Fishing at night

With the summer heat in full swing, I am going to start fishing at night. I have only tried night fishing twice, last weekend and about a year ago. I mostly fish Lake Fork since it's the closest lake to my house. I'll also fish anywhere within an hour if the fishing is good. Fork, Tawakoni, Cooper, Cypress and Bob Sandlin are all within about 45 miles.
I tried the 515 East bridge on Fork last Saturday night with limited success. We caught white bass, yellow bass, bar fish, drum, catfish and a 5 pound black bass, but not one crappie. We fished from 9PM until 3AM, with about 4 hours spent in 2 places under the bridge and 2 hours fishing the old submerged bridge using both straight minnows, and jigs tipped with minnows.
I have 3 or 4 submersible green LED lights, one of which I made and 2 are store bought, and just ordered another one 8280 lumen that should be brighter. Is a super bright light an advantage? How deep do you put your lights? Would you spread them out, or put them close to each other? Do you fish the bridge pillars, trees, brush piles or somewhere else? Do you find groups of crappie, then drop the lights near them, or just drop the lights and wait for fish to come to you? I am thinking about going out around 2AM and fishing until mid-morning the next time.
If you have night fishing tips for a rookie, please post them.

Hello!

I'm in North Louisiana so my advice is not lake-specific, but I ONLY night-fish in the summer time and generally catch 15-30 at night using four poles rigged with the capps n coleman double minnow rigs. Two of those I tight-line and the other two are slip-cork to cover lots of area.

The bright green lights are the way to go, (I use two 45 watt lights) but your spot is still THE most important factor. Make sure you're marking lots of fish or at least marking lots of shad in the area of where you're anchoring. Bridges are good sometimes, but not always. I will drive around the supports and use side scan and if I'm not marking much then that's not going to be my spot for the night. Brush piles or structure near the 15-20 ft depth and near drop-offs, seems to be the ticket for the reservoirs I fish and I'm betting that would work almost everywhere. I only wind up fishing the bridges maybe 1/5th of the time because I just don't mark near as many fish there as other places.

I usually drop my lights down to 8-10 ft. The crappie will almost always set up under the light at 12-15 ft and ambush the bait above. The outer edges of where the light reaches are generally more productive than directly in the light also.

I use two anchors, one on the front and another on the back. Both pulled fairly tight to limit the boat/light movement. Keeping the light still is critical to keep the fish from spooking and the baitfish active.

hmm, what else.... full moons or any other light source is your enemy. You want to be the only light source around.
Oh, and always start using the light before it gets really dark. The bait seems to show up much faster that way for some reason and then the crappie show up sooner too.


Good Luck and stay safe out there!

Thanks for the tips, I really appreciate it! I used spot lock on my trolling motor. I was going to go tonight, but it's currently 101 degrees, and I'm just not that mad at the crappie. I think Ill sleep until about 2AM and maybe try it then.

+1
I have always preferred the New Moon when night Fishing for Crappie because of that "Only available Light Source"theory!! More often than not soon after I drop my light the shad will gather in the light and I use lighted bobbers just beyond the perimeter where the light turns to dark & I just wait for them to disappear.

I use spot lock during the day but never at night any more. The little movement it causes with the light seems to make a big difference in how many I catch vs. using the anchors.

That's just my experience though, could just be the fish weren't biting good the times I tried using the trolling motor at night to stay in place.

I am planning to go to Fork or Tawakoni night fishing, I'll have room in my boat for 1 or 2 people if you're in the area and you'd like to go. I have a nice boat with all the electronics. I'll probably only night fish, or fish early mornings, unless we get a cooler day..... this fall. LOL If you'd like to go, just send me a message or post here.

Thanks for the invite DR

I have found early morning between 7 and 10 am to be great right now. Sometimes have a limit in an hour. I have been successful at night b4 but much more work than early morning. Of course Livescope helps

Thanks for the information. I did not even go fishing last weekend, nobody wanted to go fishing in the middle of the night. LOL And I didn't want to go out in the heat.