Dries At Night

[coolwaters]

are trout still looking up at night time. i mean when its pitch black can they really see a little dry or even a big hopper????

seems to me that streamers are what catches my fish at night!

 

[maxwell]

its bin streamer time for me as of late.. now that the afterdark stone egglaying has stopped they dont really have big bugs too chase on top!

[flyfishfairwx]

Plop a big dry IE a wulff or foam something or other on the water and hold on.. works when some moon is out or even the street lights AND A HATCH AND RISERS FOR SURE..

 

They may not be able to see it but they can feel it .. and will strike.. give the fly a twitch if nothing hits then re cast .. listen for slurps and splashes,,,,

[coolwaters]

i guess they feed with more senses than just sight, do you think that they hear the fly hit the surface or hear you twitching away?? would dropping your fly on the water a little harder help out??

[Swede]

i guess they feed with more senses than just sight, do you think that they hear the fly hit the surface or hear you twitching away?? would dropping your fly on the water a little harder help out??

You bet at times like hopper fishing or even nailing the bank with a streamer splating the fly down hard can attract a trout.

[headscan]

I think the fish will feel the disturbance on/in the water. I always make sure that my hoppers hit the water hard to imitate one being blown off the bank and into the water. Twitching hoppers doesn't hurt either. Doing this with a mayfly on the other hand would probably not work at all. Like Max, I prefer to fish streamers after dark. You don't have to try to guess where your fly is and the takes are unambiguous.

[Swede]

i guess they feed with more senses than just sight, do you think that they hear the fly hit the surface or hear you twitching away?? would dropping your fly on the water a little harder help out??

You bet at times like hopper fishing or even nailing the bank with a streamer splating the fly down hard can attract a trout.

Oops lol double post

[Conor]

I think they can see it. Maybe not well, but they can see it. I have caught dozens and dozens of fish on a dead drift #16 dry in the dark. I guess that is all in the city, so maybe the light pollution helps them out.

 

 

[jjthom2]

I throw big mouse imitations on small meadow streams at night. You'd be amazed by the monsters that are strictly nocturnal.

[Hawgstoppah]

I throw big mouse imitations on small meadow streams at night. You'd be amazed by the monsters that are strictly nocturnal.

 

Yep. Most of my biggest fishies have come right at or after dark. Including rainbows. Havent had much luck for bulls in the pitch black.

[ScandiCaster]

A little trick from New Zealand. According to these good folks, Mr. Fish does most of their feeding at night. The story goes that at night, fish are less likely to be picked off by raptors, and only those fish that were pre-disposed to night feeding were left to breed.

 

Anyway, they demonstrated that Mr. trout can feel a "bug" but you can help out by having a larger than normal, dark "furry" dry. They say a dark fly silhouettes better against the night sky (from the fishes view point)

 

We were catching fish, but I am unsure if it was the fly’s or just good ol’ hungry fish.

 

Scandi

[maxwell]

i will agree with ya scandi and disagree on the dark sillouette! only because!!!..... when she is overcast and the nightsky is a lighter color! i find darker silouettes are much better! with a black fly on a white/grey sky... but!!!! on a clear sky a white fly will reflect light and show up better!!! i find this can be deadly specially when fishing smaller caddis or mayflies after dark!!! its also what i go with when i fish streamers too!!! like conor said they do see something.. how well they see it that is hard too say!!! ive had some deadly nights fishing caddis pupae and boatman aswell slowly stripped through the frogwater! i had a client who was a hardcore bass after dark dude and also a writer... i got his book! and one thing he pointed out in his book and while b.s'in on the river with bass and i think it can be the same for trout (from what ive seen) is when the sun has set and there is no light it takes roughly half hour for fishes eyes too turn from cone(color)vision too rod vision(black n white)(sorry if i got this ass backwards with teh terms) so you can see a evening rise almsot dye off... but still tons of bugs on teh water.. i guess our eyes also do something similar.. but once the eyes adjust its back on! SO when u see the evening rise taper off! kick it for a bit and waite for the fish too settle back in and they usually start too feed hard again once there eyes adjust! if the air temps stay up and teh bug stay on the water!!! same with streamers.. i find darker or lighter flies can work better depending on the night sky, moonlight and water vis! a really good color afterdark wich i think give a good sillouette and reflects light all at teh same time can be purple and kingfisher blue!!!! these were the only 2 bass popper colors my client mainly fished when the lights were out!!

 

as for right now i still think most of the evening rise is done with.. ive seen a few good nights were the caddis stayed out till after midnight and the fish kept eating them but most nights it tapers off quick and streamers are the top fly! when ive bin dryfly fishing i havnt worried about how hard my presentation is more so sticking with matching the egglayers and fishing a good caddis imitation on the deaddrift.. if i can still locate risers!

[Hawgstoppah]

I bet bass poppers did awesome in frogwater after dark. I've fished mice imitations in backwaters of the bow at night.

 

max are you saying that instead of a black / dark fly you would tie something like a white caddis for after dark? I've experimented with some goofy shiz, like using a hot pink elk hair caddis, and they still eat it. I'm not so sure color makes on damn bit of difference. It's all about profile and your presentations. I do think the theory surely makes sense that.. they'd see something white, after dark, a lot better than something that's darker. My biggest brown (and maybe my biggest bow river fish fish ever) was on a white bow river bugger, at about 2AM