets. I caught 2 heavy weights right off the bat. After that, b/c of the commotion, I had to let the water settle a bit. After awhile, I could hear fish work the top again but my big stuff wasn't working anymore. I went fishless for awhile. I got " taps " but I think they were smaller fish due to the size of my flies. At almost daybreak, I switched to a small caddis pattern and did well. At first light, spinner activity that should have been earlier in the evening started. So if you end up not having big stuff work anymore try finding out what's really going on and go smaller.
08-05-2010, 07:42 PM
AaronJasper
Re: The "Night Game"
How have you been?
Tony always says the same thing. Early in the summer when there are stoneflies, the fish will take big stuff. However, as the summer runs on I find that small stuff that imitates small darter minnows or even smaller hatching insects work much better than the larger pusher style flies.
Have you ever taken a look at Jim Bashline's book?
08-06-2010, 02:55 AM
mcarl
Re: The "Night Game"
Aaron--I've been good. My business has been slow but that o.k. it's still in it's infancy. I got some more stuff to do with it this fall & winter which we've talked about. My regular career is crazy busy. I have Jim's book too- good stuff. I've been traveling to the Farmington a lot this summer. Everything East is super low and warm. Fish can handle warm temps if they can get a chance to aclimate to it but it requires good flowing water which many do not have right now. Farmington has been phenonmenal this year and I'm happy to keep coming. It's my home waters. I grew up on it. I lived minutes away. We still need some more water in this state. Our luck we'll get a tropical storm or something and get unGodly amount all at once. Just a prominition. Take care!
