Well went out fly fishing out of inflatable (Outcast) pontoon boat on the St. Louis River last night. It was a beautiful night to be on the water. No noise of boats cars and even people, just myself and of course bugs and fish coming to the surface to feed. I've never done any fly fishing at night before and was a unique experience and will definetely give it another shot. The fish were cooperating, but I just couldn't set the hook in time. I caught a couple of nice ones about 18" and caught a few more around 12". I missed a ton of hits and two big hits almost made me pee in my pants. Some of these hits happened less than 10 feet away from the pontoon boat. I was amazed how close you could get to these fish without spooking them.
It's way different fishing at night. First you lose alot of reference points while your casting for judging distance and if your fishing some kind of structure, so it pays to know the area well before fishing in the dark. Of course you lose your sight sense, it's all hearing and feeling, which most of us are not used to when fly fishing. But let me tell you it was a blast and there are some big fish smallies crusing the shallows looking for an easy meal at night.
I mainly used a dark colored deciever working it slowly under the surface, making slow pulls to get the fly under and making a little commotion but not any popping noises. I was fishing a slower section of the river, less than 3 feet of water and rocks, throwing to the shore line cover and bringing the fly back out.
Oh, a big thanks goes out to the park guy who needed to close the park at 10:00pm because of partying kids. Guess what, he let me fish for a little while. He said fishing was way more important and said to relax and enjoy the night of fishing and told me he would be back later. I need to get the guys name so a can thank him personally. If everyone was like this guy, the world would be a very nice place for sure!
Good luck out there and be safe.
