Casting safely at night

Hi everyone fly casting at night can be fraught and as a consequence not many guys do it or continue with it after trying it a few times. This is a huge pity as so often night time is so much better than day light. Best to start in good conditions to get it down before attempting tough conditions in the dark. Here is something I worked out a few years ago and shared with a few like minded guys.

It works ok in daylight to when fishing fast sinking lines.
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Night fly fishing if you are not used to it can be a little daunting but it need not be.

It can be immensely satisfying due to the challenge posed.

The difficulty for many is the timing of their casts. This is mostly caused because they do not have a clue as to how much fly line they have remaining in the water before attempting to re cast. It is very difficult to make well timed casts when we don’t know how much line is out there in the water. This leads to desperate false casting which is just about the last thing you want at night.
When casting at night I am very much more considered and methodical

To aid timing we need to reduce the variables. Biggest variable is the amount of line we are going to get off the water and into the air.
So to establish this length of line I go to the beach in daylight and make quite a few casts with an Intermediate line. I make a long cast and retrieve the line in and start to try and unplug it with a lift and roll cast. After a while I establish the length of fly line that I can comfortably unplug and put into the air with a roll cast. Next down at the reel I make a 2 Cm mark with a black Sharpie onto the fly line. Go back home clean fly line around the black Sharpie mark. Then I make two small rugby ball shaped blobs on the fly line with Aquasure. I add cetol which speeds up the drying time.
When dry I take the Sharpie pen again and make a mark all the way round the fly line in front of the blobs and 12 inches long. Often at night I can see this long mark before I feel the blobs. It’s useful during the day to.

So on a night of fishing I make a cast and retrieve until I can feel the two blobs pass through the fingers in my line hand. I then unplug the fly line and make a forward roll cast one back cast and then deliver. When fly lands I start to make hand over hand retrieves and I count the number until I find the blobs.

I only keep in my line tray the amount of line I can easily cast and I know the length of due to counting the number of retrieves.

The reason I do this count is that it is possible to miss the blobs. So when I go one over the count I stop and look for the blobs. So I am always casting the same length of line and that means the timing is much easier to make in the dark. You also have sufficient line in the air to aid feel which is critical at night.


My night time casts are way shorter than my daylight casts.

This very mechanical system works superbly well. I know where I am.

Sure you do not get to retrieve your fly to the rod tip but that does not bother me. I rarely do that in good light unless Bass are in the wash.

I did share this system elsewhere and the usual BS started with guys claiming they could fish in the dark by feel alone. Funny how you see painfully few fly guys at night and especially in wind.

I make sure my single back cast is very firm so I can feel it.

Even if the fixed length of line is taken from my line tray by a powerful fish and takes me into the backing it is not difficult to re set it to the numbers. You can just pull line from your reel and lay it out on the beach go to your blobs and pull in to your number. Then wind surplus line onto the reel. You do not want surplus un cast line in your tray at night.

Voila variables that we can control are taken out and our cast becomes way more consistent and above all much safer. I now always wear clear safety specs at night. I have sachets of lens cleaners handy to try and keep them as clean as possible.
The experience of night fishing is so rewarding.
I would suggest not trying it first few times in difficult conditions.

The blobs of aquasure I shape into a rough oval. They pass through the guides fine.

They are about two inches apart. Reason for two is that if I miss first one I may detect the second. Miss the second one and I will know by the count where I am with reference to the marker blobs.


It may appear cumbersome but it is not at all. It works and has given me the confidence to cast well at night and safely.

Hope this is of interest.

Regards

Mike





Sent from my iPad

On 10 Jul 2020, at 17:41, Pierre Sauvé <pierre.sauve38@gmail.com> wrote:

would be nice to see this in action any chance of making a video of it ?
mickser

mickser


It would make it easier to get the hang of I agree. I am no wiz with IT or cameras. But I will see what I can do. The guy I am thinking can help is in Wales and they are in total lock down plus it is a 150 mile drive for me.

I use the method for both single hand rods and two hand rods. It is even better with TH rods as we are casting heavier lines which are easier to feel in the dark. The TH also keeps the line and fly further away from us. It can cast a bit further to and that is not always a bad thing.


It needs a bit of effort to establish where the aquasure blobs are going to go and then to put them on the line. It needs a bit of discipline to count each retrieve. But very quickly you would be amazed how often you can find the blobs corresponding to the correct count.

It soon becomes second nature and the benifits are huge. To be able to fly fish at night and know what is going on is priceless.

How guys do it in salt water and especially in rolling surf casting random lengths of fly line is a mystery. Got to be a reason why few fly guys fish at night. It’s not the same as Sea Trout fishing at night on a river.

I will see what I can do.

Mike

Is this really over complicating fishing at night? Really the only difference is gauging growth trees etc if in that situation if seatrout fishing in rivers? In open water fishing for bass you are blind casting .ostly anyway in places where there is no growth etc?

Partake


It is not a complicated way to cast safely at night. It might seem that way as it needs,more than a few words to describe how to do it.

Sea Trout fishing at night is not the same. In Sea Trout fishing we could be using a fixed amount of line as the line is often cast down stream and across and the fly swung. It is not cast and retrieved like in beach fishing. You can in daylight go to a given pool make casts and establish just how much line you can cast without snagging the opposite bank.

What this system is about is being able to put the same a line t of line into the air on every cast. Also enough line so the Caster can feel it. This means that timing is greatly enhanced as we hs e removed a very important variable.

If you make a cast at night and then retrieve your fly line to fish your fly you have no easy way to know how much line you have pulled into your line tray. This means when you make a cast you have variable amounts of line to deal with. This makes timing very difficult. If you have a very short length of fly line you are forced to make a number of false casts to get a castable length of line.
If you have ever tried to cast say three yards of fly line and 6 feet of leader and a 4 inch Deceiver into even a moderate breeze you would realise that is extremely difficult and very hard to extend your line to a castable length. Control is easily lost and it gets hairy.

Now there are some guys who can effectively fly fish the ocean in the night and do it totally by feel or intuition. These are rare very talented guys. In 30 years of salt water fly fishing I know only one person who does this well. He is not the only one of course but I don’t think that there are many. I see few guys fly fishing at night and even fewer in rolling surf and difficult winds. Reason being I know that casting a fly at night in the ocean is difficult. But it need not be.
I have worn the tee shirt bare struggling in the past until this method came to mind a while back.

We use large hooks like 1/0 2/0 and 3/0 and bigger flies than when freshwater river fishing. Our fly lines are much heavier they have more energy so any collision with the Caster is best avoided.

If you still remain unconvinced that’s fine but to make totally sure take a 9 foot 9 or 10 wt to the beach wade up to your waist at night with a nice breeze blowing onshore and try it.

The best way to find out is to actually go out and try it.

Mike

patk

Apologies for not spelling your handle correctly.

Mike

Partake


It is not a complicated way to cast safely at night. It might seem that way as it needs,more than a few words to describe how to do it.

Sea Trout fishing at night is not the same. In Sea Trout fishing we could be using a fixed amount of line as the line is often cast down stream and across and the fly swung. It is not cast and retrieved like in beach fishing. You can in daylight go to a given pool make casts and establish just how much line you can cast without snagging the opposite bank.

What this system is about is being able to put the same amount of line into the air on every cast. Also enough line so the Caster can feel it. This means that timing is greatly enhanced as we hs e removed a very important variable.

If you make a cast at night and then retrieve your fly line to fish your fly you have no easy way to know how much line you have pulled into your line tray. This means when you make a cast you have variable amounts of line to deal with. This makes timing very difficult. If you have a very short length of fly line you are forced to make a number of false casts to get a castable length of line.
If you have ever tried to cast say three yards of fly line and 6 feet of leader and a 4 inch Deceiver into even a moderate breeze you would realise that is extremely difficult and very hard to extend your line to a castable length. Control is easily lost and it gets hairy.

Now there are some guys who can effectively fly fish the ocean in the night and do it totally by feel or intuition. These are rare very talented guys. In 30 years of salt water fly fishing I know only one person who does this well. He is not the only one of course but I don’t think that there are many. I see few guys fly fishing at night and even fewer in rolling surf and difficult winds. Reason being I know that casting a fly at night in the ocean is difficult. But it need not be.
I have worn the tee shirt bare struggling in the past until this method came to mind a while back.

We use large hooks like 1/0 2/0 and 3/0 and bigger flies than when freshwater river fishing. Our fly lines are much heavier they have more energy so any collision with the Caster is best avoided.

If you still remain unconvinced that’s fine but to make totally sure take a 9 foot 9 or 10 wt to the beach wade up to your waist at night with a nice breeze blowing onshore and try it.

The best way to find out is to actually go out and try it.

Mike

Sorry now but if I was about to fish at night looking a to your post I'd give up you make it seem so complicated. It's not. I've been fishing for sea trout in rivers for 40 years and seriously fishing for bass after dark for 20 or so. Get the fly in the water is the thing. Don't be frightening people with technology. No need.

The more I read your post the more I despair!! You need to acknowledge you are interested in casting. Not fishing.

Patk

It is interesting that you despair reading my post and feel it’s over complicated. It really is incredibly simple. I certainly am not about frightening people I am about facilitating and encouraging. It is hard to see how two aqua seal blobs and a 12 inch mark on a fly line qualify for as high tech.
To be able to get our flies to the fish is pretty fundamental so there is no disadvantage in being interested in casting.

Hard to be just a focused Angler without a decent cast. FWIW the reason I figured this out is because I want to fish safely and be able to do it at night which increases my fishing time . I am not just a caster per say. This technique simplifies the casting and reduces it to just three strokes. No false casting equals greater efficiency and more time in the water for our flies.

There is a reason why the vast majority of fly guys do not fish at night which is often the most productive of times. If night time casting was able to be done same way as during the day I think a lot more guys would be out there in the dark.

I am not suggesting that the technique I worked out will suit everyone. But for those with open minds who are struggling to fish at night with a fly rod it is something that they can consider.

Do you fish open windy beaches at night without problems if so you don’t need it. But before you totally dismiss it why not try it out.

Mike

Most lines any angler will use has a head anyone can gauge the thickness of the line on the retrieve to know when you're getting close to your fly. Also not unlike seatrout or brown trout fishing a bass will take as you lift the fly out of the water at your feet. A dibble works so worth fishing right in to you. Haven't met many anglers struggling as you say. In fact at night you get away with more in terms of distance and poor casting etc. In my opinion. Not a complicated way to fish .

patk



When we are retrieving an integrated wf fly line at night it is difficult to determine when we reach the head due to the smoothness of the integration. What if the head is say 42 feet long which quite a few lines are and even if detected if the line is a sinker you are not going unplug it and get it into the air easily
That’s what the small blobs are for to give you a reliable easy pick up point which give you a constant rod load and set amount of line to put into the air. This equates to much better feel and timing.

We could chew this over for ever but we are never going to see things in the same way. As I have said in previous posts above this technique may not appeal to everyone. There are very talented guys out there that can fish in the dark just by total intuition and feel alone. They will have no use for this. But I believe that there are more guys who probably need a little help.
As I keep saying if fly fishing at night was so easy as you are making out why are there so few guys doing it compared to the numbers I see during the day especially as night time is the prime time to be fishing. Throw in surf wading waist deep and a head wind and even less guys are out there.

So it works for me and others I know. But if you won’t even try it before condemning it then it’s your choice and you will never know for sure.

I have enjoyed debating this with you and it will be interesting to see the views of others if they wish to share their thoughts and experiences of night time fly fishing.

Mike

i know few people who fly fish for bass in daylight. best of luck with your aquasure

patk

If you ever get to Cape Cod USA you will see a lot of guys fishing in daylight and mostly but not always its smaller Stripers. I stay with a bunch of Americans and trying to get them to fish at night with fly is a tough call even though the fishing can be way better and the fish very much bigger.
The old aqua seal blobs they are pretty tough. I have had the same ones on a couple of fly lines for a few years now. The black ink needs topping up as it does not stick well to Airflows Cold Water Intermediate lines. Been using this system for at least ten years now.


Mike

Hi Mike , excellent thread, very interesting. What type and thickness leader would you normally use?

Find it difficult enough to cast during the day never mind at night at time. Good info, thanks.