Night Fishing resources, techniques, flies, and reports.

[JoeE]

Yes.. I cheat, I will use a swivel.

 

[Fish Sticks]

Am curious - for anyone that fishes a pusher fly, how do you avoid massive line twist? Maybe it's the way I tie them but mine end up with a massive line coil after just a few casts.

I had one park ranger go past me one night when I was fishing at a bridge and about a tenth of a mile down the road, he whirled around and came back. Saw I was fishing, said hello and carried on. So if you want to be a cat burglar, just carry a rod..

20lb stren works good, your not tying em wrong they spin. Humphreys shows it in his video “the night game”.

 

[Fish Sticks]

Am curious - for anyone that fishes a pusher fly, how do you avoid massive line twist? Maybe it's the way I tie them but mine end up with a massive line coil after just a few casts.

I had one park ranger go past me one night when I was fishing at a bridge and about a tenth of a mile down the road, he whirled around and came back. Saw I was fishing, said hello and carried on. So if you want to be a cat burglar, just carry a rod..

Might be able to get away with 15lb test too, swivel will work too

 

[Mike]

Never even thought about using a pusher fly because the size 4/6 wet flies consistently work so well.

 

[troutbert]

Do the specialized night fly patterns outfish a basic Wooly Bugger, which everyone already has in their boxes?

 

[Fish Sticks]

Never even thought about using a pusher fly because the size 4/6 wet flies consistently work so well.

My go to is the 4-6 -8 wet flies when fishing smaller fisheries. For large ones start with a foam fettuccine muddler size 4-6 with size 4-6 wet off the tippet ring 20” up. If bo surface activity or fishing faster riffles or runs i swap the foam fettuccine muddler(mouse/frog pattern) for pusher. Bigger fish crush the pusher about 3/4 the time but thats just in my experience. I’ve caught some huge ones on the snaller wets to and I think they love those too but some times I think the pusher “calls” em from further. I’ll start unweighted and add shot based on currents speed working top down. If you fish the pusher in slow water hanging it in the same spot for long periods and pulsing with rod tip on the dangle is deadly. If you are working a run or riffle and its one of those nights fish aren’t hugging the banks a shot 8” and constant pulsing on the swing through works well in my experience.

 

[Fish Sticks]

Do the specialized night fly patterns outfish a basic Wooly Bugger, which everyone already has in their boxes?

In my experience depends on how you tie the buggers. I fish buggers at night that move a lot more water . Probably not much a difference in most cases. I fish a lot of low density streams. Its not like state college where every swing passes over 4 -8 fish so i heavily favor pusher type flies that make their presence known at greater distances. One fishery i fished around times a year and connect with a trout once, it was 22”. It crushed a 8” long articulated fly that pushed more water than anything ive ever used. To your point troutbert maybe could have caught on a swung ciggerrete butt? Who knows

 

[JoeE]

I do no special leader straight 20lb leader to a swivel then 15 or 20 to the fly. No playing them to much in the dark to go wrong for both me and the fish.

 

[Fish Sticks]

I do no special leader straight 20lb leader to a swivel then 15 or 20 to the fly. No playing them to much in the dark to go wrong for both me and the fish.

Same basically 40lb 30lb 25lb tippet ring 20” of 20 lb for point and 4” 20lb for dropper. Whole thing 8-9’ long depending on where i am

 

[Fish Sticks]

And when the leader is that strong and your horsing them in make sure your puaher isn’t tied on a gamakatsu B10s light wire because the Big ones will bend em and the hook will pull out.

 

[RivDiv521]

If you are using leaders that are up to 20 lbs what do you do when you get caught on something other than a fish. Can you brake your fly off? I usually use an 8 foot leader that is 8 lb, no taper, just 8 feet of 8 lb mono. Had to break off flies a number of times from snags and a couple times from beavers, can't imagine trying to break off 20 lb mono.

 

[Fish Sticks]

If you are using leaders that are up to 20 lbs what do you do when you get caught on something other than a fish. Can you brake your fly off? I usually use an 8 foot leader that is 8 lb, no taper, just 8 feet of 8 lb mono. Had to break off flies a number of times from snags and a couple times from beavers, can't imagine trying to break off 20 lb mono.

Hook bends out even heavy wire. 8lb would be ok for some streams I fish but that’d be risky on others I fish. Problem is if your not pulling em in hard and fast you don’t know where they are at in the water column in my experience. They could be trying to swim around a boulder grating your line or going in brush. Knock on wood I haven’t broken a fly line yet. Honestly though, my cortland glow in the dark line was like $30 a fly line and I ordered a crap ton because I copy swentowsky and make sighters out of the back end when the front wears out so its not like breaking a $100 Rio or SA line. Other thing with the heavy fluro is that a couple places I go you may run into a musky. Hasn’t happned yet but a 2/0 pusher or gamechanger could be on the menu for both species.

 

[HopBack]

Oh wow I gotta get out and try some smallmouth around here then. I have night fished for catfish with bait before but never caught one on a fly. People have told me they like wooly buggers?

Catfish are a blast on the fly rod. They are always bi catch for me when im smallmouth fishing. Same techniques used, flies don’t matter as they are surprisingly aggressive. I know guys target them at night on dry flies when the hexes are hatching.

 

[Fish Sticks]

Catfish are a blast on the fly rod. They are always bi catch for me when im smallmouth fishing. Same techniques used, flies don’t matter as they are surprisingly aggressive. I know guys target them at night on dry flies when the hexes are hatching.

That sounds fun, id like to give it a try i juat need more time to be out there checking for the hatch. Seems every year i’n out on the nights when theres a few around but to early or too late for the big hatch.

 

[Fish Sticks]

By the time you have seen this Fellow fly fishers may already have made a citizen’s arrest for what Injust made in my basement and plannin tying onto a 6weight TFO and I will probably be awaiting trial in a cell in Bozeman MT. But…….

I have been trying to solve some night fishing problems of pursing triut on low density “marginal”(hate that word) streams. Knowing there are less fish(sometimes bigger ones though but sometimes not) less of my casts will be over any trout at all. Its not like state college where I live. So one thought I had is ring the dinner bell louder(brighter, louder, more vibration. Usually I tie very oversized wet flies that push water but abandoning the limits of what is regarded as a fly and crossing into what many would call a lure I feel has allowed me to better address this problem by adding some vibration. Large mouth fishermen who night fish often use colorado blades so i added one on. If I am fishing a stretch of water at night that might have 10 trout or less per quarter mile I Really feel the need to call them from a distance even if I can day time scout them and pin their location to a large pool if only ones in there. We will see if it works out any better. The first pick is a wet fly that has worked well for me that I basically just hung in back of a wire with glow in dark beads, colorado blades, and soft hackles wraped around it for silhouette motion/pulsation that inline spinners don’t usually seem to have. I am eager to test it out and see if it works here in a few weeks to a month when some fish drop out of Spawning tribs on private land near me and go looking for big water/big food. Will let ya know how swining this on fly rod at night works out.

 

[Fish Sticks]

 

[Fish Sticks]

Recent trip to a local stream, first summer night fishing trip of the year. Went with another Forum member and friend of mine.

Got there at 6pm to scout because I have fished this place in daylight but never at night. Walked my route planning how I would break pools down, dosh likely night time haunts(opposite of daytime spots often), where I would stand, how I would mask my sounds of wading(stand on gravel-moun/ bank or use turbulent riffle like a silencer while transitioning spots on my route).

Took some mental notes, day time scouting photos to refer to at night/run through at home prior to next trip there, checked available large prey items, walked the route forwards(downstream) and backwards(upstream).

Went to the car and made my usual three preices of 28 inch of 40lb-35-30lb stiff mono leader(7 foot) to heavy duty swivel(so Harvey pusher flies don’t twist line). Tied size 2 Harvey Pusher on the point and size 6 modified Governor type wet on 3” dropper.








Scouting photos

available forage was lots of native minnow species and stone rollers. In the above photo I actually saw several huge mounds of stone nests and minnow and stone roller species in close proximity to them. See nest

Many crayfish spooking in riffles as I waded.

Starting combo-wet off dropper and pusher on point

We started out going through our route, being as quiet as possible, fishing one at a time, carefully deciding in what order to work the various parts of the pool. We focused on shallow riffles. I do something i call riffle scanning where hand the wets on the dangle and zig zag my wets river left to
River right using a slow sweep of my rod with or without diagonal footsteps, pulsating the pusher and wet the whole time with small lever like up/down action of the rod tip.

We did this in riffles mostly and in slower pools/shallow calm flats next to
Riffles opted for swinging and slow sliding a mouse/sculpin imitation.

See next post continued ran out of photo room

 

[Fish Sticks]

Mouse/sculpin

as we continued down our route we got little action despite a cloudy night covering up The moon light, some light rain, and tree cover blocking light as well(great conditions). Water temp was in low 60’s. Was not sure why we only got a few light slaps on the flies. Finally towards end of the route switched to a modified picketts Pin and hit the tailout I saw all the native minow species making the above pcitured nests in. We saw an aggressive rise under a tree branch and fished it with no luck. Then when swinging the picketts pin under the second overhanging tree branch the surface boiled and the only fish of the evening was taken right by the nests in the tailout.

Modified Picketts Pin.

On the walk back upstream My friend and I used the spot lights to see what we were fishing to that didn’t bite. Spooked and saw alot of 8-12” likely wild invasive brown trout with a 16” and a 20ish “ as well. Also some stupid stocked rainbows and creamsickle trout that kept running into our boots.

Its really helpful to know when you were fishing to nothing and when you fished to a fish that wanted nothing to do with your presentation, this is where Spotting with a light after you fish for next time is invaluable to the night time fly fisher.

All in all pretty standard for first time fishing a beat at night. Despite knowing it in the day time the fish change position. The biggest fish we saw were in a riffle/run transition leading into a deeper pool and in shallow riffles. We did not waste alot of time fishing next to deep root ball
Scour holes or the center of deep pools. Although we did see some fish in them on the way back they were mostly stockers.

Anxious to go back and make my adjustments based on spotting. Probably should have done more long dangles hanging in place and added a little shot in faster runs.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

My buddy Sam Galt was a guest on this dude's podcast and dedicated some time to talking about streamers at night (listen for the discussion of the hang, which really works!). His episode was 139. In a previous episode, dude talked to Bill Ferguson too, episode 54.

Podcast - WADEOUTTHERE

Fly fishing artist and writer Jason Shemchuk talks with other fly fishers about their unique journey into fly fishing, the rivers they fish, and the tactics and philosophies they practice. For those who can never leave the river in their hearts, this podcast is dedicated to providing tools and ideas

wadeoutthere.com

 

[Fish Sticks]

My buddy Sam Galt was a guest on this dude's podcast and dedicated some time to talking about streamers at night (listen for the discussion of the hang, which really works!). His episode was 139. In a previous episode, dude talked to Bill Ferguson too, episode 54.

Podcast - WADEOUTTHERE

Fly fishing artist and writer Jason Shemchuk talks with other fly fishers about their unique journey into fly fishing, the rivers they fish, and the tactics and philosophies they practice. For those who can never leave the river in their hearts, this podcast is dedicated to providing tools and ideas

wadeoutthere.com

Oh yea I listened to that one. I call it the dangle but have since heard that episode and other night fishers calling the hang. Great technique where riffle goes into wide pool.