I pulled my pontoon from the lake yesterday and installed the green LED lights around the deck. I put the boat back into the water today.

So tonight I "tested" the lights in my slip to see if I could catch any crappie there. In the past I have caught catfish and bluegill but no crappie.





We were there from 6:00P.M.-9:00 P.M. My wife and I caught 30 crappie and 2 bass. Only five of the crappie were keepers but that is enough for a meal tomorrow.

So I give the green lights a big thumbs up, since we had not caught a single crappie from the slip before tonight.

Now I need to test them over a brush pile.

I finally have everything installed on my new pontoon so it is now ready to fish.

Nice rig & love the lights

looks like you are set up well for a nite ketchn episode to me
go get em ....
sweet rig ....
good job there

Looking Good. Good luck.

Congrats on the catch and yes green lights do work!

The only mistake I made was not ordering three sets of lights so I could have them across the stern as well along the side. The action on the back was not as good as the action on the sides where the lights were.

I ordered six more sets of the LEDs this morning. That will allow me to add lights on the rear of the deck plus give me five sets to permanently mount on the slip itself.

I ordered a AC power supply that will handle up to six sets of lights to use for the slip. I am going to hook it up to a timer so the lights come on at 6:00 P.M. and turn off at 6:00 A.M.

That should make the slip a permanent home for the crappie once I drop two condos in, one on each side of the slip. That will handle the days when the weather won't allow me to take a boat ride.

Special thanks goes to spiderman for giving me advice on how to easily build the condos for the slip.

Looks just like my rig. What is the advice on condos??

Well, same spot, same time, different results.

We fished the slip again tonight, turning the green LEDs on at 6:00 p.m. Between 6 pm and 7 pm we caught 12 undersized crappie but after 7 pm they stopped biting.

Between 7 pm and 10 pm, when we give up to return home, we caught a 17" catfish, a 21" catfish, a 11" BM bass, a 13" BM bass and a 23" BM bass. We did not catch a single crappie nor bluegill during this period.

So we did not bring any fish home tonight.

The big difference between the two nights was the schools of bait fish and blue gill. Last night by 7 pm we had bait fish swimming all around the boat and the adjoining slip. We also had a lot of bluegill swimming in the water.

Tonight we did not have any bait fish in either slip. There were a few bluegill that would swim by in the other slip tonight but none that were seen in our slip.

I don't understand how the LEDs can attract so many bait fish one night and not any the next night.

I am sure the reason we caught so many crappie last night was due to all the bait fish. What I don't understand is why the bait fish were absent tonight.

sounds like your set.... Get the condos ready and they will come.

Here is a picture of th bamboo tops I suggested.

Pretty Simple and will last a year easily.

Nice set up. Love that night fishing under the lights.

The baitfish are feeding on algae & plankton that is grown by the sun during the day. This time of year you are at the mercy of the wind. If it blows into your pocket the baitfish/crappie will come. It it blows a different dirction they will leave.

The algae will grow on the bamboo and become a food source for the shad.

Once that is established the crappie will stay until the water gets too cold and they will look for the deepest holes in the lake.

Thanks for posting the picture. It is different from what I visualized so I would have done it wrong.

I was going to tie the block end to end, which would have made it higher but would not have give the spread.

No problem. I've fished for bass & crappie for a long time.

I've learned many "tricks" from this Forum and will share what works for me when I can.

When your ready we can talk about weedless jigheads.....lol.

Hey EZgoing,
I have that same Bass Buggy. How are you powering the lights? Do you have a separate battery for them for when you go out on the water? Do you have the lights tacked onto the deck?

Thanks for any help. I wanna copy what you did.