![]() ![]() I knew there was an especially large fish in a specific spot and spent a considerable amount of time running a variety of flies through the spot. It turned out to be perfect conditions and large fish were on the move. I thought to myself, “Man if it were raining that hard where I want to fish it would be blown out.” And never gave it a second thought. As I was driving to my spot it was pouring buckets about five mile north of where I wanted to fish. Even though it had rained during the night, the height gage remained reasonable so I decided to go. I watched the weather closely that night and checked the river height gage in the morning before leaving. The only upside is that I can assure you it is impossible to fall asleep at the wheel while driving late at night in wet underwear!Ī month or two ago I took a chance and decided to fish at sun-up when the on-line river height gage suggested it might be iffy. Unfortunately, I brought only two changes of clothing and had a 3 hour drive home in soaking wet clothes. I had never fished the river before and went in over my waders three times that night. He could not go so I talked another friend into going with me. A good friend of mine had shared his favorite spot for the “Hex hatch” (the giant mayfly that hatches at night on the AuSable River in Michigan). I was 17 or 18 when I attempted my first night fishing outing. Fortunately, it was mid-August so he was still able to fish comfortably after emptying his waders. He was completely soaked but able to safely get out of the river. My friend fished faster than expected and unfortunately discovered the spot before the guide could warn him. The guide had not warned my friend there was a steep drop-off upstream of where he had started fishing. He was heading back to see how my friend was doing when we heard a loud splash and a lot of blustering. The guide set my friend up on a good spot and took me upstream to the next spot. My friend is not that experienced in wading. Two years ago a friend of mine agreed to split a guide for a half-night of fly fishing. Here are some anecdotal stories from my personal experience that validate the above safety considerations. I have not gotten into trouble yet but I have gotten close enough to realize the following are good “rules of thumb” for fishing in the dark. If you are going to try fishing in the dark here are some important safety guidelines to make the outing enjoyable and safe. It is reported for Jin Weather Underground for Woodbury, Minnesota: The chart below provides an example to give you a sense of what to expect. The times and duration of each period will vary depending your latitude and day of the year. Dusk is the period between sunset and dark while dawn is the period between dark and sunrise. You will note there is plenty of light at these times so you can see only the brightest stars and planets at that point. Sunrise and sunset are defined to occur when the sun is just below the horizon. We don’t need to get bogged down in the formal definitions but it is worthwhile to briefly review the different segments. If you do a little digging around there are specific definitions for dawn, sunset, dusk, and twilight. ![]() That is what I would like to share with you. As it turns out, a very clear pattern emerged from these outings. So, I figured why not track this to see if anything correlated with my observations. Fortunately, I discovered the on-line weather app I use, Weather Underground, reports the times for actual, civil, nautical, and astronomical sun rise/dawn and sun set/dusk. However, I needed to fish when others were not and vaguely remembered the article. Being a natural morning person, I filed the article away in my feeble mind since I am either asleep or running on fumes by that time of day. He reported that he caught all of his largest walleyes (8 pounds and up) between Nautical and Astronomical Twilight. The author was a walleye guide (in the Midwest one has to be a multi-species fisherman to fish throughout the year as our trout fishing season closes by mid-October). ![]() My experiences with fly fishing in the dark began with an article I read years ago in a fishing magazine. Last year I started fishing before sun-up to escape the hordes of fly fisherman hitting the streams due to COVID-19 induced interest in fly fishing. Guest Blogger: Joe Dellaria, Woodbury MN Author with a nice fish on after nautical dusk. ![]()
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