Article on night fishing

[mrsswordfisherman]

Deckee is wanting to do an article on night fishing and are asking for any general advice to include.

Fishraider tips please  

 

 

[Green Hornet]

If fishing a dark, unlit spot, never flash a light around.

Learn how to tie a rig with your eyes shut. That way you'll not need a torch while fishing and you'll have better night vision as well.

[Rebel]

I night fish at Nth Entrance Beach & Hargraves Beach on the Central Coast

I wear a night light. Nothing flashy.

Take a torch just in case.

Caught a shark one night. Frighten the ghost out of me.

All said and done,be carefull and wear good footwear & gloves

I also wear a Hi vis jacket.

[Fab1]

When fishing at night -

*There WILL be Idiots out there not displaying navigation lights and morons anchored in channels.

* Take it easy and be extra vigilant for the said above.

*Make sure you have warm clothing,a beanie,and hot drinks onboard.

*Always wear your life jacket(Many don't).

*Park your rig in a well lit area and have valuables out of site.

That's just a few things I do as i could go on forever.

If they need to know how to catch fish at night or in the morning or arvo for that matter don't ask me.

 

 

[XD351]

If you need a torch  but don’t want to have the bright beam that modern LED torches give off a simple diffuser can be fashioned with a white plastic bag ( the thin ones work better )by placing the light inside one or two bags then tying the bag shut - you can still turn the light on and off as the bag is flexible and still allows the switch to be used  this turns your light into a small bubble light , place this on the ground or floor of the boat and you can rig up without ruining your night vision  . DON’T use your emergency torch for this if you are in a boat as you want it to be as bright as possible and never want to have to fumble around in an emergency .

[XD351]

Familiarise yourself with the area you wish to fish , not all waterways have lit markers - Brisbane waters was /is a classic example of this and there were some serious accidents in there . A decent sounder / gps unit can be a real life saver in this instance but the skipper should also be aware of any areas where extra care is needed BEFORE the boat leaves the ramp . Be aware of how weather conditions can turn a normally safe location into a killer - add darkness to this and you have some real problems . It doesn’t take much to get the wind swell going and having to pound your way back to the ramp in the dark in a punt isn’t pleasant - big lakes like Glenbawn and Lake Macquarie are places I have experienced this too many times ! 

[XD351]

Make up some spare rigs and wrap them around a short length of pool noodle , this will minimise the time your line is out of the water and make re rigging much simpler - the less knots you have to tie in the dark the better .

[Restyle]

I do abit of night fishing in the kayak, I never fish in or near a main channel and anchor well out of the way & spend as little time as possible in the channel markers if I need to cut through the them. I don’t use a head torch, Instead using the 1.5m tall all round white light which is a perfect light for needing to bait up and re tying hooks. And also making me visible up to 2 nm, It sits just above my head behind me and lights up the kayak not too bright about the same as a full moon. I carry 2 battery’s incase one fails and a battery powered light if the light dies. 
I also have some led button lights installed on the inside which help with unhooking fish, measuring fish etc. check the weather regularly before you head out, always wear a life jacket, lanyard your stuff and be prepared for the worst case of flipping. 
Be prepared so when you do catch a fish it’s on board for the shortest period of time which allows you to get a new bait out quickly.
be organised, Knowing where the brag Mat is, phone, net etc instead of looking around in the dark. Also gives you more time with bait in the water. Bites are generally much more scarce in the night so it can be easy to misplace your stuff.
 

Always inform someone that you are heading out if by yourself so if you don’t return they can inform the relevant people before it may be too late. 

[campr]

Rig up an underwater squid light and keep a squid jig suspended within the light.  For me this often provides a suply of squid to livebait with the best bait you can get.   Ron 

[wazatherfisherman]

Same as Green Hornet says above- your night vision only starts working after you are in complete darkness. It doesn't take that long to acclimatise to the dark as long as there isn't any lighting around. If there are lights around, using a red LED light has proven to be better than a white light from my experience and many head torches come with a red light function these days.

We fished the low, often wave swept platforms for years without many problems. Torch light was 'banned' anywhere near the water on dark nights and nobody wore a head torch while fishing like this, because looking anywhere other than at the sea could be a fatal mistake. All rigging was done away from the water and having pre-made rigs is the best idea, meaning you only tie one knot- again, away from the sea, so no light on you.

These days there are plenty of great options to store pre-made rigs in, like these below- you can make rigs for any possible scenario/target safely while at home- and save fishing time for fishing.

[Little_Flatty]

I don't fish a lot at night, but I do fish a lot in the pre-dawn darkness and know for a fact that lures are no less effective in the dark.

My tips for night time fishing are:

1) To use your ears as much as your eyes; marauding tailor and other species can often be heard hunting on the surface.

2) Start before sun-down, as the twilight period is often a peak time for many species.

3) Fish can often be a lot more aggressive under the cover of darkness, as evidenced by a large bream I caught last Friday, which pretty much took my lure off the rod tip. The same fish in that location are easily spooked in daylight hours.

[Flanno]

I didn't see a lot of comments about offshore so I'll try to add some insight from what I know..

* Would not recommend to travel at more than 12 knots, unless you have FLIR or a death wish. At night your visibility is seriously limited, floating/submerged debris becomes impossible to see and hitting something at 8-12 kt will be better for your boat than if you were to hit it at 12 kt

* I recently installed a LED bar for 4x4s on my rocket launcher (pic). Worth its weight in gold to have lighting at night, especially offshore. Coming home from Broughton Island and being able to fish sunset 🌇 is awesome, the added lights give confidence. If you do want to fish sunset and come home dark whilst offshore, don't even think twice about adding more lights. Also, no more early morning crossing bars in the pitch black!

* Turn down the brightness on your sounders! This, combined with not stating at them well help your night vision settle in 😀 

* Snapper fish pretty well on a full moon! Surprised the heck out of me too  3/4 times ive targeted snapper at night past sunset and been offshore was 3 times where I was lucky to get one or two fish, and the time it was a full moon resulted in a lot of fish being pulled in. My theory is that the moonlight provides enough light for snapper to hunt, but I could have just been lucky that night.

Unfortunately I don't have much more species related tips, still trying to figure the whole fishing thing out myself 😉 From diving at night I can confirm some fish definitely do shut down.. Mulloway, sharks and rays don't seem to mind though. 

 

As everyone has said, stay safe! The ocean is dangerous enough as it is so take extra care at night 

[noelm]

I will just bite my tongue in regards to light bars and headlights on boats.....

[FrigateMack]

Rock fishing at night..

Firstly, don't go rock fishing at night unless you know the spot really well. It's best to familiarize yourself by going during the day until you know every rock at the spot. All other rock fishing safety rules apply, only 100x more so: Life jacket. Cleats or boots with spikes. Ideal conditions - that is low or no swell. Check swell forecast and then check the real conditions once at your spot. Don't stay if the conditions are even slightly off. Ideally, don't go by yourself.

Bring a head lamp + a spare light. The best headlamp I found is Nitecore HC65. It has a focused beam and a flood beam, plus a red flood light. The beam intensity can be adjusted and should be set to very low. Or use the red beam to preserve your night vision. The headlamp uses the 18650 battery so it lasts for days. But, when fishing, it's best to turn the light off. Or at least, don't point the beam at the water.

I often get to my spot well before sunrise, sometimes at 3am. It's easier to catch yakkas at night. Once my lifebait bucket is full, I target tailor, until the sunrise. Just before sunrise seems to be the best tailor bite.

Tailor setup: One of those little green LED fishing lights taped to a float + the usual ganged hook rig. The LED light is better than a glow stick because glow sticks are not bright enough. You can't see them, and the float, during twilight.

Also, snapper via distance casting off the rocks bite best around sunrise as well, especially after some rain storms or big swell.

The main tip though is to bring litres of coffee and to be slightly insane to even be going rock fishing in the middle of the night.

Edited April 25, 2022 by FrigateMack

[Fab1]

On 4/20/2022 at 7:59 AM, Flanno said:

I didn't see a lot of comments about offshore so I'll try to add some insight from what I know..

* Would not recommend to travel at more than 12 knots, unless you have FLIR or a death wish. At night your visibility is seriously limited, floating/submerged debris becomes impossible to see and hitting something at 8-12 kt will be better for your boat than if you were to hit it at 12 kt

* I recently installed a LED bar for 4x4s on my rocket launcher (pic). Worth its weight in gold to have lighting at night, especially offshore. Coming home from Broughton Island and being able to fish sunset 🌇 is awesome, the added lights give confidence. If you do want to fish sunset and come home dark whilst offshore, don't even think twice about adding more lights. Also, no more early morning crossing bars in the pitch black!

* Turn down the brightness on your sounders! This, combined with not stating at them well help your night vision settle in 😀 

* Snapper fish pretty well on a full moon! Surprised the heck out of me too  3/4 times ive targeted snapper at night past sunset and been offshore was 3 times where I was lucky to get one or two fish, and the time it was a full moon resulted in a lot of fish being pulled in. My theory is that the moonlight provides enough light for snapper to hunt, but I could have just been lucky that night.

Unfortunately I don't have much more species related tips, still trying to figure the whole fishing thing out myself 😉 From diving at night I can confirm some fish definitely do shut down.. Mulloway, sharks and rays don't seem to mind though. 

 

As everyone has said, stay safe! The ocean is dangerous enough as it is so take extra care at night 

I would of thought that hitting something at 12kt in the 8-12kt range as you describe would cause the exact same damage as hitting he same hazzard at 12kt.But what do I know.