On hard fished streams, like the Chattahoochee River in Helen Georgia, big trout are very wary and do most of their feeding at night when practically all fishermen have quit for the day. When I say night I don't mean twilight or that period of darkness which directly follows, but the time from midnight until the first flush of dawn.

That lesson was taught me this summer. It was in June, my favorite month for fly fishing in Helen Georgia. All day I had been fishing the Chattahoochee river that held mostly rainbow trout, beginning directly after an early breakfast. Conditions seemed to be favorable. The rhododendrons were in blossom and made patches of pink and white in the woods, and there were a few flies on the water. I fished dry flies exclusively with only fair success. I kept at it until dark when I was more than a mile upstream. When I quit I had a half-dozen trout of disappointing size, for the largest was only 10 1/2 inches and most of them were around 9 inches. That was a pretty scant reward for a fishing day that had begun at 7: 30 in the morning, and had continued until 10 in the evening.

I walked back toward the Hotel in Helen Georgia where I was staying, keeping to the woods until I reached a stretch where there was no light from the starlit sky to guide me, and I began to stumble and fall. Then I took to the stream where a little light was reflected from the sky, and while the wading was very rough and slippery at least I could see, though faintly, where I was going.

I came to a deep pool and stopped in surprise. It sounded as though bathers were in it. There were many splashes, and I could see flashes of white made by rising trout. That pool was perhaps the biggest and hardest fished of any on the river. It was a natural. It fairly shrieked trout. I had fished it carefully on my way up that morning and hadn't had a rise, though l had approached it with care and felt sure of getting a good trout or two from it. These rises were not from fingerlings but from heavy fish, and they came from the tail of the pool right up to its head.

I assembled my rod with difficulty, largely from feel. When I had taken it down at the end of fishing, Ihad not cut the fly from the leader but had coiled it and placed it in my leader wallet. The fly was a large Coachman, about a No. 8, which I had tied on at dusk the better to see it on the water. Now, with heart pounding, I circled the pool and made my first cast. As the fly touched the water, there came a boil and I hooked the fish. It was a big one. As it felt the hook it raced upstream and then came back on the other side of a submerged rock. The leader came back to me cut in two. My fishing was over for it was too dark to take another leader and tie on another fly.

Night fishing with wet flies can be highly exciting. The darkness hides you from the trout. I have felt them bump my legs as I stood in water above my knees. They have lost their daytime caution. They are on the feed. They accept the darkness as a protective shield. Night-flying insects are plentiful and furnish a diet rich in protein. And the fishermen who have stirred up the water during the day have gone. During the daytime, one missed strike from a rising brown trout will put it down, and it will not rise again. But at night, when you miss a hit, that same trout is quite willing to strike again at that same fly.

The night fisherman must study the water in the daytime, note the logical hiding place for a large trout, and locate the spot from which it is best for him to cast. He should familiarize himself with the stream bottom between the selected spot and the point of his approach. If there are sizable rocks on the bottom in the path of his approach, he should study them so that he can go around them and not stumble over them. It will help him in his night wading to take with him a stout wading stick or staff so that he can carefully feel ahead with it and be able to plot his course without mishap. Selecting a place where big brownies lie is not too difficult.

All of us have fished most promising water without success, yet our stream knowledge has told us that a trout must be there. The chances are good that a lunker has taken up residence there and has kept out all other trout. Such places include deep pools; sharp bends in the stream where the current has washed out a hole under the bank and there is considerable depth; large sunken logs where the current has gouged out the bottom and made a deep pocket; underwater ledges; and large boulders under which the current has washed a hole.

Don't use a flashlight in fishing your chosen spot. Should you need some light in changing flies, do so well back from the stream where the light will be unnoticed. The temptation will be strong to use a light in wading to the position selected. Don't.

Night fishing means short-line fishing Long casts will get you little or nothing. Keep line and leader taut. The leader should be stout and at least 10 pound test. As soon as the flies land upon the water, put them into slow motion. Twitch the flies across the surface and when the rise comes, sock the fish hard. The flies should be large, the hooks heavy, and the points needle sharp. The wet flies for this nocturnal sport should be big and bushy. Black is the best color, dark brown the next. Their size makes you think they are suited only to bass fishing. Use No. 4's and select from among the Black Gnat, Black Hackle, Blue Dun, March Brown, Black Woolly Worm, and Brown Hackle. In daytime fishing a lot of hackle is often a handicap. At night it is all asset. A word of warning, in several streams, legal trout fishing is limited to stated hours between dawn and dark. Before doing any nighttime fishing be sure that you are within the law.

The Chattahoochee River running through Helen Georgia is open year round, and allows night fishing.

Helen Ga Hotels