It’s long been known by fishermen, that bright lights shining on the water at night create fishing hotspots.
The lights attract plankton, which in turn, attracts the baitfish and other food sources that feed on them. Once you’ve got a good concentration of forage food hanging around the lights, it doesn’t take long before the larger predatory gamefish move in and begin making a feeding frenzy of the situation at hand. Using the lights as a perfect tool to coax and gather the food into a small area and the cover of darkness as camouflage, predatory gamefish will take turns darting into the light with mouths open to pack their bellies full. This feeding scenario reminds me very much of the relationship I have with my refrigerator. When I wake up in the middle of the night with my stomach growling, I know exactly where I need to head to get my quick food fix. The relationship gamefish have with lights on the water at night is no different. When available, gamefish will regularly utilize lights to locate and ambush food under the cover of darkness. Fly fisherman should always take the time to locate and fish lights on their home waters, because they will almost always provide consistent action.
If you randomly asked one of your fellow fly fisherman about targeting lights at night, they’d probably respond with success stories about either fishing lighted piers in saltwater or boat docks on freshwater lake impoundments. These are by far, the two most popular places fisherman prefer to utilize lights shining on the water at night, but it’s not the only places we should look. Fishing lights for trout doesn’t come up in conversation nearly as often, but where they are available, their equally productive. Notice the picture above of me casting at night around lights on the White River in Arkansas. It accounted for multiple trophy brown trout Louis and I landed on a fishing trip during a blizzard a couple winters ago. It was so cold and windy we could only manage to stay out fishing in the elements thirty minutes at a time, so we took turns warming up and fishing all through the night. It’s a memory with my best fly fishing buddy I’ll never forget.
Keep it Reel,
Come fish with us in the Bahamas!
Kent Klewein Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
On a trip to the US I fished the lights under the bridges at South Miami Beach. Fished for Tarpon with 12wt. The Tarpon were feeding on all of the shrimp and other bait we could see in the water. Once hooked you got to see the reflection of all of the lights of the high rise on the wet side of the jumping Tarpon.
Any experience with comparing green light and typical “white” light? I have read about green LEDs being sold as fish attracting lights. I have also known people who would float automobile headlight in Styrofoam holders on lakes to improve trout fishing.