A buddy and I are going to try our hand at nightstaking for the first time this Sunday night at T-Bird. We've got 4 green tube lights, and one floating headlight. The main thing I would like to know is what to look for in location? I'm not asking for your honey hole, but how deep should we be anchored? Isolated structure or "mine field?" Ledges necessary? Twin bridges work? If you could "rank" your preferences for "ideal" location that would be even better!

Also, any other tips for first-timers are always welcome. Anything that would make it more fun/comfortable. Anything that is a 'must-bring or we're going home?'

Thanks! I look forward to learning from the masters!

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Jeremiah 16:16a "But now I will send for many fishermen," declares the Lord, "and they will catch them."

I would say go to the "clearest" water you can find. That would be on the east part of T-bird right? That water is so dingy that I don't know how far the light will penetrate.

I used a light once at T-bird with limited success. The shad did show up after an hour which is a good sign. When I have used the light at other lakes and had crappie luck it was always in over 10 feet of water with the crappie hanging out well below the lights.

Two most important things: bug spray, and LEDs (either on cap or glasses) for knot tying. Also very time I've used a light its attracted numerous gar and a few water snakes. I don't care because I like nature but a lot of people hate gar and snakes. But don't worry 100% of the water snakes at T-bird are nerodia (harmless water snakes) and 0% of them are venomous.

If you do have luck let us know and maybe I'll give the light a second try!

If you find the pump swirls down by the dam sit right between them and you should do alright. I use to climb the back side of the dam and look for the swirls and sit on the rocks and fish about 10 foot to 14 foot deep we caught a lot of crappie at night on minnows.

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MT.DEW AND JP8 IN THE MORNING GETS THE BLOOD FLOWING.

theres a odwc brush pile in the cove just past the little axe cove ramp...think its like 16-17 ft water..with cooler temps it could be gold at night. its marked with a buoy..main part of brush is just hair south of the buoy

Awesome. Sounds like we should launch on the East side of the lake, and go toward the dam if the water is too murky on the East side. Start fishing either side of 10 ft deep, and vary 'till we find fish. I'm going to try to round up a second anchor to keep us stationary, bug spray, LEDs, minnows, Mountain Dew...anything else?

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Jeremiah 16:16a "But now I will send for many fishermen," declares the Lord, "and they will catch them."

You gotta have some snacks with your MT Dew, it's always my luck that when the fishing is a little slow and I decide to eat a snack, bam..I get a bite. It's like they know you have your hands full or something.

Report back time. We found a spot we liked near Little Axe around sunset. Had the boat/lights/poles set up before dark. The minnows/shad showed up as soon as the sun was completely gone. My friends started catching fish before long, but it was pretty slow. I didn't catch my first until just after 1am. The only real difference between our set-ups was that I was using high-vis yellow line, and they were using low-vis green. I've always heard that high-vis is better for night fishing, but this was definitely not the case for me. As a matter of fact, all the fish I caught after 1am came on the only rod (of 3 in the water) that I re-rigged with a low-vis green leader.

So my question is, before I swear against high-vis line forever, has anyone else else had similar (or contrasting) experiences?

BTW, burning citronella oil in kerosene lanterns is the greatest idea ever! All but one fish were caught between 10 ft and the bottom (19 ft). Thanks again for the input!

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Jeremiah 16:16a "But now I will send for many fishermen," declares the Lord, "and they will catch them."

I have caught plenty of crappie night fishing with a green light using Hi Viz gold line. I have had similar doubts before. I always use nibbles as well. I smoke and they help cover some of the scent. Is it possible you had something on your hands that was throwing off your bite?

Sometimes we find the crappie hide under the boat and run out and grab minnows. We have the submersible light about 4 feet down and usually catch crappie 6 to 12 ft deep. So at times we are fishing just 1ft from the edge of the boat to catch them. Other times they suspend just at the outer rim of the light on the water at 4 to 6 ft. Just my 2 cents.

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We started w/lights around 2 ft, but when we tried lowering them on one end of the boat, the catch-rate increased slightly, so we lowered them all to 6-10ft.

I used bug-spray, but tried to keep it off my hands best I could. Although I'm a 100% believer that bug-spray/sunscreen can have a negative affect on jigs...I didn't think it would make a difference with minnows (we used both). But within minutes of switching to low-vis line, I was catching at about the same rate as the other guys. I tried Nibbles pumped into tube jigs (before and after switching lines), but never got a bite. When I did catch with jigs, it was a "fresh" jig without nibbles (my buddies caught some on jigs as well, but never tried Nibbles).

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Jeremiah 16:16a "But now I will send for many fishermen," declares the Lord, "and they will catch them."