Shifting Perspectives After Dark

I started night fishing for trout in 2015 and started doing it consistently in 2016. I have learned an awful lot from just following my own path, instead of doing what everyone else before me has done, and especially what is most popular. The biggest thing I've learned, to modify a quote from the late great Lefty Kreh, is that there is more bs in night fishing for trout than there is in a Kansas feed lot. Talking to fly fisherman you'd think everyone and their mother is out there on the river at night. Then you get out there, and even on the most popular rivers on the calmest, clearest, warmest of nights, and there's a few other fisherman out at most. In a few places it's enough to make an appreciable difference, but overall, the vast majority of fly fisherman that claim to night fish regularly talk the talk but just don't walk the walk. How many of you are really out there fishing a trout stream for 6 or more hours in a night even just once a month? I know of a handful of consistent night fisherman in CT, one or two in Mass, a handful in NY, a few in PA, and a bunch in Michigan. Even just reading pieces in various publications, I get the feeling the writers are more or less just just regurgitating the same stuff, maybe with a little bit of a twist. It is only infrequently that I see something really worth digging into . Domenick Swentosky (troutbitten) has written some really good stuff, and Field and Stream's Joe Cermele has done quite a bit to separate the bull from the fact on fishing mouse flies at night (Hook Shots Podcast: Mousing Straight Dope Live From Camp Carnivore).

There are other good examples too, but they are all the exceptions to the rule. If you really want good information, don't look to today's anglers, look at George Harvey and Joe Humphreys. They were the OG's. Joe could still put almost anyone that claims to be a good night fisherman to shame at 90 years old.

One of my own variations on George Harvey's pusher wetfly, used and abused.

Since I started this path, I've progressive had throw away my own previously held notions, all of which had roots in what I heard and read regularly on the subject of night trout fishing. First it was the need to fish big mice and streamers aggressively. I quickly found that mice and large articulated streamers do work, and fairly frequently, but I had to fish them differently than the ways I was being told to. Then I found out that fishing smaller, more subtle presentations with wet flies and streamers got the job done way more frequently than big flies. My idea that night fishing was really just a way to get a giant brown trout was shattered too. Yes, big browns are often primarily nocturnal, but if you go out expecting to only get the hawgs, quit before you even start because this probably isn't for you. Night fishing is actually just another way to effectively target trout of all sizes. I've caught 4 inch brookies and 24 inch rainbows at night. Night fishing works on all sizes and species them when done in the right way for the situation.

My last big notion was that night fishing for trout was a warm weather deal. Summertime, low water, warm nights... that was the oft repeated mantra. In July I found a river that seemed completely dead after dark. In December I had more than one giant brown boil on baitfish at my feet on a night when the low was 26. I saw Swentosky write about night fishing in the winter. I started to question whether the summertime low water paradigm existed because that was actually a real rule, or because anglers that wouldn't have otherwise just resorted to night fishing during the summer because that's the only time the fish were really active. I'm now pretty sure that's the case. On some waters, night fishing is successful year round. On some others, it is best in the spring and in the fall. On yet others, it is best from mid summer through late fall. Time of year isn't actually the deciding factor on whether night fishing is going to be productive on a given day. Flow, available food, type of stream structure, and a few other things matter far more. The only real way to know is to go. You might be missing something amazing.

On Saturday night I fished my part time home water from sunset until about 11:30. The flow was moderately low, the water was 49 degrees, and the night was mild. I saw rises both in the little remaining light after sunset and in the reflections of artificial lights in houses and businesses. That was a good sign. Then, in the tailout of a big pool, I had a big fish slam my mouse just feet away from me.
Okay. This could work.
I met up with Michael Carl (he walks the walk, btw) a little while later. We chatted for a little, then I used my light to see if I could spot any baitfish swimming in the margins. I had already found a ton of tessellated darters in one spot downstream, but there weren't many things swimming around in that spot. I turned off the light and we continued to chat when, behind Mike and to his left, there was a massive explosion that startled us both, slashing through a fast, shallow riffle. It clearly wasn't a beaver or mink. It was a fish eating something. A huge fish eating something.
More confirmation that I was on the right track night fishing this river early.
Mike caught some stockers on streamers and I blew some more great chances with mice. But I finally felt like I was getting somewhere here. Since I caught the first wild brown on a mouse in this river a year ago I've made precious little progress. Now I feel like I've got the groundwork laid to make big things happen, both there and on other rivers. All it took was one night.

On the ride back from fishing two western CT rivers yesterday morning, Mike Andrews and I were talking about night fishing. Mike walks the walk too. He's put up some huge trout at night over the years. We talked about the TMA I live closest to. "You could fish the _____ tonight!" Mike said. I told him that I don't typically start night fishing there until May, when the water is lower and there are hatches after dark to bring the fish up. But I thought about that a little more when I got home and I realized that the only few times I had night fished it earlier in the year I didn't really know what I was doing yet. It was certainly low enough, and this would be another warm night.

I went for it. And hot damn am I glad I did.

I fished from 9:00 until 12:30 with a steady pick of fish. A couple pretty decent ones came to hand. And they fought stupid hard compared to what I typically experience there at night, often jumping 6 times or more. It was all in the approach. The water was higher than I typically night fish there, and colder, and there were fewer fish in the river (stocked river, very few holdovers). I had to fish a heavy tail fly, and a bigger wet than I'd oftentimes need (sz. 14's work well there at night in June), to get the rig down, provide a good moving silhouette, and be able to slow the swing down enough. I fished mice fore a short time without success, which didn't surprise me much.

Really, I know everything I need to know about night fishing for trout. And that's simply that I know hardly anything about night fishing for trout. Starting from there, I can actually make progress and maybe even change the game. Follow the crowd of people that just talk the talk though, and there's not much progress to be made.

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