night stalking

[fish-wva]

i work midnights and am new at crappie fishing. all of my fishing will be done at night. i have purchased 2 submursable lights and all my gear but i have one question. while fishing at night is minnows the only bait to use or will it work with artificial bait? if so what do i use?

[papasage]

you can use both . some shoot docks at night with jig here in ga. i use minnows mostley . with jigs you need to find the color they are hitting .most use a lighter color at night like acid rain white chartruce . you can tip them with a minnow some times . with crappie you never know . depends on the water color temp. and if they are feeding .

[willsjwills]

I have used jigs (1/32oz) with some success. Mostly I use a horse head jig with ripple tails, or an over spinner similar to a Beetle spin, with a 1/32 or 1/16 oz. head with a 1 1/2" ripple grub in dark colors. Just cast and retrieve them as you would in the daytime. sometimes the jigs with spinners work by using Crappiepappy's vertical casting technique. (go to Articles & Tips and read up on it) Good luck

[Ken Kinser]

Minnows,Tube jigs with crappie nibbles under a float work great, the bigger fish will be in the shadows of the lights mostly, i fish with submergable lights off the dock at Patoka lake, fish the lightest float rig u can get away with, I like a 1/16 oz jig head with a tube body, Bl/Chart,blue/white,Green/ghart have been working great for me this year

[sd_west]

Yum beavertails are good for vertical Jigging if your over burshpiles. They make a glow color in the 1.5" and in the 1.5" vibraking tube.
But on other hand minnows work great also.

good tip...set out your own structure on the lake and in a few weeks you should have a few fish in them. Place them on a drop off point. one on the top and one on the bottom is way we tend to drop em.