THE EVIL HOURS
Most of my shore fishing is at night, but  over the years I’ve noticed that the fishing drops right off after 1am through to 4am, then gradually picks up as dawn approaches.

This lapse in fish activity is noted in  many other forms of fishing too, especially sea trout at night when many  anglers elect to fish until 1am,  then get some kip, and start fishing again the hour before dawn. Sea trout  anglers call these hours the Evil Hours. A couple of keen carp angling mates  also say their catch diaries show few fish caught during the middle night  period.

Even aboard boats offshore, when I’ve  fished all night those middle hours are notoriously slow. You get the odd  scavenger fish like huss, and maybe the smaller whiting and dabs etc, but good  fish are unlikely. Also when I was pretty much fishing for nothing but bass way  back in the 70’s and 80’s I quickly realised my effort in the middle of the  night was wasted.

You see it in yourself too. You feel most  tired will start nodding off about 2am   to 4am. By 5am  you start to get a second wind as the body starts to re kick in to its daytime  clock.

Sea wise, one factor might be the lifting  in the water of the plankton as dark falls and their descent back to the seabed  towards dawn that disrupts the food chain at seabed level. The obvious one  though, is the level of light penetrating the water. Fishing at night you  realise that it’s never fully dark. There is always some light available, but  take notice next time, without moonlight it’s hardest to see unaided between  that rough period 1am to 4am,  immaterial of the time of year.

You can expand on this and figure out that  dusk in to darkness is a peak feeding time for all fish. This satisfies their  initial hunger, with the predators digesting their meal through the middle  night hours, but then feeling the need to feed again as dawn starts to approach  and other smaller fish activity increases.

Realising the dead period exist helps us to  plan our fishing better and to balance the time we fish to the time the fish  are most likely to be feeding. Instead of fishing all night then, do like the  sea trout fisherman do. Fish hard through the hot dusk to full dark period,  then either call it a night, or sleep in the car, then fish again in the hour  before dawn. It maximises your chances of fish, helps minimise bait costs, plus  fishing shorter sessions means your concentration levels remain higher.

TIPS AND TRICKS
Commercially made feathers for mackerel,  whiting, codling and haddock are made to a time and price restraints, with  speed and simplicity the key. Often the feathers and ribbon material used to  create the lure are simply whipped on using the hook snood. Catch a couple of  mackerel or whiting and the feathers can pull free from the shank leaving you  with not much more than a bare hook.

You can prolong and strengthen this type of  feather rig by giving the heads and whipping holding the feathers in place a  good dab of superglue, then a couple of coats of Hard as Nails nail varnish to  protect the superglue underneath. Let the first coat fully dry before applying  the second to get a really solid bond.

AUTUMN BOAT WRASSE TACTICS
October and November see some of the  biggest ballan wrasse of the year taken unintentionally by boat anglers fishing  baited feathers after cod, though the majority are hooked and lost. You can  make a more deliberate attempt to catch these big wrasse by slightly altering  your technique.

The wrasse live in the roughest ground  surrounded by rocks and kelp weed beds, exactly the type of terrain codling  like.

Tackle needs to be either a 20lb or 30lb  class rod and reel with 25lb line. Big wrasse are powerful and lesser rods will  see the wrasse back amongst the snags and lost.
  Choose tough feathers on eyed hooks like  Mustad Hokkai’s or anything yellow tied on 50lb line in the 4/0 size. Autumnal  wrasse seem to like yellow or luminous feathers. Feathers tied on spade end  hooks will simply cut through the line under heavy pressure. Bait the hooks  with small strips of mackerel, sandeel or herring.

When jigging feathers for codling the arms  move the rod tip up and down in a constant motion with the feathers just off  the seabed. For wrasse, use the same jigging motion, but this time briefly rest  the weight on the seabed a few seconds before lifting. The wrasse tend to hit  the bait as it pauses with the weight on the bottom or just as the feathers  start to lift upwards again.

You need to really bully and hold these  fish as soon as they are hooked. They fight by boring down in a series of sharp  head shaking tugs. Really big fish hit so hard they can pull the rod tip to the  gunnel before you have time to properly react. That’s why you need to fish  heavy, trust in the strength of the tackle, and hold the fish at the initial  take and then work them up off the seabed away from the snags.

By resting the weight on the seabed  briefly, obviously tackle losses will be heavy, but you can limit losses by  adding a weak length of line between the end of the feathers and the weight.  This will break when the lead snags but release your feathers.