Attention Night Surfcasters
 

Does that glowing neon green plankton we see at night only show when something is around it swimming. This is what Ive been told. Is this true?

Walking, or your plug in the water a boat wake anything that disturbs
them I believe sets them aglow

Then we can say it is a definate fish indicator, bait and such.

Nope

Yup.....fire in the water

A lot of other things than bait and fish activate fire in the water, and bait and fish can move through water with a lot of fire in it without activating it. True, on a very dark night actively feeding fish can show up as dull blobs of light, and strikes can be very spectacular, but counting on fire to tell you what's out there is a reach at best.

From what I've both read and experienced fire in the water isn't a good thing. If it does indicate action in the water it certainly doesn't seem to always indicate good fishing.

-spence

Fire or phosphoresence is not a good thing at all for fishing. It kills it 99% of the time.

This past summer a couple of friends and I were fishing at night in a strong current. We each had a large plume of these phospherescent creatures creating a glow where we were standing in the water. they seemed to light up as they were being pushed into us by the current. The fishing was good, we all caught many fish. We could see the path the hooked fish were traveling through the water from the glow created as they collided with these creatures. When I looked in the water with a flashlight I could not see them. I'm not sure what they are but it was a fun night to be out there.

Bob Marshall

RMarsh, welcome to S-B :btu: ...

I tend to catch less when there is a lot of fire in the water and this is more pronounced from shore than boat.

One night a couple years ago while travuling in the Clamman's boat, the fire was so thick - thick as I've ever seen - and we were hammering blue fish and the ocassional bass (I was with the bluefish slayer afterall). As we were moving to another spot at speed just barely on plane, there were thousands of bluefish ( I assume) in a large school that took minutes to traverse. As we went you could see all these fish scattering from the bow due to the fire in the water. It was almost like the movies where the dolphins ride the bow wave of a large and fast ship, but this was bluefish in the phospheresence.

I think Clammer was trying to mow down every bluefish he could that night :hihi:

That "Fire in the Water" is light produced by bioluminescent dinoflagellates, little plankton that are related to those that cause red tide. These ones aren't harmful, though. They light up when agitated by prop wash, wave action, fish moving through them, anything that disturbs them. If you are interested, a friend of mine (Vincent Pieribone) wrote a book on them and their use in medical research called (A Glow in the Dark). Good book.

I always do slightly better if I take off my teaser - one less item to cause a disturbance and light them up.

I agree. I often fish eels or at least something I can fish very slowly if there's fire in the water. I figure it causes less disturbance, especially the eel since in some cases you barely have to retrieve it all.

Maybe it actually helps, or maybe it just makes me feel more confident I'm not spooking fish, I'm not sure which.

The fish, if they're there, will feed in the bioluminesence. Whether it's larger jellies or tiny plankton, I really doubt it bothers them. The only question is why we sometimes have trouble catching in those conditions.

What I see are the plankton that have been engulfed by small jellyfish.
The jellies can be plentiful, and since the game fish aren't eating them, they just get bumped a lot creating the glow.
On some occasions, the jellyfish will rupture, spilling their bounty of plankton. It looks like the special-effect "plasma" from space movies as the glow pours out an drifts in the current.

Fire in the water is a neutral. It does not indicate fish, or lack of fish. It doesn't make the fishing better or worse. Mostly, its a too often used excuse for failure along with the moon,wind,water temp,lack of bait, too much bait, dull hooks, too many people, the internet, spot burning, you name it. Have caught plenty of fish in it and out of it. It’s a factor, just like all the above mentioned excuses, but not a detriment in and of itself if you mitigate it properly. GOT IT? :poke:

Yup, I'll agree with this

How far down in the water column are the plankton ?

I've been 40' down on a night dive and when we turned out lights off we could disturb the photoplankton... That was also on the other side of the world though

always thought it meant there were whales around ..:doh:

no, those are different. those are bioluminescent jellies. the jelly itself is bioluminescent. very cool, i agree.