I always see boats fishing under the bridges on my lake, but I've never had any luck. Is there a certain time of day, or any other tips, that would increase my success crappie fishing under the bridge?

Welcome to the forum. Lately the bridges I fish have been best in the early morning and evening (a couple hours before dark). Try to find which part of the bridge that the creek or river channel comes through. To me, the hardest part of bridge fishing is finding the right depth the fish are holding. It seems the old standby is let your bait go to the bottom and come up 2 cranks on your reel. This isn't always so. I've found them just a few inches off the bottom to just a couple feet from the surface. The crappie will suspend where they are most comfortable and where there is baitfish available. You just have to experiment and try to find that right depth. Although bridges can produce good bites, don't get hung up on them. Anywhere there is structure and bait you are prone to find crappie....brush piles, boat houses, standing timber, drop offs, and so on. I notice you're at Bob Sandlin...try the RR bridge this summer at night with lights. Good luck.

Welcome to the Forum:
Hang lights under the boat. At night. Closer to the bank. Which is steepest.
With a neck, or Cove. Behind the steep bank. Be careful. And make sure your anchor-light is on. Along with; a light in the bow. While anchord or tied up. So other boat traffic can see you.

My rule when I was fishing bridges was to find where the creek runs through. Drop to the bottom and then two cranks up. No bite in 2 minutes, two more cranks up, until I got a hit. Once you know the depth, the you can stay at that depth and slow troll around all of the pillars.

Thanks for the great advice! Do you recommend using live bait (like minnows), slabs, or jigs, or something else?

I fish bridges with a double jig rig on 20/6 braid. A 1/16 oz jig tied about 2' above a 1/8 oz jig. Sometimes I fish it straight down, but most of the time I will pitch it from one column over toward another column, and let it fall back to me with a little shake to the jig every now and then

I always use jigs. I have done exactly like Duck Jerky says too. My confidence was always in the other method because to me, it is what I felt really comfortable with. It would help me to figure out the depth the start fine tuning a pattern from there. I never had many problems getting limits with either technique, because the key was to find depth of the active fish. All bridges are different too.

Thanks everyone for your advice! I used a double jig setup as you suggested and it worked. I'd never caught a crappie under that bridge, and within a few minutes, BAM, had a beautiful white crappie.

Take it from the Duck man!

Leave the boat at home and go to Lake Graham.

+1

Seems as though I heard this same technique somewhere recently!