Night Fishing - Part I

We all know the feeling, the sun is sinking in the evening sky, the day's fishing almost over. It's been a good day, plenty of runs, a few average sized carp, but you just know that the fishing's about to get better. And that inevitable task that we all hate is now just around the corner - packing up.

The weather's muggy and there is an absolute mountain of gear to get back to the car, which is parked as always at the other side of the lake. Just another 10 minutes, see if that last run of the day appears and produces the fish you've been waiting for. Ten minutes passes. Fifteen. Nothing. "I'll pack everything up that I don't need; leave the rods out". 30 minutes later; nothing. The carp are beginning to splash around on the surface, laughing at you, in the knowledge that you are about to leave and they can move in close and mop up the bait you have dropped into the front of your swim.

Well, now it's time to fool them. Forget going home to sit in front of the TV. Forget the boring journey home and the unloading of the car. Tonight it is sleepover night. With a few simple additions to your gear and maybe an understanding partner, it's not as hard as many anglers think to enjoy a nights fishing and maximise on that time of the day when the fishing and the lakeside can be at its absolute best. Even if your partner's not understanding, they have probably realised long ago that you are completely barking anyway, most of us carp anglers are, or maybe they will even join you.

So, what are the essentials for an enjoyable nights fishing?

1.Organisation

During the course of a day's fishing, your tackle tends to get spread around the swim a bit. The landing net at the back of the swim where it was put after the excitement of the last catch. The baiting needle is, at best, under the chair, or somewhere else laying aroud the swim, the boilies in their bag on the floor, somewhere, and the scales and sling are behind the tree just out of sight. Sound familiar? Well this is fine during the daytime. It may not be ideal when you hit that run with one hand, holding a coffe in the other and a half eaten sandwich hanging out of your mouth, but you can get away with it. At four in the morning, this ain't gonna work! You need to be organised. You have to know exactly where everything is in and around your swim and be able to reach it in a hurry. It doesn't matter how long you have waited for that run, it will always happen at the most unexpected and downright awkward moment possible. Pour a drink, light the stove, take one shoe off, bite into a soggy sandwich which requires both hands to keep it intact or worst of all, retire to the nearby bushes for a call of nature. All guarunteed to produce a run. Unless you are ready for a run. Then it won't happen.

So what do you do? What your mother nagged you to do for the majority of you childhood. Go and tidy your room. Keep everything close to hand. Landing net, unhooking mat, scales, weigh sling and maybe forceps at the front of the swim, keeping anything sharp away from the mat of course. You need to be able to reach the net and get it into the water without losing the fish and without taking half a tree branch with it. Everything you may need to re-bait or re-tackle should be kept tidily in the bivvy and you should almost be able to find everything blindfolded. Remember, not every night is a full moon, and it can get very dark away from the towns and streetlights.

When (if) you land the fish, you must be able to get it straight onto the mat without damaging it or placing it at risk. You may then want to weigh it, and again everything needs to be close to hand. A small pocket torch can be useful here, but whatever you choose, you don't want to be leaving the fish flapping around on the mat while you search the bivvy for gear.

If you plan on a bit of night photography, a camera close to hand is needed, especially if you are alone. Make sure it stays dry of course. I find the zip up plastic bags available in supermarkets are great for this purpose and for a lot of other uses as well.

OK, hopefully your fish has been landed, carefully unhooked, weighed and photographed, and is ready to return to the water. One last thing to remember now. Where is the edge! Again a torch may be useful here. I do mean a torch as well, or better still a miners type headlight so that you can work hands free. What I don't mean is an anti-aircraft search light like I have seen some anglers with. You want to see a part of your swim, not half the county, and other anglers don't want to see it.

So your fish swims gracefully away, and it's time to re-bait. If you got it right, you can now go straight to the right place to find bait, baiting needle, dips, boilie stops, pva, whatever you need, without emptying out your entire bag onto the floor ready to be trodden on with the next footstep. If you got it wrong, your pva is dissolving in the nearest puddle, your dip is running downhill fast towards your spare clothes, monster crab flavoured socks - not nice, your boile stops are .... somewhere ... , your baiting needle is in your left ankle and that nice family of water voles you were watching earlier are just making off with your last boilie.

2.Comfort

So, it's time to stop being Mum now, enough nagging, your room's so tidy you can even see the floor, and it's time to be ... well er Mum again. This time it's "Are you dressed up warm?" It's fine to wander round in shorts and T shirt during the day, and even into the early evening, but it can get extremely cold at four in the morning, you'll be surprised, even in June, and there is nothing worse than being cold, tired, hungry, wet or maybe even all four. You need to be prepared for the worst of everything. Being comfortable is key to a succesful trip. Remember, this is England, and the weather can, and quite likely will, do its very best to catch you out. If you don't have a bivvy, you can survive, but be prepared to get cold, wet, bitten or worse. Good waterproof clothing and plenty of layers underneath are the answer. With a few layers, you will stay warm, but can remove just some to suit the conditions. Trainers are fine during the day, but at night, your feet are often the first thing to get cold, and if they get wet, they will stay wet. A change of socks doesn't take up much space. I always keep a pair in my fishing bag just in case. A hat is always worth having as well. A ;arge amount of body heat is lost through the head, and however silly it looks, a warm hat will keep you warm. Anyway, no-one can see you at night.

A good bedchair is also worth its weight, and prices now seem to be dropping all the time. Try and go for a fairly lightweight model, some I have seen weigh an absolute ton. If you can afford it, go for a three legged version, they can save a lot of embarassment when you try to leap towards the rods in the middle of the night, forgetting that they have a habit of upending.

Hot drinks are always welcome, but taste even better in the early hours, especially if you can convince your mate to make them! A kettle, stove and tea and coffee making equipment are, to me anyway, absolute essentials. Some stoves run on unleaded fuel, so you won't be caught out with an empty gas cylinder just when you need it.

If you've got the stove, may as well take a frying pan and some bacon as well. A fresh cooked bacon sandwich at dawn tastes like no other sandwich ever tasted before, believe me. Again, even better if someone else makes it!

The key is, stay warm, dry and comfortable. You will fish better if you feel good. If you are cold, wet, hungry or tired, you will probably end up going home miserable.

3.Safety

Back to Mum again. Fishing at night is great fun. You have a whole world of different sights and sounds to get used to, you're not stuck indoors getting bored and the fishing can be great. Now it may sound like I am nagging here, but get it right and you will have a great time. So just one more thing to consider - safety.

You are in the dark, at the edge of maybe deep water, you may be tired and you need to be able to move around without taking involuntary swiming lessons. A few simple steps can make the experience much safer and more enjoyable. Remember, keep tidy and you will be in much less danger of hooking yourself or stabbing yourself with a baiting needle. Make sure bivvy pegs are not sticking out all over the place, and guy ropes are either out of the way or visible. In the wet, don't take risks on a steep bank. Make sure you can either see the edge of the lake or you know just where it is.

If possible, fish with a mate, or at least make sure somebody knows where you are. If you have one, take a mobile phone, so that you can at least call for help if needed. Don't however spend half the night chatting to mates on it, you are likely to get thumped by other anglers. That goes for radios, tape players and the like as well. If anybody else can hear it, it's too loud. Better still, leave it indoors.

And one final but very important safety point. NEVER cook or light gas lamps inside the bivvy. I have read too many times in the angling press of anglers who have been killed doing this, either gassing or burning themselves to death. It's dangerous - don't do it. If it's raining and you want to cook, tough. Wait. It won't rain forever altough it may seem like it. You won't starve to death, but you may die if you are stupid.

If you follow all of the above advice, you will have fun even if you blank. There's nothing like playing boy scout on a nice summer evening, and with the right gear you can extend this throughout the year. So, what about gear? What do I need for night fishing? Part 2