I was always unsure of the notion that salmon fed at night, and that in turn had an effect on day fishing especially during the full moon. Walked a local beach last night on the big low under the full moon, along and edge where there is a good drop off. There were schools of herring along the shore, and the black mouth were busting the surface regularly chasing them. Notion confirmed.

I've been out in South Sound at night several times to see a herring school glowing with bioluminescence to watch salmon and dogfish feeding on the baitfish. Fascinating. I was schooled by an old timer with me, because I didn't quite understand all that I was seeing. The salmon more or less shot straight through the school leaving a trail sparks, so to speak, while the dogfish sort of wiggled through the bait, side to side. Spectacular show rivaling shooting stars. Again, this is what the veteran told me was the difference in the fish's actions.

Don't take this wrong, but you questioned whether or not a predator fish feeds at night? Of course they do - that's their primetime with the advantage in their favor. Generally speaking, bait fish feel more relaxed at night due to the lack of birds. They'll come up closer to the surface to feed or spawn and that, in turn, pulls up the predator fish from the depths. Kings being light sensitive and having the ability to see UV, especially benefit from feeding at night without the interference of too much light. Dark on dark shows up better to light sensitive fish than dark on light (again generally speaking). That's why Kings usually head back down when the sun gets overhead mid-morning. They can see better in the dark!

Several other species are the same way. Browns, Walleye, Swordfish, Sharks, Lakers, lots of different reef fish etc. All light sensitive species and feed much better under the cover of darkness. If the ocean and especially the sound wasn't so unsafe at night, I'd rather fish for kings while everyone was sleeping. When trout fishing over mixed stocks, I won't even try for trophy Browns until it's dark. Rainbows / Cutts / Brookies on insect based food during the day and Browns at 2 am with BIG leeches, minnows and mice ties. Sure you'll catch nice Browns during the day on standard ties, but the real big boys don't come out till after the sun goes down and you need to feed em' BIG meals.

Try a jet black, midnight dark blue or dark purple spoon or hoochie off the bottom during the middle of the day. No flash or mirrored inside, glow or UV. Just a simple dark silhouette. Do this when the bite is slow or everyone else on the boat wants to fish the standard greens, whites or flashy UV patterns. Drop it deep and they'll find it.

Nick....Actually questioned whether salmon feed at night.

Big browns yes, I've taken my best then, rainbows no. Stripers yes, bluefish, one of the the king of predators, rarely. You are dead on that it depends on species. This was just the first time I had actually seen kings actively feed well after dark.

Did not seem to affect the bite much today, limited the boat quickly mid day, most of herring in them were well digested, victims of last night??? Big stuff was dead today, the only thing they wanted were small spoons, similar in size to the herring around.

Light doesn't penetrate all that far down in the Sound. Pretty dark at 100' under theist of conditions. So, feeding at noon or midnight at 200' is probably not all that different, light-wise.

I have my own Go-Pro video trolling down to 120' and it's moderately dark, but still surprisingly lighter than I thought it would be (reverse filmed towards the flasher). Sunny days are a bit lighter than overcast days (stands to reason). The water is much clearer in the winter since there is no bloom. It's almost not worth filming during the late summer due to the blooms and jellies. Fish trail your offerings over long distances like wolves waiting for their moment to pounce. Nothing to do with this topic, but still worth noting. The amount of fish is eye opening and maddening at the same time.

In general, green becomes black'ish around 60', purple around 90' and blue around 120'. Black shows up the best when viewed from below towards surface light (obviously). But it also shows up extremely well upon itself (at night). Most predator fish hunt from below. Putting anything black above their heads will be seen. At all depths. Even on moonless nights. They just see it, including those kings that surface feed at night. Hint hint.

I have noticed, while diving in Hawaii, how the cold changes just a few feet down.

While it's not "big" fish I used to sample a bunch of small creeks; do population estimates with a 'shocker. 75m of creek that was 3m wide might hold 2,000-3,000 salmon and trout, plus the sculpins. From above, we saw maybe 5-10. Even snorkeling we saw only a fraction of what was there. My favorite trout stream in Costa Rica has, visible, 10-20 trout that are all over 6" in one pool. Having counted them. Love to actually shock there......

Prior to the collapse of the hake population in the mid-1980s it was virtually impossible to fish Chinook prior to daylight. There would be vast schools of hake actively feeding near the surface which would only return to the depths at dawn.

Curt

Videos of trolling gear and how salmon react to it make it pretty clear that trolling in a straight line, the way we usually do it, gets lots of attention from lots of fish, but isn't a highly effective way to make fish bite. Many fish follow, often for a long time, only to get bored and turn away when they don't see the bait do anything different. Ever notice how often you get a bite and come off power to grab the rod, only to see the rod on the other side get bit, too? Dollars to donuts, that's because the bait finally did something different when you slowed down that triggered a fish that has been following the flasher for a while.

I don't do a lot of salmon trolling (don't have the boat for the job), but I do a fair amount of trolling flies for trout in the spring, and I catch more fish if I troll in a zig-zag pattern, which causes the flies to change depth and speed through turns. Sometimes, they hit it on the outside turns (when they want it fast and/or shallow), and others, it's on the inside turns, when the fly drops and slows a little.

Underwater presentations that trigger the most strikes for me are those that move a fly or lure close to, then away from the fish, as if it's trying to escape being eaten. Something that never changes speed or direction doesn't act like real prey. That doesn't mean it won't get bit, but I do think it means it won't get bit as quickly or as often.

I have talked to salmon trollers who agree with this and do things to vary up the troll when conditions (especially crowding) permit it. Probably NOT a good plan to troll in anything but a straight line at Buoy 10 or Elliott Bay, for example....

And... Oh, yeah... Back to the thread topic: Fish definitely eat at night, and especially on a full moon. Sunlight definitely puts fish down; moonlight seems to bring them up. I have almost (but not quite) always had poor fishing for resident trout on the last couple days of the waxing cycle, and right or wrong, I attribute that to their having gorged themselves the night before. There may be more to that, though; sometimes, even anadromous, non-feeding salmon and steelhead sometimes bite poorly around the full moon. In the end, you had probably just better go fishing when you can, no matter what the moon's doing. Sounds like you did great!