Safety while night fishing alone

In my quest for Bass i have been reading a lot on technique, times, tides, lures etc. One thing that keeps comming up is fishing after dark, around high tide. For bass this means getting in and wading out to your waist or higher.

I did give this a brief go last week, but as I was on my own, and it was dark with a bit of a swell and incomming tide, I felt extreemly unsafe and ended up coming back in to shore and just heading home.

Im sure not all of you have buddies who will head out at night with you and wade into the sea in the dead of night looking for bass. If your on your own, do you
-just chalk it up to being unsafe to head into this alone and dont go
- head out knowing any risks
-or are you completely comfortable being out in the sea at night alone?

ya don't have to wade it to your waist fir bass, just to your knees should be enough

wouldnt be that comfortable wading at night on my own - would really need to know the local terrain in detail from daytime like the back of your hand to attempt it

as ever currents can change, ground can change and a wind can whip up from nowhere - have heard plenty of seasoned anglers getting caught out with water feeding in behind them

try to make friends is best advice!

Corbyeire is spot on there Schmintan, always bets to fish with a buddy, day or night. I have fished a bit at night and at some venues you may have to wade to get to certain spots at the right stage of tide. But again like Corbyeire said, this is best done when you are very familiar with the area and ground etc.

The main thing is don't take any risks, no fish is worth your life. I always fish at night with a buddy. There are also 2 items that can really help you to seriously reduce any danger while night fishing that i will be using this season.

One is a floatation device, always a good idea. Two is a PLB personal location beacon, these are not cheap at round €250 but can be a life saver. Hope this helps, stay safe.

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Great advice there from Bassy Tom. Just be aware that flotation devices are not life jackets and will not help you if you fall from the rocks and end up unconscious face down in the water. You need an auto inflate life jacket for that as it will inflate and turn you the right way up. Some claim they prefer a flotation device as they are easier to swim in than a lifejacket. I don't know personally but the RNLI wesite has great advice on the different life jackets (including newton ratings), personal flotation devices, their uses and they should know what they are talking about.

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If you are going to use an auto inflate jacket there are a few things to keep in mind;
1. Newton rating - it needs to be able to support your body weight and turn you over.
2. Size - If it doesn't fit properly and is uncomfortable, you are more likely to leave it at home.
3. Crotch strap - the jacket is useless without it.
4. Clean it - Open it up and clean it during the season. Inspect for damage. It takes a couple of minutes at most.
5. Test it - Replace the canister every season and test the manual mechanism with the old canister. Jumping into water to test the auto mechanism is optional

I had a real eye opening experience a few years ago. Two friends managed to flip their boat in front on a weir. Both of them went in, one jacket didn't inflate and he couldn't find the manual release (it had been tied inside the jacket to keep it out of the way !). The other opened, but because he didn't use the crotch strap and didn't tighten the chest straps it was pulled off over his head and floated off without him.
Luckily there were other boats in the water and we got them out quickly.

Sorry if I'm preaching to the choir, but I meet a lot of people that don't bother with safety equipment or just assume that when needed it will work and they'll know how to use it.

Are lads wading in the sea likely to get accidental activations with waves hitting them etc ? I'd imagine a PFD would be more practical in that scenario.

To say that a lifejacket is useless without a crotch strap is technically incorrect. Many lifejackets will operate better if a crotch strap is worn. A jacket that is not adjusted properly for fit will not function correctly. Neither will a buoyancy aid for that matter.The Mullion Compact 150 is tested both with and without a crotch strap.
Replacing the cylinder each season is unnecessary.

Details of the caliber of inspection required is:
https://rnli.org/SiteCollectionDocument ... jacket.pdf
or
http://www.topfisher.eu/do-not-be-a-sta ... is-summer/

Jim I'm not saying this to contradict you and realise you are an experienced boat angler but I think water safety is an important issue. The RNLI do advise that you use crotch straps to prevent the life jacket slipping over your head whilst in the water. Adrian has given an actual example of this happening and I read of another recently where the guy had to hold onto the life jacket whilst awaiting rescue to stop the it slipping over his head (as if he hadn't enough to worry about!). Perhaps the model you describe is different but I don't see the harm is using them. If the life jacket doesn't come with crotch straps you can buy them separately for a few quid.

http://rnli.org/safetyandeducation/stayingsafe/seasafety/Pages/Lifejackets.aspx

By the way for shore anglers there are short angler specific life jackets available designed for wading etc.

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All true D, ideally crotch straps should always be worn. But it is important to be accurate, especially in matters of safety. A lifejacket without a crotch strap is not useless. It may be less effective but it is not useless.

I agree it is important to be accurate Jim which is why I posted on this thread. But why risk muddying the waters or putting doubt in anyone's minds about the need for crotch straps in the first place? You say a jacket without crotch straps is not useless but less effective. I would say that it is at best less effective but at worst useless and dangerous (if it comes off I mean).

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Schmintan one major thing to note here - you do not need to wade out anywhere whilst fishing at night, of course it all depends on what mark you are fishing but there would be plenty of marks that don't require any wading whatsoever and can be comfortably fished from rocks / sand in the dark.

I think the most important thing is to feel comfortable with a mark (ie. know the lay of the land) in daylight before fishing it in the dark, and you'll feel much safer. Also, if it is a spot that has streetlamps within say one to two hundred yards this can help just to give yourself a bit more feeling of safety. A huge thing again as stated above is that it is always best to fish with one other person, at the very least initially whilst you are getting to grips with night fishing.

I wade at very few of the marks I fish at night, and never deeper than say halfway between knee and hip. If you are wading at night it should be noted again that it would be safer to wade over sandy ground than rocky / reefy ground - for example wading whilst fishing an estuary (with a solid ground!) should not be as treacherous as wading over a rocky reef which has a mixture of undulating rocks, weed, pebbles and sand (you're far more likely to lose footing and slip).

Also it's worth pointing out that a lot of the time when fishing at night it never gets truly dark, due to one or more of the following: moon, summer-time (it never gets properly dark as it does in winter time), street lights. Because a lot of the time it doesn't get properly dark (as in - hard to see your own fishing rod), and with your eyes adjusted to the gloom, there is also some confidence gained from the fact you can still see enough to eg. check for weed on trebles on a lure, slowly move along a rock, and possibly even unhook a fish without turning on a headlamp.

One tip by the way on checking for weed and removing weed from trebles on a lure that I learnt from experience - after each cast (if there is a bit of floating weed at the mark) I hold up the lure against the sky to inspect the trebles for weed. Holding the lure up against the sky gives a better 'silouette' of the lure and hooks and almost always provides enough light to see and remove any weed without needing to turn on a headlamp (and spook fish in the vicinity).

I would encourage you to persist and try again, but pick your mark carefully to be somewhere you are comfortable with, and preferably somewhere which you can fish without any wading necessary. Also note that high tide again is not necessary, every mark is different, some marks will fish best in darkness at low tide, some at high tide, and some of course anywhere in between those! But basically high tide doesn't mean anything, unless you have a knowledge that a specific mark produces fish especially around that time (in which case it may well be excellent after dark). Best of luck!

Edit: one last note - again to feel safer, fish with the tide *going out* as you'll have one less thing to worry about (eg. my bag left on those rocks behind me is not going to get flooded by an incoming tide, if I had to wade a little to get to where I am at high tide it will be much easier to get back after 2 hours fishing with the tide going out, I'm not gong to get locked into a cove / onto this rock by the flooding tide etc. etc.). Basically there is usually a lot less factors to worry about if the tide is going out, so it's a good idea to go this route initially at least.

oldie but goodie, never turn your back on the sea on the rocks

You don't need to wade at all in fact I stay completely out of the water at night. It simply spooks fish. Very often the bass are right next to shore in very shallow water.

I find the same Eoghan in the marks I fish (shallow reef with patches of sand)
Prior to arriving at point I have my spinning outfit set up, I pre rig a load of soft plastics to eliminate as much time as possible with head torch on as this can spook fish.

Never wade out past knees on your own. That's my own thing to do and even at knees if tide breaking past it. Back in to shore.
1 small wave knocks you back your in. Waders can fill then your in trouble. Buoyancy aids are essential when alone.


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Never wade out past knees on your own. That's my own thing to do and even at knees if tide breaking past it. Back in to shore.
1 small wave knocks you back your in. Waders can fill then your in trouble. Buoyancy aids are essential when alone.


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If alone stay away from places where you have to walk over rocks or climb no matter how well you know the place and let someone know where you are going