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Sunday 31 March 2013

Night fishing and luck

I noticed I used the word 'luck' three times in a couple of paragraphs recently. I almost changed that before publishing, but decided to leave it as-is.

Thinking about luck and my current lack of it, I decided to change my approach to my next fish.

While there will always be an element of luck in fishing, i.e. factors you can't control, much like cards you get dealt in a hand of poker; you can also do your best to use your own knowledge and skills to help your chances.

This is all probably fairly obvious to most, but it wasn't until I really thought about it on Friday that I realised I potentially had a recipe for immediate success.

Night fishing on rivers is often recommended in articles and books, and I've had a couple of friends recommend it recently. I guess it's too easy for me to see myself sitting down with a book and red wine in hand instead of at the river-side at night to have bothered before.

So, my recipe contained the two ingredients of 1) an area I knew well, that had trout, and... 2) night.

There was a glow on the horizon as I parked near the Wairau, foretelling the imminent arrival of a full moon. The night was clear and calm - so peaceful I wondered why I hadn't been doing this before.

I walked to a spot on the bank that I have fished before but landed nothing. I cast out; all seemed quiet. Just as my lure was almost back to me, a trout seemed to come from nowhere to latch onto the lure and almost beach himself on a big rock. I was taken by surprise and he managed to get off.

My third cast had a similar result, except I was ready, and had the trout in my net before too long.

I walked about 60 metres away from the spot and had a few more casts. Nothing.

The moon was big, bright and low in the sky now. Returning to the same spot where I landed the fish, I tried again, landing another nice trout within a few casts.

I was fishing with a nice little lure that I've been using lately - a Storm Wildeye Live Vairon. You can fish them with a slow retrieve and they have a very realistic action.
Storm Wildeye Live Vairon (with hook bent by a trout).


I'm not sure whether this was night-fishing-beginners-luck, but I have a feeling I'll have more success at night than I have been during the day.