Question about night fishing

Fellow anglers I need some help and advice. I have been doing some night fishing over the past few weeks and have had terrible luck. I mean terrible. I can't get bit! I have been using a homemade green LED tube that I made ( it will light up the world with 500 LED lights) I can get bait to come in so thick you can walk on them to shore; but no crappie. I have fished bridge pilings, standing timber, docks, in water that varies from 30 foot to 15 to 8. so my question is this. What the heck do crappie do at night? some say they move shallow to feed- how shallow? some say they move from deep water to flats. True?

I need some serious schooling. Oh, and I have used minnows, jigs, and jigs tipped with minnows. Please share your thoughts and ideas!

Fish a bit shallower and fish places that you would during the day. Brush, docks, timber. Bring a good looking woman with you if the fishing is slow.

I have done much better keeping my bait outside of the ring of light.

Hire a guide first IMHO...

Solid advice right there!

I've heard this too. I'll give it a try.

Anyone else? surely I'm not the only one that has struggled. What has worked for you?

Folks may say different but IMHO crappie do not like light bait fish do, so fish outside on the dark edges or really deep in the light. Remember it is good to fish where you would fish in day light at night but depending on the lake some fish move around to feed, if you don't get a bite in 10 min MOVE!

Thanks!

would love to see a pic of that homemade light from the led's too.
thanks

Not denying anything said here but the wife and I went fishing last Friday night and she was catching fish under the light whereas I was just on the outer edge of the light. Just shows how peculiar Crappie can be. Are you anchored or drifting? I've had better luck drifting and when you catch one go ahead and drop a buoy cause it's really hard to find that spot again in the dark. Also, it's real easy to fish too deep. The other night we were in 25fow but was catching at about 7 to 8 feet. Night fishing is sure a lot cooler.

Night fishing seems to be much better from late Oct to April. I've had very little luck in the summer for crappie at night. IMHO, those real bright lights are not the way to go. They will attract bait for sure. But a softer light directed in one direction as opposed to dispersed in a 360 pattern seems to work better. Lights under the water can be much dimmer and do a great job. Those old Coleman lanterns were bright but were above the water and the light did not penetrate that far. Fish have those fixed pupils and extremely bright lights under water I think blind the fish and they can't see the prey well close to the bright light. Just my theory cause I haven't used one of those bright LED lights. I'll stick to dimmer lights if I night fish.

I agree with Ken 100%, The most over done thing a crappie fisherman does is over do everything he does. Keep it simple.

Found this on another crappie forum:
Chumming for crappie at night

“If you chum crappie they will come"

Feeding the fish with food for the benefit of catching them. The saying “Cast breads upon the waters” The idea is to get the game fish to thinking there is free food, fooling them into thinking there is no hooks around. This concept works for the fishermen getting the fish to come to them, instead of searching the lake for them. Ration don’t overfeed.

Some preferred chumming items
Save your fish scales and freeze them into ice cubes (recommend do this in extra refrigerator). When you go fishing throw out couple cubes every so often. As the cubes melt the scales will reflect the your night night, and attract bait and game fish.

Egg shells frozen into cubes or just tossed on the waters will do the same, use a roller pin and crush them up super fine.

Minnows get 3-4 dozen and crush or grind them into a paste or very small titbits, use a pan to catch all the drippings.
Left over fish guts using the same procedure.

Canned oiled sardines using the above techniques.

Canned: cat food, dog food, canned corn, breakfast cereals, etc: the ideas are unlimited!

How to present the above:
A coffee can, nylon stocking, mesh bag, anything that has small holes so there is a steady stream of scent and drippings of blood and guts flowing into the waters. Take a weight to lower the above to varied depths until you start to catch fish.

Jarring for crappie:
This is a trick clear back to when glass was invented. Glass jar with bunch of holes in the lid. Add water and 6-12 minnows. Tie the neck with a strong cord and lower it to the depth you wish to fish. The commotion of the minnows trying to escaping and the noise of them bumping the inside of the jar, plus their scent escaping thru the vented lid is hard for crappie to resist.

Wicked combo:
Use the jarring method above with gold fish, can you image the gold fish scales flashing off your fishing light?

All the ideas of been proven by fishermen long long ago.

Check your local laws to ensure that it is legal in your state.
Author
Bob Spare

I can take a picture but someone else will have to post it. I don't know how.

I fish at night a lot in the summer. I catch a few crappie off the light but they tend to be deep and away from the light. None of the game fish like to approach the light, but they want the minnows attracted to the bait being drawn by the light. I caught a nice crappie at Possum Kingdom the other night ( PK Crappie are extremely rare) at about 20 feet when my light was set at about 3 feet. The only fish that I see come directly into the light are sand bass and they blast through at high speed. The stripers, catfish, crappie and LM Bass seem to be on the edges of the light or below. They can see the bait above them and will be eating minnow well below the range you can see even in clear water.

Question for you? Are you using a fish finder? If so, fish where your fish finder is showing fish. This week I was fishing PK and my fish finder was showing fish between 17-35 feet next to the dock I was fishing. If I fishing up around the light at 3 feet I would catch nothing.

Sounds like you answered your on question.

Even during day light hours, I always fish at the depth I see fish on my graph or 6" above them. At night they like to stay in the shadows to ambush the bait.

One of the biggest crappie I have ever caught at night was off a minnow about 2 hours after my crappie light broke and my brother and I were fishing (napping) in the dark waiting for the sun to come up so we could jig a bit.

yes sir, I use a graph and fish only where I see fish. Now those fish on my graph might be catfish or a school of sandies; I'm not good enough with the graph to tell. I will also fish places that crappie may not be at jsut yet but if they may move into. for example bridge pilings that are a choke point. they crappie can't move up or down the lake with out going through there, I dont sit there all night; but I'll give it a little time for them to show up since it has brush bait and deep water. Still trying to figure it all out.

Use to fish t night alot and am about to start again. we wuold motor out at twilight and find a tree ao coloum and tie up. at full dark we set out lines and took turns napping until me got
bit . may be 1 or 3 hours after the bait first arrived. seems to me prime time was about 1 to 3
am'.

lots of good info here

It's dark what's it matter how she looks ? lol