The Night Bite

[Seanook]

I've been doing a lot of night fishing on the river. Mostly because of work and the weekend crowds. I picked up a new headlamp and some bobber lights. My success has been moderate. Recently there has been a lot of discussion about a Steelheads night vision. Just this Monday a buddy of mine and I were down at our usual spot drifting beads. He watched his bobber drop and tried to set the hook. Miss! Approximately ten seconds later my bobber drifted through the exact same area of his miss. BAM "Fish on". After landing the nice 5-6lb hen in the pic above we began to discuss the circumstances of that smash. We came to the conclusion that the fish he missed was probably the same one I landed and therefore it must have clearly seen both. I couldn't even see my own bead when it was right in front of my face. Do Steelhead have that kind of superior night vision? We weren't using glow beads or following our drifts with our headlamps. There was no scent added or chumming with roe. Just a run of the mill 8 mil cream bead. Apart from the time we spend messing with birds nests and tip tangles, we have been having success. Anyone have any experience,input or tricks they use to maximize their chances at night?

[fishfight]

Thanks for your report.

I have been wondering myself how good the eye site these fish were during nighttime. On some GTA tribe, few that were willing to venture out and fish at night, do well bottom bouncing. I read that brown have very good eye site, just like walleye, some anglers I spoke to said the fish do take glow beads or glow lures.

The issue with fishing at night, hard to see which direction our line or lures are going, I cast and retrieve with lures, without any light source, the chance of losing one's lure is even higher. By using a lighted bobber, that would definitely help.

Another issue we have to consider is when do fish sleeps?

From my many years of successful salmon fishing, they seem to be active on certain incremental time of the night or daytime. They can turn on for one hour, then shut off for two hours and then turn back on again. I also landed using non glow lures,but it seemed that glow lures entice them to bite even more. So does walleye fishing, using glow lures also works, even if the fish are nocturnal.

Here is another thing to consider, if nocturnal fish are more adventurous as a predator at night, and well fed from taking advantage of more blind sited/helpless bait fish, would the predator stop feeding during daytime? There are some anglers who claimed that walleye are more active at night during few days before and after the full moon phase. so during daytime, it is harder to fish for them.

I tried bass fishing on a boat on many nights to collect my own observation, I fished when it was full to no moon; fish when the temp drops at night, from 3 to 10 degree difference compared to those of daytime temp; fish when the wind was 5 to 20km wind. My conclusion.......Fishing activity tends to shut off by 11pm, then pick up again after dawn, regardless of variable conditions at night. Fishing for bass at night in general, was not any better than fishing for them during daylight, though we landed some bass, perch, on shallower waters close to lily pads in the middle of the night. One cool experience of fishing at night was we have to based on our sense of touch more so then to our sense of vision. The biggest draw back of fishing at night during warm weather...........bugs!

[Seanook]

My main issue is like you said, not being able to see my line, having very little feel for my line due to having to wear gloves and the ensuing mess that comes with sucking that birdsnest into my pin. Not an insurmountable issue but annoying for sure.

[archman]

I fish at night a lot for steelhead. I have found they hit in quicker spurts and then shut off. It will be fast and furious for 10 or 15 minutes, and then nothing for an hour and a half. I mainly use jigs or plastics. I have also caught some casting for walleye in the lake in muddy water at night. This time of year, if you get a warm night like we did the last couple of nights, that is definitely the time to go. Generally, prime time at night is about 7-8, and then about 9:30. Around 10, they generally "sleep" for a few hours. I usually catch them on my very first drift, or first few drifts when I get there about 7. The same can be true when I get to the river at like 3 in the morning. I find that you need to give them an hour or so after dark for their eyes to adjust.