Night fishining

Been a catfisher all my life want to get into Crappie fishin at night. Got me some green underwater lights now wondering how deep to put um then do ya fish over them or even with um or under um. Fishin lake Fork

My wife and I fish Bob Sandlin at night all the time. We fish under the old railroad bridge that went to the power plant. We use the green LED submersible lights . Put down 2 in front of the pontoon boat about 3-4 ft under water. We just tie up under the bridge. Water depth is about 40. We fish 15 to 18 feet down. Went Saturday night and kept 28 crappie. Threw back 8 or 10 under. By the way we use nothing but minnows. On fork I would fish the bridge supports. I bet when you go you will have company.

Put underwater lights 2 or 3 feet down. You want the light to 'bounce' off the underside of the water surface to increase how far it spreads. Fish at the extreme edge of the 'pool' of light that you can see. If you are using bobbers you will need supplemental surface lights to see them. Note: on windy nights, lights dont work. The lights don't attract fish. The lights attract and concentrate phytoplankton which attract clouds of minnows, which then attract the fish. On windy nights, the wind creates a weak surface current which disperses the phytoplankton.

IMO night fishing for crappie is generally a waste of time. The best fishing, at least this time of year is when the sun is shining and it’s hot outside. The brighter the better as it bunches them up on cover. Crappie roam at night, even with lights it’s generally hard to get on them consistently. Some lakes will produce a few fish at night, but nothing like the easy limit daytime numbers that many north Texas lakes produce in the heat of the day.

I night fish all summer. Just too hot for me on the lake now that I'm in my 60's. My advise is to forget about green lights for crappie. They will draw too many sand bass and perch and they will out compete the crappie for your baits.

The best places I have found to catch crappie have been docks with lights close to the water and come on every night. You will still have a lot of bycatch, as sandbass, LM Bass, Catfish and perch all visit these lights to feast on the Ghost minnows and other bait attracted to the food at the light. You wont catch the large numbers of crappie that you can find in the spring and fall suspended on a tree or other structure, but you can can catch plenty for dinner.

Makes sense we've caught more yellow bass and whites than crappie