For surf anglers interested in catching striped bass, fishing on the beach during the overnight hours is often the best way to go, since that's when thesemagnificent fish are most likely to be on the prowl.
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 10/5/07
BY ALLEN D. RILEY
CORRESPONDENT
(PHOTO: ALLEN D. RILEY)
The low-light conditions at dawn and dusk are great striped bass feeding times. The author's brother, Ed Riley, works the Sandy Hook surf about 45 minutes before sunrise.
Striped bass can drive surf anglers crazy!
At the least, they can make life very uncomfortable for those of us who invest lots of time and effort into our eternal pursuit of them.
These magnificent fish are notoriously fussy eaters that love to feed in rough surf conditions. Since they are basically nocturnal creatures, they ordinarily are most active in the surf during the overnight hours.
If you want to become an accomplished striper angler, you need to design your fishing schedule around their feeding habits.
Fishing for striped bass during the overnight hours is not something that every surfcaster chooses to do. Even those who accept the challenge find that fishing in total darkness for the first time can be a very intimidating experience.
While catching striped bass is what drives most surfcasters to fish in full darkness, there also is a bit of adventure involved in doing so. Even when the fish do not cooperate, you can experience some astonishing nighttime spectacles in the panorama found along the shoreline and in the skies above.
It takes a leap of faith to get into night fishing initially and some getting used to when it comes to performing even routine tasks with diminished sight in sometimes near-zero light. However, many surfcasters consider the mastery of nighttime fishing skills to be their final evolutionary step in becoming a complete striped bass fanatic.
The best way to handle any night fishing along the surf line — whether it is your first time, or if you have done it many times before — is to be fully prepared for what you will encounter. Whether you are a novice or a nighttime veteran, let me give you some strategies that have worked for me.
The basics
Before setting out to fish a beach at night, you should know the answers to these questions: When is high tide? Will the tide be coming in, or going out? From which direction will the wind be blowing, and at what strength? Will the beach be shrouded in complete darkness or be illuminated by moonlight in a clear sky? What are the estimated wave heights going to be?
The answers to these questions can be found in National Weather Service marine weather reports that are broadcast 24/7 on designated radio frequencies and on several saltwater fishing web sites. These reports also are helpful in determining if any special gear, such as a raincoat, is needed and what tackle will best match up with anticipated surf conditions.
To fish effectively in complete darkness, you need several vital pieces of equipment. Waders are an absolute necessity for nighttime fishing at any time of the year. Spiked footwear (like Korkers) is a must if you intend to fish from slippery jetties.
A high-quality slicker is invaluable in keeping you warm as well as dry. Warm clothes — worn in layers — and comfortable gloves are worth their weight in gold early and late in the season when arctic blasts pummel surfcasters.
If you like to work lures, a surf bag stocked with everything you will need while on the beach is essential. It should include a variety of plugs, extra teaser rigs, needle-nose pliers, a waterproof watch, and some sort of mini-light for use when changing lures.
If you prefer fishing bait, a well-stocked and organized bait bucket is invaluable in keeping your gear in one central, handy location. A top for your bucket enables you to use it as a seat while you wait for strikes. A sand spike is an absolute necessity for each rod that you intend to fish.
Anglers fishing bait during the overnight hours find that adding a small bell (sold in tackle shops) or fluorescent light stick (used for freshwater fishing) to their rod tips enables them to hear or see any interest in their rigs that is telegraphed up their lines to their rods. Loosening your drag so a fish can run with a bait and not pull your combo into the surf is a must.
Most of my night fishing is done with plugs during the striped bass fall migratory run. I rig my St. Croix Avid 10-foot surf rod with a teaser rig before I leave home. When I get out of my vehicle in a dark parking lot for a shot at nighttime fishing, all I have to do is connect my top and bottom rod pieces together, adjust the drag, and I am ready to hit the beach and cast.
Teasing their interest
I like to use teaser rigs when fishing the nighttime surf. Their small profiles resemble the shape of bay anchovies, spearing and sand eels that are commonly found along our coastline.
In addition to giving me the opportunity to present two baitfish profiles — a smaller one with the teaser, and a larger one with the primary plug — teaser rigs also have small black Duolock snaps on them that make changing lures in the dark relatively simple. (This feature is especially helpful late in the striped bass season when cold weather makes tying knots even in the daytime very difficult.)
Black is the definitive color preference for my nighttime teasers and plugs. Although it may seem illogical, black outperforms any other color during the overnight hours because it makes a teaser or plug stand out more distinctly against a sky background as a fish looks up at it from the depths.
Swimming plugs like Mann's Super Stretch One-Minus, Gag's Grabbers' Mambo Minnow, Luhr Jensen's Javelin Shallow Runner, Cotton Cordell's Red Fin, and Bomber's A-Salt all are effective lures in fooling bass in the nighttime surf.
Black models of these plugs work best in complete darkness; black/silver models are recommended for the low-light conditions associated with the hour before sunrise and the hour after sunset.
Be sure your surf bag is stocked with a variety of lures so you can experiment with different profiles and even the same plug in different sizes. Use everything in your bag until you find the lure that matches the baitfish profile that bass have been feeding on. All plugs worked in the dark should be retrieved slowly — especially late in the season when cooling surf water renders stripers increasingly lethargic.
Your surf bag should be arranged in such a way that you can find whatever you need in it without the benefit of using any type of light. Use the same sleeves for the same nighttime lures on a consistent basis. If moonlight or starlight provides enough illumination, use your night vision to switch lures without using any kind of artificial light. Unusual lights on a dark beach tend to spook wary bass.
While fishing in darkness, your hearing can sometimes help determine if something is happening in the surf around you.
For example, listen for tail slaps on the surface as stripers attack hapless baitfish and for more widespread splashes as schools of nervous bait collectively react to the presence of aggressive predators.
In cases such as these, when bass are feeding right on the surface, try working surface popping plugs (such as Cotton Cordell's classic Pencil Popper, Atom's Striper Swiper, Gags Grabbers' Floating Rattling Popper, Heddon's Saltwater Super Spook, and Creek Chub's Knuckle-Head) through the area.
If you sense that large baitfish (like adult bunker) are pinned close to the beach, a Gibbs Danny metal-lipped surface swimmer worked slowly toward the beach is a great way to match the hatch.
Whether you fish bait rigs or work lures, mark your surf rods from the butt up with the minimum length of striped bass (currently 28 inches). Some of my associates mark their rods with fluorescent tape but I like to use white fingernail polish. It is easier to do and the white mark stands out distinctly even in poor light.
Take extreme care in handling a fish landed on a plug in the dark. Use the strong line of the teaser rig or shock leader to pull a fish out of the wash. Be careful not to get snagged by the lure's treble hooks as the fish thrashes around on the sand. Unhook the fish using needle-nose pliers, not bare hands. A mistake in this situation can earn you a trip to a hospital emergency room.
Never take any unnecessary risks while fishing in the dark. Even with all the recommended gear, fishing slippery jetties in the dead of night can be an extremely hazardous undertaking. Unlike daytime fishing, there may not be anyone around to assist you if you are suddenly thrust into a life-threatening situation.
Fish with a buddy
Ideally, fishing with an experienced nighttime angler is a great way to start your own night fishing career.
Even when you have mastered fishing the overnight hours, using some sort of buddy system is a great idea both for safety and companionship.
Keeping a personal journal of your night fishing trips is a great way to record catches and personal observations which may help you in the future under similar conditions. Keep the entries simple — weather/sea conditions, wind direction, tide stage, and the type of bait in the wash in addition to any fish landed (plus any pertinent details relating to the catch).
With the approach of dawn, I am personally happy to see the approaching sun again but realize that fishing prospects diminish quickly once the sun establishes itself on the eastern horizon.
Still, some of my most memorable moments on the beach in all the years I have been working the surf are the spectacular sunrises marking the arrival of a new day.
I have caught my share of nice fish during the overnight hours, but the hour between first light and sunrise is really special. (The same is true for the hour from sunset to total darkness.)
Striped bass fishing during low-light conditions (like that found around dawn and dusk) is a great time to fish.
The adrenaline rush associated with catching your first striped bass or bluefish during the overnight hours is absolutely amazing. But fishing is not just about catching fish: it is also about the adventures we experience while doing so.
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