Ive been nightfishing for 20 years or so and my only tip-
No artificial light whatsoever-your natural vision is good enough and will be ruined by torches etc.
are you fishing rivers or lakes at night?....
Rivers:
Make sure your familiar with the pathway/routes....
Do a daytime recce and note clear spots and potential places to place your seat/rod rest.... look for landmarks or bankside features for reference. After dark, its gonna look a whole lot different (without full visual reference you get in day light - this confuses the brain I guess)...
Use your torch bare minimum... perhaps only to land fish. I use a Peztl head torch with a red light and two intensities of white light. The red light is superb for tying new hooks on - that sort of thing. Baiting up? can do it in pitch black by touch.
Be extra vigalent of bankside vibration. Sounds seem to be amplified at night. I rarely drive in a bank stick in fear of disturbing nearby fish (but then I am constantly roving from swim to swim).
Keep calm and carry on fishing.. I love facing my primeval fear of the dark - its exciting and have become addicted to fishing rivers at night.... Less activity from other anglers, fish often become more active after dark, not to mention, better access; the baillif has got better things to be getting on with
My only tip as all the others are great, is don't sleep with your tackle fishing, whilst river fishing.
Nodding off is inevitable, so be by your rods.
I don't know why Fred thinks rivers are so different to stillwaters, yes there are more variables where rivers are concerned but in all fishing scenarios, once you've worked out the fishes location, you should then always work out how you can safely catch and land them.
Fish are creatures of habit, so will pretty much always demonstrate the same behavioural traits; barbel will either try to head back to where they've come from or find fast water and attempt to head downstream in it.
Chub will repeatedly try and stuff you into any/every close by snag.
Carp will do the same as chub, only they don't kite-in as willingly when in open water.
My top tips would have to be:
There are no prizes for being the, coldest, most hungry or thirsty or the most uncomfortable angler on the bank.
I always ensure that i will be comfortable (warm if cold out at night) well fed and drink hot liquids when needed.
I rarely fish the whole night through preferring to fish for a few hours after dark then bring the rods in and get my head down for a few hours and then restart a couple of hours before dawn.
I use as little light as is physically possible as it will wreck your night vision if used extensively.
I keep my Delks on silent with the remote on vibrate which is perfectly adequate - you don't have to wake up the whole venue when you get a bite . . . . . . .
As said before, arrive in daylight and set-up neatly with no unnecessary items strewn around, know where your landing net is at all times and simply . . . . . . enjoy.
I thought he was alluding to types of fishing other than carp angling where bites have to be hit rather than waiting for the Delkims to sound and where a quick nap can see you wake up to an empty rod rest.