Just in case anybody thought that i had vanished off the face of the planet due to the lack of my salmon fishing reports and videos etc.,this is mainly due to the lack of water and salmon in the river at the moment but i am still fishing for sea trout at night on the fly. Anybody that has fished at night will understand the buzz one gets from the rod nearly being wrenched out of ones hands and the explosion of water that follows when a big sea trout hits the fly, not being able to see in the dark really magnifies the sensation and trust me if you haven't done this before try it. There are a few simple rules to night fishing, (1). recce the area that you are about to fish in daylight so you can understand water depth and problematic areas like low trees, deep holes and bank structure. (2) make sure that it isn't tidal as you don't want to be swamped by water in the dark. (3) bring a friend or two just for safety on your first few sessions but i recommend that unless you are very confident in your night fishing skills you should always fish with a buddy. (3) lay out your flies and casts in advance so as to minimize searching for them in the dark and always check that the eyes of every fly are clear of varnish etc as trying to thread line through the eye of a fly at night is hard enough without having that issue. (4) Lights, you can't have enough lights, one small hat light for changing flies, second bigger light for walking back to the car because trust me you wouldn't believe the number of anglers that i have seen falling over due to bad visibility. (5) Bank etiquette, don't flash lights onto the river and don't walk right up to other anglers that are fishing asking questions etc unless you know them, they are fishing and not out there for a chat so let them fish in peace. (6) Salmon licence, you are going to need a state salmon licence and if fishing private or club waters a permit or permission.(7) clothing remains the same as you will need a jacket and waders etc, but wear clear glasses as you won't be able to see the flies when you are casting and the last thing you need is a fly sticking out of an eye in the dark, not only that i met a guy one night who had a lucky escape when a branch that he didn't see in the dark got stuck just above his eye socket and embedded itself there luckily it missed the eye but he fishes with clear safety glasses now at night.(8) a good long landing net to save you leaning too far into the river. I will be going into much more detail about fly rods / lines and flies in the future with a very simple and effective strategy on how to fly fish for sea trout at night but have a look at my sea trout fly fishing video on my mrkingfisher3 youtube channel before you venture out into the darkness. Most of the rivers have a good number of sea trout in them at the moment but it will get better in the coming weeks.
