Hot Bites on Summer Nights
Night-time trout provide lots of action
"You'll catch all you want, but it won't start until the Fourth of July." That's what the old-timer at the marina told me when he found out I was there to target big rainbow trout. He had explained how, in the old days, he would put a flashlight in a rod holder pointing into the water and fish a worm around it at night in the heat of the summer. Apparently this was the way they put dozens of trout in the boat night after night.
Intrigued, I decided to give it a shot on July 5th, the next time I was there. I found a floating halogen light that had clamps to attach to a 12-volt battery and dropped it next to the boat. I used a 6 foot, light action rod and tied a #4 hook on 8 pound monofilament. The hook held a nightcrawler hooked through the nose and roughly six inches above it was clamped a split shot to keep the presentation vertical. This was exactly what the old man recommended and it worked! My buddy and I put two limits of decent sized trout in the boat in just under an hour. I was hooked.
As that summer wore on, techniques were refined to the point that we did not begin fishing until the light had been out at least a half hour – otherwise it was over too quickly. The floating spotlight was replaced with a submersible, green, fluorescent light that plugged in to an AC outlet and cast a large halo of eerie light around the boat. When the light was in the water the zooplankton gathered first, followed by schools of baitfish and, finally, trout. By not fishing immediately upon putting out the light, we noticed that the bigger splashes of feeding fish occurred just outside of the light's reach and that bigger trout like bigger bait.
The first issue we faced in collecting trout was how to get our baits to stay at the right depth outside the light. The answer: Nite Brite floats made by Thill Premium Floats. Not only did the Nite Brite allow us to clearly see what was happening below, but its sleek design also gave us the sensitivity that we needed to fool finicky 'bows.
The second major development was the discovery of marabou; more specifically, the discovery of the Marabou jig from Lindy. Something about the combination of a half-crawler and a pink or chartreuse marabou jig drove the trout wild. I think the scent of the crawler first caught their attention and the steady pulsating of the marabou closed the deal. Whatever the case, the combination was the ticket to catching the bigger trout in the school.
Though the technique is effective in rivers as well, our "secret spot" was a small lake below the spillway of a larger lake and at the headwaters of a trout-rich stream in the Midwest. The best nights were those that water was being pulled through the generators and the trout stacked up at the edge of the current and shifted into feeding mode. Check local regulations first, as fishing with a light is restricted in a couple of states, but if it is allowed, trout fishing at night is the perfect ending to a balmy summer day.