HERE ARE SIX OTHER TOP TIPS TO CONSIDER WHEN VENTURING INTO THE NIGHT

1. DIP, DON’T DAZZLE

Be considerate with light: shining your headtorch beam on the surface of the water will scare fish. With bass venturing into very shallow water, only a few feet deep during darkness, your chances of catching, and those of anyone fishing nearby, will be scuppered by clumsily flashing a high-powered beam of light into or across the water. Keep your headtorch off unless you need it and get used to using the lowest power setting, or a red filter, if you need it. Rather than facing the water staring at your rod tip with 1500 lumen of LED light flashing across the water think about tip lights for your rods. A lot of the time the ambient light is enough to see your rod tips without the need for any light once your eyes adjust to the darkness.

2. SHIPS IN THE NIGHT

Don’t stare at ships and vessels coming or going if you are wearing a headtorch. e intensity of modern LED lights can cause temporary blindness which is a major, and very serious, issue for any crew coming or going from harbours at night.

is is something that came to a head at Shoreham Port in Sussex with anglers fishing at night from the harbour arm.

e solution was to ask anglers to use a blue filter on their headlamps which diffused the light and also prevented confusing the light from headtorches with other navigation markers such as buoys.

3. STAY CLOSE IN

Whether you are proficient at winding up a pendulum cast in the dark or not, the chances are it isn’t necessary and you may in fact be casting over the fish. A short lob of a few yards into two feet of water has accounted for many a specimen bass caught at night. Alternatively, you can cover all bases and fish two rods, one at long range and one short.

4. TAKING PHOTOS

While it won’t improve your catch rate it will improve your click rate! Many a prize catch photo taken in the dark has been ruined by not thinking of a few basic errors to avoid. Firstly, if you are posing for the photo, please turn your headtorch off! Staring into the lens with a full beam of light is route one to ruining the photo. Secondly, if you are the photographer, turn your flash on. Far too many catch pictures are ruined by grainy images or bad lighting.

5. LURES

Whether it’s sight, movement or, most likely, a combination of the two, lures do work at night. Confidence in using them is critical. But it’s not just lures, all sorts of attractors can help when fishing at night for inquisitive species, such as plaice and bream, where beads, sequins, spoon, luminous leads and other visuals can be used to attract fish which are still very much using sight to hunt for food despite it being too dark for us to see anything.

6. DON’T GET CAUGHT OUT

Aside from not fishing a new mark for the first time in the dark it’s also important to be aware of where you are and what’s going on around you. Fishing from a rock mark or sandbank at low water could easily result in you being cut off as gullies and channels fill in behind you; at which point your choices are extremely limited and none of them appealing! If your location is above the high-water mark then sitting tight until the tide falls again may be your only option. If not, or if conditions mean waiting six hours for the tide to recede means this is too dangerous, then calling for emergency help may be your only option. Either way, make sure you’ve got a fully charged mobile phone with you to let someone know where you are and what is going on.