Night Beach Fishing - Light Etiquette

[Short]

G'Day Raiders,

Wondering what your take is on etiquette for beach fishing at night and use of lights/torches.......

Due to work and young kids, most of my fishing is at dusk in to night. I love the peace and quiet of being out under the stars and 99% of the time have no light on when im fishing. If i'm rigging up or baiting ill use the red mode on the headlamp (unless its a full moon then no light needed at all!) and the only time ill actually use the white light on the headlamp is if I bring something to shore, have a bad tangle or if I'm packing up. Even then i take care not to shine the light toward the water and never use it when casting or retrieving. If you don't use the bright white head lamp your eyes become really tuned in to the low light levels and can generally see pretty well. I've heard that bright lights on the water can spook the fish and I think that's true - a lot of time they are feeding right at your feet!

NOW.......its a pretty common occurrence, and happened to me last night, I'm fishing a productive gutter in full stealth mode with no light, then a few other fishos come along equipped with the most ridiculously bright head lamps, the power of these things is right up there with car head lights. First they look straight at me from 20m away and nearly burn a hole in my retina, then proceed to scan the gutter and breakers with their lights including the area right in front of me, assuming they are looking for a good spot to cast. They settled on a spot about 30m away (right in the middle of a shallow bank incidentally) when there was no one else on the 3km long beach except for me. Every cast they would light up the waves and have a good look around for 30 secs or so, and every retrieve the lights would go on again when they started reeling in. The bite went dead pretty soon after they showed up and the gutter that was producing tailor, salmon, bream with strikes every cast more or less shut down and I only got a banjo shark and wobby before packing up. Not to say that the lights were definitely what killed the gutter but I don't think it could have helped much. This gutter was running really close to shore.

What do you do in this situation??? I'm generally reluctant to have a go at people but this really bugs me and isn't the first time it's happened, not by a long shot. I don't want to be that guy that tells someone "I was here first! go fish somewhere else!" but when they park within 30m of you on a 3km long beach with nobody else its tempting. Do I go tell them not to shine their lights in front of me? Or maybe just a casual chat asking if they are having any luck, then mention "you know some people  believe lights on the water scare the fish off...."  with a intentional protracted awkward moment for a few seconds afterwards....

Any advice you can offer would be much appreciated!

On the off chance that anyone reading this likes fishing on the beach at night with 10,000 lumen headlamps, maybe spare a thought that some people prefer to fish with the lights of the stars and moon and not much else...

 

[Guest Guest123456789]

Frustrating, but it's a public beach and they broke no laws. Who is more entitled, you to fish without light shining in your gutter, or them to fish with a light to see? In my view you're both equally entitled.

Happens to all of us. I'd either walk up the beach away from them or try a more secluded spot next time that is a longer walk in and out.

[rickmarlin62]

get the gun pa.hahahaha................idiots that don't know better..sometimes its best to move away..rick

[fragmeister]

" First they look straight at me from 20m away and nearly burn a hole in my retina, "

LOL very funny... I know exactly how you feel.

Unfortunately there is no easy way to do this but certainly its something you can often only broach after you have broken the ice a little. Have a chat to them, talk about fishing...chances are they are newbies and just don't know.

I think if people feel chastised they are just as likely to get all defensive about it and you have no chance of influencing them. Tempting as it to fly into them it just doesn't work.

Sounds like you are on the track with your "you know some people  believe lights on the water scare the fish off...."  approach.

What else can you do?

Cheers

Jim

 

 

 

Edited February 26, 2017 by fragmeister

[Tag117]

There is nothing more frustrating than when people set up right near you without even asking if its ok!

 

Im in a similar boat to you as i am never sure whether to say anything or not.

All the best mate and hopefully not too many nuisances next time.

Tag

[Surfacejunky]

I was fishing on a beach one arvo just before sunset. A guy came up and set up literally 5 meters from me. As with your situation there was no one else on the whole beach. I remember thinking is this guy for real??

Then the nice person inside me thought, mayb he just wants to fish with someone....

... any way after he put a line in he comes up to me and says "what are you fishing for"

I relied "bream mate"

"oh you wont catch bream here"

I just laughed it of and reeled in a 35cm+ bream about 2 mins later.

I was just about to release the bream and the guy runs down and says "why are you putting it back?"

To which I replied "I don't eat bream"

"can I have it?"

I thought oh why not, gave it to the guy and continued fishing.

Minutes later the guys mates who were fishing on some near by rocks came down and ole mate packed up and proceeded to walk up the beach telling his mates about the bream "he" just caught.... without so much as a thank you or a good by to me.

That was the last time I gave anyone a fish I wanted to release. I doubt ill be doing it again.

[savit]

Short, I am probably like you - day time commitment s and 99% night fishing. Absolute minimum of light , peace and quietness etc.

Ido not know which beach you meant , however the looong one on northern part of Sydney has a few holes and 3kmof shallow channels which are not much fishable at falling or low tide. So, Ijust to live with new " neighbors" for the night. A hat/cap with long brim/visor will protect you from direct light from their headlamp. If they scare the fish in tthe water next to you or point the light to you frequently - tell them about that. If don't say anything - they will consider bright lights as normal. There is no need to be rude , and even a quick chat about fishing may result in extra local  fishing spots knowledge and additional bait if they leave earlier.

[Fufu]

Hey guys

I hope I don't come across rude or anything but I was under the impression that's lights attract fish. Now I'm talk about spots like bridges etc and just assumed that the same goes for the beach?

mind you every time I fish the beach with one of my mates, he refuses to let us you lights of any sort. Except for situations mentioned aboue, e.g tangles etc

Fufu

[Short]

Thanks for the responses fellas, good to know I'm not the only one it happens to!

Guess the options are:

- pack up and find a new gutter

- have a quiet chat and drop a few discreet hints

- move out of Sydney!

Guess it can be a bit like surfing, people turn up to a beach, see someone else fishing/surfing a certain spot and all head there. 

Fufu - I'm no expert on it but I think that stationary lights that aren't too bright like a bridge or wharf can be good, but when you have complete darkness and then put a moving spotlight on the water the fish get spooked. 

Savit - it wasn't narra- that spot is usually crowded from the pines up to the lagoon entrance, was a beach further south which on further research is closer to 2km than 3! My mistake. It's fishing well at the moment as the lagoon opened up with recent rains. I get your point though, sometimes you have a fairly featureless beach that is one long bank too far to cast over and only a few gutters close to shore... Can get crowded then.

 

[DMG]

I once thought lights scared off fish too until I did some research and found light actually attracts fish.

Next time you fish at night say at a wharf etc,set up a portable flood light and shine it into the water in front of you and see what happens,after about 15 min all the bait fish and squid are in your light area.

[rickmarlin62]

a fixed constant light can and will attract small baitfish which attract bigger fish or squid but a bright light being turned on and off or flashed around usually spooks fish..ive had people do it to me and I am usually rude and abrupt with them..but  that's me and I don't recommend this action for everyone...sometimes discretion is needed in ones approach to morons..on the other hand you could always buy a bright light and shine it in their eyes and let them experience night blindness..haha must be the mean streak in me...rick

[Martyy]

Same with me ! Does my head in, I pack up and leave or find another spot.Not worth the dramas. I often have a back up plan for if my spots taken or there is some other issue. Good luck

[macman]

Most problem fishos are lazy, if you are trying to fish at somewhere like the pines at North Narrabeen prepare to be annoyed. There are other places to fish, they take more effort but are worth the effort.

[zmk1962]

11 hours ago, DMG said:

I once thought lights scared off fish too until I did some research and found light actually attracts fish.

Next time you fish at night say at a wharf etc,set up a portable flood light and shine it into the water in front of you and see what happens,after about 15 min all the bait fish and squid are in your light area.

Hi DMG,

I can see the logic in that if there is deep water and structure - like a warf. A constant light would attract the smaller stuff, then baitfish, then predators as there is depth and structure and the shadowy dark areas for the fish to hide in - if they need to. You get the same effect squidding at night of a boat in deeper water.

However, on a beach as there is ONLY shallow water my experience is that the fish avoid the shallows especially when its bright - eg during day time the beach shallows are almost a desert as bait fish are exposed from the bottom (predatory fish) and above (birds).  So during day time beach fishing I would cast out to the deeper channels and holes. But as the light fades the fish move in closer as there is less threat.  Many folks forget that and still cast out far at night.

I have caught a bagfull of whiting in Jervis Bay in a 24ft radius around my feet standing at the water line in total darkness. I did not use my reel at all (12ft beach rod+ 12ft of line hanging out) - literally like pole fishing. As Short said - "they're feeding right at your feet".  I discovered this by accident... a miss cast plopped the bait near and as I was figuring out what went wrong I hooked up.  I had been targeting bream and whiting and I was casting right over them - DOH!

Since then I carry 2 beach rods - heavy and light. The heavy gets thrown out and sits in a rod holder. The light fishes everything inbetween - in total darkness.

BTW on a different note - night beach fishing was one of my and my wife's favourite past times - we'd hit anywhere from Palm down to Shellharbour) but I admit we have given it away for the last 15+ years. Not because of issues like Short is experiencing sharing the beach with others but because we just got very sick and tired of returning to our car to find it had been broken into. Is this still happening regularly out there?

Cheers

Zoran

[Short]

Zoran I've never had a break in but have only been at it off the beaches at night in earnest for a year and  a bit since the kids came along! Prior to that was a day time activity. I fish the northern beaches mind you and I'd say they're a fair bit safer than some areas around the 'gong.

 

[zmk1962]

Thanks Short... good to know.

[Surfacejunky]

Yeah never had a problem on the northern beaches either!