Went out last night at Sam Rayburn. Picked a spot and got the lights out. Within a hour or so, we had a ton of baitfish around our lights, 2 hours after that and not a single bite.

I'd like to be a more proficient nighttime crappie fisherman, but I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to proceed to give myself a better result. What kind of spot characteristics (depth, etc)should I be looking for? After we get the baitfish attracted, how long does it usually take for the crappie to show?

Any advice that could help me sharpen my game would be GREATLY apprecaited.

Lights are great but structure is even greater!!

I've had the same experience. Never could do much at night.

My best advice would be to get there before its dark and do as much scouting with your fishfinder as you can. Mark as many spots as you can that are holding schools of fish and right before dark go back and set up on top of your number 1 spot (best looking). If you haven't caught anything by 20-30 minutes of having lights in the water, move to spot number 2, etc. Sometimes you'll get back to your honey hole and the fish will have moved on, but chances are they are still close enough the lights will drag them back. At least that's what you're hoping for lol.

PM sent to rcs

We went out to a local lake last Friday night and got situated on the water right over a brush pile. Put my light out and waited, and waited, and waited. Moved to place number two and did the same, with the SAME results. Us = ZERO Fish = MANY

Sometimes you just get to spend a nice time losing sleep and swapping lies with your buddies on a lake with no moon.

THAT'S FISHING........

Here is what I have learned on the lakes I fish abt night fishing. Fish tend to leave the deeper strucuture that they hide un during daytime hours to pursue forage that move into secondary creek channels that branch off of the MAIN channel in the lake. I believe the shad will move shallower at night, because the birds go roost, so thats one less predator that is after them. they instinctually know that there is a ever present threat from above in clear bright daylight.. Crappie and other gamefish such as largemouth, follow underwater highways, to try and find where the baitfish is congregating, or traveling thru. the shad, they must eat also, and like to go into the creek channels for bugs, plankton, microscopic organisms, ect.
Many nights while sitting with the lights set up, the fish would come thru in waves, right after the shad came into the cove in mass. The trick to night fishing is finding these underwater routes that the baitfish repeatedly travel, and the gamefish repeatedly pursue them. If you set lights out, and attract some shad, or minnows in an area, It really means nothing, but you were able to attract some baitfish. Whether the LOCATION that you are at is a feeding highway or not is what will get you a stringer of fish or not is the important part of the equasion.
Now you ask.. how do you find the high propability areas that fish will travel.
Im my opinion, the most propable areas that crappie will stage and pursue baitfish is on or near main lake points, that have structure like standing timber, and a secondary creek running into, or out of them. In otherwords, a intersection, with a point on it. It will be especially good if the point is on a north bank, because the wind primarily comes out of the south most of the spring , summer and fall, and the wind blows the plankton, bugs, nutrients, ect. to these areas consistantly.
Once you find the good areas, you can go back again and again and catch fish, the times may be different that they roll thru the " highways", but they usually do thier " milk runs", very frequently, so patience is the key. If they bite at around 8 pm one night, u can bet the next night will be close to that time., also, sometimes they will have 2 peak times, like right at dark, then maybe at midnight. So nightfishing is a waiting game, not a move from spot to spot to spot game. Its too much hassle to keep picking up lights, untieing, getting the boat positioned just right, resetting out all the poles, ect. one move at night is the most I may ever move.
If you tie to bridge pilings at night, try to tie to the one on the edge of the channel that runs thru, if there is one. Tie to the deeper edge if possible. if no channel, look for where the birds build the little mud house in the crevaces under the bridge. They drop alot of small poop, that attracts baitfish, and crappie.
If u start seeing alot of garfish in the area you are night fishing, u likely wont do very well. You can hope they leave, or move.
Lastly, use some live minnows for bait or castnet for some small shad,.. no use trying to keep the shad alive, just put them on ice, and they stay pretty fresh. squirt some yum Shad flavored attractant, or Bang shad spray on the minnows. It can make all the difference.

I have the best luck fishing off of points or humps at night under the lights. After the bait fish get there in numbers i use live minnows and fish just below all the bait fish. The crappie run up and pick off the ones on the bottom..

Great advice from leanin post and project.

I seem to have the best luck on the edge of the light where it transitions from light to dark. I try to keep the bobber right in that area.

welcome to the forum rcs!

I agree with you texboxer. That strategy seems to work for me also.When I fish within the perimeter of the light, all I catch are dinks if any at all.

+1. And to expound on that... You'll notice the light makes a nice circle of light that you can see on top of the water. Well that circle is actually a half sphere of light. So there is a transition zone (commonly called twilight zone), not only on the surface but also down below you. When I'm vertical fishing I like to fish as deep as the light circle is on top. In other words if there is a 10 foot light ring that I can see around the light, I'll fish 10-14 foot deep since there is also a light transition zone at that depth as well. An easy way to do that is just swing cast out to the edge of the visible light and let the jig sink back to you. You'll often get hit on the fall in that case if they are really biting well.

Sometimes you'll see fish darting up into the light to grab some bait-fish, but 9 times out of 10 they are dinks. The bigger fish will hide in the dark zone and ambush into the twilight zone.

Im sure that's all clear as mud.

Just roll me in it & Call me muddy cause I can see it

Here is link that will help the learning curve

Night fishing tips 101