Salmon at night

[corky]

last season i decided to try a local stretch for sea trout ,even though their not fished for much thereabouts,anyway i have a trout permit for the river and had a few small browns while waiting for dark.A chap from the salmon club was fishing a pool below me and i watched for a while but he did'nt click and headed off as darkness came on ,i set up my sea trout cast and within 15 mins beached and returned an 8lb salmon (app), two nights later same time similar size fish both on a fly that looked like a stoats tail with jungle cock cheeks,thing is all this got me interested in salmon fishing and i'm trying since .Was hoping to get membership of the salmon club but its a closed shop on that river, anyway my question (about time ) is ,do salmon frequently take at night or only very rarely..............Corky

[sewin]

According to Falkus it happens more frequently than you might think, particularly with grilse, but is still quite a rare event.

[rennie]

Funny thing this Salmon in the dark lark,in 20 odd years of Salmon dangling only had one in the true dark (Tweed in November on a gurt big tube and wet 2) and not many more in the last hour of dark.A pal of mine makes it his party trick and seems to get them to order,give me the first hour of light any day I really perform better in the morning shot.Now it could be that if I have been out thrashing since first light I am not at my best at last light but it doesn't seem to happen for me despite trying on various rivers/beats/times of year.Had my share of Sea Trout on the Salmon rod when the light clears off but I usually fish a bigger fly as the light goes and maybe Salmo wants a smaller offering? Pedro.

[corky]

Beginers luck i suppose ,on account of those easily caught fish i went off bought all the salmon stuff rod/line /flies/tubes etc and have been out with fly and baits 15 days and into darkness so far with no result ,i guess all these trials are sent to test me,ah well it beats the pub , ;D.............Corky

[kelliefly]

hello corky. sorry i am new to this .
salmon at night . . .i fished the south esk a few times in the dark
and caught salmon but no seatrout ?
always caught the salmon on a small waddington ,blue squirrel
with a gold body.
the fish were very fresh, great fun on a small rod.

[corky]

Hi KF,fairly new myselfe glad i found this forum ,its very informative with great folk aboard , seems any salmon i caught up to now were 100% luck on my part ,fishing with flies i did'nt know (first fly to catch my eye in the box went on) ,but i do find im gaining a little know how by reading posts on this site , stick around there are some real hot shot anglers in here willing to help out and share thier experience ,
Corky,
ps those night time salmon , were the hooking of me

[sagecaster]

I used to fish middle Findhorn in around mid summer over a period of 10 years. We learned that our most productive fishing time was in the twilight zone, not true black dark but just dark enough that you couldn't see your line going out. In one week we took 15 fish of which 8 were caught in the dark.

Worked on the Esks too, however only really in low to medium water.

[hans]

One of the things Falkus says in his book is: there are no dogma's in salmon angling.
Think this is true, I have fished e few rivers in Norway in the past, holding both sewin and salmon. We used to fish for salmon during days, and sometimes caught seatrout, we fished for seatrout during night-time, and caught a few salmon as well, most grilse... but generally salmon are more active during days, and seatrout are at night.....
But: remember Falkus....

[elwyman]

Old timers on the Conwy say they fished for sea trout at night and often picked a salmon up at first light. I hooked a big fish on the conwy at first light a couple of years ago, which may well have been a salmon.

Hans - surely Norway is a special case as it doesn't really get dark in summer?

[williegunn]

define dark

[elwyman]

williegunn said:

define dark

Land of the midnight sun - I haven't been there, but I've seen photos of people fishing in what I would describe as dusk conditions - ie you might wait all night to see the second bat before starting to fish for sea trout. ;D

There again, it does look reasonably dark in this photo I found on google (Norway/midnight sun.




Bet you're looking forward to your Gaula trip Malcom- July I think you said?

[sewin]

This was taken in Sweden just south of the Arctic Circle in early June at about 01:30 in the morning. As you can see it was perfectly light enough to walk around without a problem and fishing conditions would have been very much similar to a UK dawn in terms of light.

[hans]

Elwyman, when I am in Norway it's usually end of August, or beginning of September. Never North of Trondheim, and in this part of Norway, rather late in the season the nights are pitchdark....
Cheers, Hans.

[easky]

the season before last I caught 2 salmon at night the first time I have ever contacted them at night. I caught then while fishing for dollaghan (Lough Neagh trout that run the rivers like sea trout). I was using an Executioner which is both a good salmon and sea trout fly. Again this was more by accident than design but it does show you that it can certainly be done.

I seem to remember reading or hearing somewhere that salmon don't run in the dark because they can't see clearly enough to judge distance. This means that they can't negotiate weirs and other obstacles etc. Not sure if this is an 'old wives tale' although it would make sense?

E

[severnfisher]

Thought I'd add a few observations on this from fishing the Severn.

We had very low, clear and warm water on the Severn for most of the summer. This combined with a big and dirty river in May has made for a bad season for conventional salmon fly fishing.

Of 7 salmon I've caught on the fly this year from the Severn, 6 were caught after sunset.

Of the six.

One was caught about one hour after sunset as the colours were starting to go.

Two were on 'the lights' i.e. the time after the colours have gone when the stars come out properly.

Three were caught more than 2 1/2 hours after sunset.

All bar the earliest one of these fish were caught using sea trout sub surface tactics i.e. single handed rod, sink tip line with 1 1/2inch plastic tube on point (this gives a fly image of 2 inch plus) and a big single on dropper #2 or 4.

The catch was made up of 5 fish over 10lb biggest 15/16lb (guestimate as returned) and one 8lber.

The basic tactic is as described by Falkus. Covering (running) fish that move in the runs above the deep pools and below the fords. The key to success is the water level: a slight rise stirs up fish and gets a few of them thinking of moving further upriver, but too much turbidity creates issues of fly visibility.

I think Falkus's basic point. That more salmon would be caught at night if more people fished for them is the core of the matter here.

On the smaller Welsh spate rivers (outside of the 'ideal' conditions of a falling water) I would far rather fly fish for salmon and grilse at night, than mess about using other methods by day.

One of the reasons I think less salmon are caught by sea trout anglers than could be expected is that when sea trouting - in the 'second half' especially - we tend to fish flies too deep or surface lures right on the top. If you re-read Falkus he talks very specifically about big flies fished quickly sub surface during the darkest part of the night.

Tom

[stalker]

Hi , Iæm very new to the forum but Salmon a7 Sea trout took over my life some time ago like many others here I think so Hi everyone.

After reading the comments about Salmon at night my experience is you are more likely to catch within 1 meter of the bank than in the middle of the pool and the dark doesnt present a problem. The only thing i would suggest is to move up and down in fly size with the dusk to dawn period. As suggested in an earlier post here the more you fish the more likely you are to catch and it always works for me.

Mike

[magpie]

I have fished regularly for Sea Trout at night for the past 20 years, and the only Salmon I have ever caught during the dark (as opposed to the dusk) was on the Border Esk at two in the morning. It weighed 8lbs and was very fresh. The most interesting thing about this catch was that I took it on a surface lure. Just makes me wonder if this is something worth trying during the day for Salmon?

[severnfisher]

Hi Magpie,
There was an article in Fly Fishing and Flytying recently on the Jambo surface lure which included a silver Doctor version for daylight fishing for salmon. Apparently it has accounted for quite a few fish on the south Wales rivers in a falling spatet.
Tom

[stalker]

Hi Magpie
you are correct in what you say about surface lures. I have personally had in excess of 50 Salmon in pitch black dark in August with a mini Sunray Shadow by casting upstream and mending the line downstream creating a fast surface lure. However my best was a 10.5 kilo on a Black Shank size 8 adopting the same method. Generally all fish have taken within approx 1 meter of the bank or on the edge of a pool with some in very shallow water, as little a half meter deep.

Mike

[salmonnut]

Ive Had two salmon so far this year., both 11lbs and both at night while fishing for sea trout.First one was caught 2nd july was taken about 1.30 am, what a scrap, was fishing single brandling on 6lb nylon withe the single hander. second 26th july was taken around midight, same lie, same method again, The buzz of playing a salmon in the dark on light tackle is something else. Had a few seatrout aswell