seatrout at night?

[fishmonger]

just wondering is it effective to fish for seatrout at night with sandeel?

[husshunter]

Night time is when sea trout are most active ,its the best time with the fly so you will probably catch with sandeel, live sandeel probably better idea freelined or fished with float to give it some action in the water

[fishmonger]

i caught one last night off a storm beach and it was packed with sandeel, so i was wondering would a sand eel on a single hook paternoster with a gripper work??

[husshunter]

The sea trout like movement so once its moving in the current/surf it should be ok was it full of the small sandeels 2-3inch long ones ive been getting them digging and they look ideal to use for seatrout

[doggie3131]

i have had seven this year,all at night,and most on lug/mack cocktail,saw two caught last night on worms on a beach,(both returned)sandeel works well too.but remember you need a licence for seatrout, and there are restrictions in some areas on killing seatrout,for example you cannot kill one in clew bay,so you need to check your local area or where ever your fishing.

[fishmonger]

got another two tonight, spinning. Ya that one last night was packed with sand eels 2 to 3 inches long..tried a sand eel on a paternoster too, nothing doing.

[fishmonger]

returned both of them tonight by the way .dont know where clew bay is.

[kieran]

You can float fish with sandeels for sea trout and other predatory species. One technique is to pop small floats down the mouth of the sandeel akin to what pike anglers do with roach dead baits. Another - I've seen it done - is to tie up the head tight, and gently inject air into the body cavity to give it added movement (can only be done with fresh ones!). Check out the jif lemon technique, works and casts the whole thing an enormous distance. Using flouro helps.

FWIW

[BillG]

Given that most anglers fly fishing for Sea trout target them specifically after dark you should be ok. Also worth trying top water plugs such as poppers which will cause a bit of a disturbance on the water to attract the fish. Bear in mind, if a fish is under your plug, it can see its profile perfectly silhouetted against a night sky unless it is totally dark. Surface plugs are worth a try, based on my targeting of sea trout in rivers and estuaries at night, a large top water fly which causes some disturbance is very effective.
Please bear in mind that you do need a salmon / sea trout license to keep a sea trout even if caught on a beach.

[BillG]

Bear in mind that plugging after dark can also work for the odd elusive Bass