Me and my friends have been fishing this pond for a couple days but are too busy to fish it during the day. So we usually only get about 30 minutes in before it gets dark. We slay the crappie till its dark and head out. We were thinking about fishing at night but don't really know what to do or where to start. So any tips and suggestions would be nice. How do you catch crappie at night?

welcome to the forum!

Welcome!

Ask Crapicat, he knows! And if anyone tries to tell you you can't catch them on jigs at night...they're wrong.

get yourself a lighted cork, it makes it much easer to see the bite they sell them at bass pro or academy or any tackle store there great for night fishing especially if your fishing from the bank. hope this will help you. good luck

Just drop a minnow from under one of those and it should work right?

Yep....

Can you fish with a jig at night just like you would during the day? Or do you have to have a light to throw around.

no light needed fishing for crappie at night, a light is used to draw in bait fish not for the crappie to see the jig, if you use a light fish out in the shadows of the light thats where the big ones will be waiting to ambush bait fish coming into the light.

I catch some at night in the Marina at Texoma. I troll a Bandit 200 or 100 in Chartreuse with a blue back. I've also had them take white at night. I can't see my line in the dark but they seem to find these baits moving.

Crappie seem to be far more aggressive and active after dark. In the day, they stay near cover and can be caught but you have to get very close to their cover. After dark, I catch them in open water.

I don't fish at night much but I've caught them at night under a jig and bobber, on a jig straight down from the side of the boat and casting a jig to the edge of a light off a dock. I'm sure the night guru's can offer more help.

I want to learn daytime tactics. Skeeters are too much for me at night.

That's why they make 100% Deet....great stuff...IF the skeeter's bother you....they won't after an application of that stuff...Actually, I worry about skeeter's more wandering the banks than I do night fishing in a boat...get away from the banks, they usually won't bother you, unless you are in heavy brush.

I like those little push "on", pull "off" red battery light thingys, can't recall the name of them, cost about 2 or 3 bucks apiece. It looks like a battery, with a little red dome on top, a sliver of duck tape around the top of a pencil type cork, push the dome down to activate it...man, when you get a strike, and it moves the cork you instantly know it...when they take it under, the water lights up red...too cool.....just get a head lamp for tying on jigs, hooks, whatever...good to go from the bank...before I installed LED's on my boat...those were my "go to" night fishing deal....when using a cork....and I use a cork ALOT.

I used to use lighted corks, but the size of those rascals is better suited for catfish (ie., they are too large and too round for crappie with a jig). Basically, you miss too many bites using them. If you can find some smaller lighted ones better suited to jigs, go for it.

Oh yea, one last thing on corks...get the one's that are FLO Yellow on the pencil portion...Personally, I prefer the pencil corks made by Comal Tackle, Buda, Tx. They sell them at walmart...they are inexpensive..biodegradable... and they seem to last forever...Stock #CHL150RW-PK/3. After a while the springs get weak, so I double loop my line around the stem, or stretch the spring back out...these are PERFECT for jig fishing, either night or day using 1/16 in jig heads or lighter. Plus they well handle small and medium sized minnows if you use a splitshot.

Hope this information helps, good luck and good fishing.

From your description of how you fish, I infer you are bank fishing. And fishing a pond with shallow banks, so you are not fishing straight down. With that in mind: there are two things about night fishing. One, being able to see your bobber, be it slip or regular, and attracting fish.

You will want to have a cap light or headlight for baiting and knot tying.

Then you want a bright Coleman/propane lantern or two to light up the water surface so you can see your bobbers. These will be placed down low to the bank. Buy or make a reflector so that the light shines out at the water, and the bank is in darkness. Minnows or jigs under the bobbers will work. A light breeze ruffling the water will give the jigs enough action to trigger a bite.
You also want another lantern up high, shining DOWN into the water. This will draw tiny little water bugs, which will draw the minnows, the scent of which will draw the crappie from the surrounding area.
Dont fish up close to the lights, fish the lighted but dim fringes.
Yes, you can use the lighted bobbers, and skip the lanterns, but my experience with that is you will miss light bites, as you have no point of reference to really see when the bobber starts moving off sideways.
The beer stays colder at night too.