A trifecta of night-fishing questions!

[Suther]

Hello.

I just recently took up fishing again, after a long break since childhood trout fishing.

I have three questions about night fishing...

The first, is where can I do some night fishing from the shore?(closer to Port Moody is better, but anything is better than nothing.) Nights work well for me with my work/school schedule, so Im looking for any advise as to places to fish from. The places I can think of are all parks (Rocky Point, Belcarra Regional, Cates Park, Barnet Marine Park, Ambleside) which close at Dusk, or 9pm at the latest. I hear Sole is really active at night? Is flounder also more active at night?

Second, I wanna catch some sharks. Spiny Dogfish seem to be my most obvious target, I just need to know more about them. What sort of strength line do I need for them? My current setup is a medium action, 6' spinning reel with 8lb test, and I use a 6 or 8 lb leader with it. If Im targetting these, Im thinking I need a wire leader so it doesn't just chomp right through it??? Probably stronger line too, as I hear these can be 4 feet.

Third, Can you catch salmon at night? Or is that more of a dawn-to-dusk activity? With salmon do I need a wire-coated leader or is my monofiliment leader good enough?

As I have said, Im new-again to fishing, and as I was raised on fresh-water trout fishing, salt-water anything is a whole new ballgame.

Thanks for any advise or info!

 

[salty-dog]

Hello.

I just recently took up fishing again, after a long break since childhood trout fishing.

I have three questions about night fishing...

The first, is where can I do some night fishing from the shore?(closer to Port Moody is better, but anything is better than nothing.) Nights work well for me with my work/school schedule, so Im looking for any advise as to places to fish from. The places I can think of are all parks (Rocky Point, Belcarra Regional, Cates Park, Barnet Marine Park, Ambleside) which close at Dusk, or 9pm at the latest. I hear Sole is really active at night? Is flounder also more active at night?

Second, I wanna catch some sharks. Spiny Dogfish seem to be my most obvious target, I just need to know more about them. What sort of strength line do I need for them? My current setup is a medium action, 6' spinning reel with 8lb test, and I use a 6 or 8 lb leader with it. If Im targetting these, Im thinking I need a wire leader so it doesn't just chomp right through it??? Probably stronger line too, as I hear these can be 4 feet.

Third, Can you catch salmon at night? Or is that more of a dawn-to-dusk activity? With salmon do I need a wire-coated leader or is my monofiliment leader good enough?

As I have said, Im new-again to fishing, and as I was raised on fresh-water trout fishing, salt-water anything is a whole new ballgame.

Thanks for any advise or info!

I can't help you with the location, but.....

Sharks are easy to catch -- just use any piece of fish and they will come. However, spiny's are usually found in 50ft or more of water. I've managed a few around the 30ft mark, but they are few and far between. So, surf casting may not work. Not saying its a total failure, but do not expect solid results. Night casting may be better as sharks are nocturnal.

Most of the sharks I catch in this part of North America are very small though this year I have caught a number better than 3ft. Still, that's very small compared to what I am used to. I use 17lb Cajun Line for the sharks found around here and never had a snap-off. But, I also use about 3ft of 30lb wire leader, which is overkill for these pups, but it is the smallest I found in wire.

My rod/reel setup is simple and basic: 6.5 Ugly Stick and Okuma EB50 Exipor. This seems to be a great all-around combo for what I do { spinies, rockfish, flounder, pinks, coho and such }.

Back home, we would fish for shark in the evenings and the methods varied from ballooning bait or casting between the 2nd and 3rd breakers, to following shrimp boats. Most frequent bite times are around 7-9pm for medium sharks {hammerheads, bonnetheads, bulls and nurse} while larger specimens would take bait around 11pm-3am. Baits ranged from shrimp heads for pups to whole amberjack for the bigger ones. Their favorite was double-hooked stingray.

Daytime sharking was nowhere near as good. Many times, all it produced was time to think about life and nothing more. Night sharking is where the action is.

Use a balloon to float a bait out to where you want it. Let the tide take it out. Its best of you can float it out with a 40ft drop from balloon to bait. Be sure to use the proper size hook for the shark and the bait. Spinies have very small mouths.

As for salmon at night, I will leave that for a salmon expert.

You're decision to go salt is correct. Freshwater offerings are limited whereas the salt offers many things of many sizes and better variety. Just be careful- once salt is in the blood, the ocean has set it's hook in your lip.

 

[Suther]

I can't help you with the location...

Baits ranged from shrimp heads for pups to whole amberjack for the bigger ones. Their favorite was double-hooked stingray.

You're decision to go salt is correct. Freshwater offerings are limited whereas the salt offers many things of many sizes and better variety. Just be careful- once salt is in the blood, the ocean has set it's hook in your lip.

Yeah I decided on salt water fishing after I got a few crab traps and decided I need something to occupy myself while waiting.

As for bait, Wal-Mart sells bags of frozen sardines for cheap, that aught to work for some dogs eh?

You said you never snap 17lb test, so would 15 be enough too? (Seems 17 is an odd number and I was planning on respooling my rod with 15 anyways)