Fishing in the Dark of the Night for Monster Browns... and Bows

Every once in a while, you might find the only opportunity to get some fishing in is at night. Flyfishing under the 'cover of darkness' can be either an amazingly fantastic experience, or a terribly frustrating waste of time. Hopefully, with just these few simple pointers, you can make your first outing a little more.. well.. fun!

To begin nighttime fly fishing for the first time, you should start with a body of water you know very well during daylight fishing. Having an idea where fish hold during the day is most important, thus you will know where to cast most often. Knowing that those fish will feed with reckless abandon at night should make this section of stream very productive.

You might have seen flies in magazines and catalogs that you know big fish eat, so night time is the right time to try them out. Stocking your fly boxes with patterns that are big and loud is the norm, but you shouldn't be afraid to try traditional patterns that have been around for over a hundred years. If you are fishing a fast section of water you need some flies that are both heavy and flashy. Should you choose a slower moving amount of water to fish, you will need some buggy, flashy, large and bushy flies in your arsenal. With just a little more thought into how you plan to throw these larger flies, it looks like now you're ready to get 'em wet!

You should start off using a little heavier tippet than you would use for day fishing. This will ensure that if a larger fish takes one of your flies you can apply some of the needed pressure to get them hooked up and landed. I recommend a 4X (6lb) tippet for size 10's smaller and 3-1X (8-12lb) for anything else that might be bigger. The larger hooks on these flies will need a stronger hookset to be buried into the jaw of a big trout, so keeping a tippet size matched up to the fly is quite important. You should be ready to experiment with 0X thru 4X tippet and size your flies accordingly by weight. Also, crimping the barb on your night fishing flies will it easier to get that hook in deeper on the hookset, and, more often than not, to release a fly from your vest, hat.. shirt.. or whatever you might hook onto during an errant cast.

You should try casting only at your most comfortable distance, and this is strongly advisable. Trying to overpower a cast to get extra distance will sometimes ensue a struggle to get everything untangled - while in pitch black darkness with the shrill of some animals fighting that seem 30 feet away from you. Yeah.. not fun. So do try staying within a reserved limit of distance. Best between like 25 and 35 feet.

Take with you more than one flashlight, preferably one that clips on to you and one tucked in a pocket just for sake keeping. Should one light get dropped or become unusable for any reason - you have another with fresh batteries to find your way back to the car. While changing flies in the dark you should always turn around with your back to the water you are fishing to make sure you do not spook any fish you intend to catch. I cannot tell you how many times I have noticed other anglers shining their lights directly onto the water they plan to cast into while changing flies.. and you can imagine that those fish were immediately aware that a predator was nearby.

The last - and possibly the most important aspect of night fly fishing is to wade softly and quietly. Anytime you step foot in the river while night fishing, you will show your entrance to the fish. Imagine you are just like a hunter stalking a trophy deer or turkey and that you need to make your impact known to your target as slight as possible. Splashing into the water hurriedly to get to a spot you know holds plenty of fish will likely drive all but the least weary fish to a different holding spot. Small trout will put up with some unnatural changes like these, but your big brown trout target will bolt for a new spot everytime.

A special note - the closest you get a chance to fish during the new moon phase of every month will add to your hookup ratio. Ask me to explain this more and I will go into a 3 minute tirade on my reasoning. After tossing flies for trout for more than 8000 hours logged in only pitch darkness - I have fished just an 1/8 of those with the moon shining brightly. (enough said)

Perhaps it is necessary in the beginning to use a bright moon over head to guide you as to where you are in the river, but going about this night fly fishing in pitch black with more than frightful conditions proves much better. Also good are cloudy nights or rainy nights.. and even better are windy, rainy nights with snow or sleet.

Like I started off - this night fly fishing is not for the faint of heart. Weather conditions, fly selections and water depth is quite technical to begin with, but if you throw in using only two of your 5 given senses for night fly fishing.. you can see why this is only for the most adventurous.

Should you happen to hear a reel screaming in the distance and a see quick photo snapped at 3:30 am anytime soon you will more than likely find me, releasing yet another great big Taneycomo trout caught 'under the cover of darkness.