Be prepared when fishing Indian River Inlet at night

Last week, I tried to help those who fish Indian River Inlet during the day. This week, I will try to give those who want to fish the jetties at night some ideas on how to do that safely and with some success.

If you are going to fish the jetties at night, you are going to put yourself in a dangerous situation. Those rocks are wet, slippery and hard. If you fall, you will get hurt. I know this to be a fact because I have fallen and it hurt. This was actually on the jetty at Roosevelt Inlet in the middle of a warm, sunny day. I went to step from one rock to another, and the rock shifted and I went down.

Back in the day, when I fished the Indian River Inlet jetties every night I could, I wore rubber golf overshoes and they worked very well. Today, Korkers are the standard for jetty jockeys. You must have some kind of footwear that will grip the rocks and prevent you from slipping and falling.

Then there are lights. If you go out on the jetty at night and turn on a bright white light, you won’t have to worry about falling, because someone nearby will toss your stupid butt overboard. Fish adjust their eyes at night, so they can see the slightest light. Shining a bright white light in their eyes is like having someone firing off a flash bulb in your eyes. Don’t do that!

If you must have a light, use a red one. You can buy headlights that come in red and attach to the brim of your hat. Others hang around your neck.

As for tackle, almost everyone uses spinning gear. I have always used a 6- or 7-foot rod with a matching reel. Before braid, I used 12-pound test mono line. Now I use 20-pound braid. A shock leader of 30-pound fluorocarbon line goes between the braid and my hook if I am fishing with bait or my quick-click snap if I am using plugs or bucktails. 

You will see a variety of fishing techniques used at night on the jetties. Some folks will be drifting eels or sand fleas, while others will be casting plugs or bucktails. Some will fish from one spot; others will walk up and down the rocks or sidewalk. You have to decide what you want to do before you get there and have your tackle ready to go.

I still like to cast plugs and bucktails. My old-time favorites were Rebel Wind Cheaters with a black back. Over the winter, I bought some SP Minnows in two sizes, and in black and brown. I won’t be fishing from the jetty, but I will give them a try from the sidewalk.

You will need a shoulder tackle bag or pouch. Nothing very big. Just large enough to hold a few bucktails and plugs, and some hooks and leader material. I take it for granted that you always have a pair of fishing pliers on your belt.

Drifting sand fleas from the rocks has been a longtime favorite for catching striped bass and trout. One night, many years ago, a good friend and I were drifting sand fleas along the south side under the inlet bridge. He caught a nice trout and we hung it from the rail to keep it away from the rats.

A man and his wife came by, asked me if I caught the trout. I told him my friend caught the fish. He asked my friend what he caught the fish with. My friend said a sand flea. Man said what is that. My friend took some out of the pocket of his rain jacket and showed the man. Another man came up, asked the second man who caught the big fish. Second man pointed to my friend. Guy asked what did he catch it on. Second man said he won’t tell nobody. 

As a general rule, we followed the water. If the tide was falling, we followed it out to the end of the jetty. Then the water would chase us back in as the tide rose.

Most of the time, I used bucktails. I would make short casts up current and allow the bucktail to swim past the rocks as it was carried along in the current. The only exception was if we had breaking fish. If that was the case, we would cast directly into the schools.

Fishing with plugs required a longer cast. Here, I cast up current to give the impression of a bait fish struggling against the current.

Back then, we had lots of trout and we could keep just about all the striped bass we caught. Today, we have a 28- to 31-inch slot for stripers and very few trout. I would use large plugs and bucktails with a large Gulp! tail to attract the larger fish. Good luck.