Can You fish in the Middle of the Night?

[Elessar]

Question for BnB, CX, Mitchell, etc, anybody who might know the answer to this question. Like, can you fish and reasonably expect to catch anything? Woudl it be really bizarre if somebody was going to fish in the middle of the night?

Thanks!

[Distracted]

My kids do it all the time off the wharf at our camp on Lake Calcasieu, a salt water lake right off the Gulf of Mexico. The key is to turn on a spotlight directly over the water. The light attracts bugs. The bugs attract the fish. The best time in our area for speckled trout is midnight.

[KKGlinka]

Like, can you fish and reasonably expect to catch anything? Woudl it be really bizarre if somebody was going to fish in the middle of the night?

While I don't operate under the assumption that I will catch a fish, it's not unreasonable to believe I might very well, especially in an area where I have caught them before.

Today I caught three yellow perch and a small painted box turtle. I caught one of the fish by its eyeball, strangely enough. It must have snagged as the fish turned away. I'm not sure how I managed to catch the turtle, but there it was clinging to the worm, waving its tiny legs around.

Fishing late at night is great. Glow in the dark and lighted bobbers are made just for that (mine glows). Because many fish can't see as well, bait such as spinners become more effective, though they'll almost always take worms or flies. There's one lake I go to in a state park where trawling is permitted 24hrs a day, though all craft must use running lights. It's often forbidden to fish after sunset in many public waters - that may be the true issue underlying your question.

[blacknblue]

Ever hear of a 'trot' line? Mark Twain mentions them in Huckleberry Finn.

The way you do it is to tie one end of the trot line to the bank, and the other end to a float or perhaps to a branch on the other side of a narrow channel. At regular intervals along the main line you tie short fishing lines with baited hooks hanging from them. Your objective is primarily channel catfish, although other fish will occasionally strike. Lights are not necessary. bait and drop the hooks, then go back to the campfire and take a nap. Check the lines at periodic intervals during the night. Take off the fish and rebait as needed.

The process of moving along the main line and checking each of the vertically suspended hooks is known as 'running' the trot line. (E.G. Hank Williams Jr. "...we can skin a buck, we can run a trot line, and a country boy can survive...")

[Elessar]

Like, can you fish and reasonably expect to catch anything? Woudl it be really bizarre if somebody was going to fish in the middle of the night?

While I don't operate under the assumption that I will catch a fish, it's not unreasonable to believe I might very well, especially in an area where I have caught them before.

Today I caught three yellow perch and a small painted box turtle. I caught one of the fish by its eyeball, strangely enough. It must have snagged as the fish turned away. I'm not sure how I managed to catch the turtle, but there it was clinging to the worm, waving its tiny legs around.

Fishing late at night is great. Glow in the dark and lighted bobbers are made just for that (mine glows). Because many fish can't see as well, bait such as spinners become more effective, though they'll almost always take worms or flies. There's one lake I go to in a state park where trawling is permitted 24hrs a day, though all craft must use running lights. It's often forbidden to fish after sunset in many public waters - that may be the true issue underlying your question.

Nah, it's private property.

Thanks! I'm glad it works. it's a fic question

Actually I have heard "trot line", from a Hank Jr. song, but I'm ashamed to say I thought he was saying, "Trout Line"

Addendum: I see now that you referred to the song at the end of your post, which i didn't finish reading before I commented

[Lady Rainbow]

I asked my hubby about this and he said you can use a trolling line (not sure if that's the same thing as a trot line) or something called "jugging". You attach your line to something like a water jug to make it more stable and leave it there overnight. If you've caught something, it'll be there on the line.

[Elessar]

A few people have mentioned that you can do it by leaving stuff overnight... what if one wanted to actually FISH actively, like sitting there. Say... as a social activity with someone else... That's just as feasible, correct? I mean assuming you could see...by ...oh I don't know... MOONLIGHT, for example.

[KKGlinka]

A few people have mentioned that you can do it by leaving stuff overnight... what if one wanted to actually FISH actively, like sitting there. Say... as a social activity with someone else... That's just as feasible, correct? I mean assuming you could see...by ...oh I don't know... MOONLIGHT, for example.

*coughs discreetly* Done that. By the fool moon. In the mountains. Caught three bluegill and an ickle romantic mood. I have youtube videos to prove it.

The idyllic night sounds and a full moon.
Even more sickeningly idyllic morning sounds.
Just for laughs, the constant risk of picking the frog pond.

[Elessar]

A few people have mentioned that you can do it by leaving stuff overnight... what if one wanted to actually FISH actively, like sitting there. Say... as a social activity with someone else... That's just as feasible, correct? I mean assuming you could see...by ...oh I don't know... MOONLIGHT, for example.

*coughs discreetly* Done that. By the fool moon. In the mountains. Caught three bluegill and an ickle romantic mood. I have youtube videos to prove it.

The idyllic night sounds and a full moon.
Even more sickeningly idyllic morning sounds.
Just for laughs, the constant risk of picking the frog pond.

uh oh!!

[KKGlinka]

uh oh!!

Nonsense. *makes a very serious face* One must research the writing of romantic midnight fishing dates thoroughly. But, y'know, T'Pol would complain about how fishing was inhumane and then proceed to out-fish Trip. Just to provide an example, of course.

[blacknblue]

If you want a nighttime activity, you could have them go frog spearing together. Or coon or possum huntin'.

[Entilzha]

You can fish any time of the day. You take a stick of dynamite light it throw it in the water put your fingers in your ears close your eyes and wait for the fish rain to start .

[Alelou]

So KKGlinka and RedDirtCowboy are one and the same? One sounds vaguely KGB and the other sounds vaguely romantic. And did you fish because there was no point in trying to sleep next to those frogs?

We have lots of peepers in a swamp nearby but thank God the bullfrog population is low or maybe their lower voices just don't carry as far.

I can remember as a kid lying in my bed in Florida in one of the houses we'd just moved to. This one had a wide creek in the back and it sounded to me that first night like the frogs were saying, "We're going to get you."

[Distracted]

Where I'm from, if the frogs keep you awake, you just go out with a partner and get 'em. One person operates the electric motor on the pirogue. The other one sits on the bow of the boat with a headlight on and looks for little eyes shining back. When they see a pair, they grab for 'em. (Just make sure the eyes aren't too far apart. You can lose a hand that way.) You shove 'em in a bag and move on. In a couple of hours my brothers have caught several dozen. They used to sell them to local restaurants for pocket money.

Frog legs. Yummy. Kinda chewy. but taste like chicken.

I'll bet T'Pol would be really good at frogging... quick hands, y'know.

BTW... another sort of romantic way to fish is flounder gigging. You get a lantern and a gig... like a spear only with a barbed hook on the end. You go walking in the shallows on a beach feeling for the flounder that have buried themselves in the sand. When you stir one up, you stick it. My hubby and his friends used to do it on Timbalier Island right off the Louisiana coast out of Cameron. I was always too much of a coward to try it...afraid I'd spear my foot. I'd stay in the tent and watch the lantern floating down the beach, since that's all I could see. They'd get like 40 flounder in one night. We ate well for months.

They were little toaster-oven sized flounder. All he did to clean them was gut them and take the heads off. Then we froze them. To cook them all I did was scale them, score the back, dust a little seasoning on and some butter and bake them for 15 minutes. Yummy.

[Elessar]

lol, you guys are gonna be a little surprised when you see what this is about.