Thread: Night Time Crappie Fishing Help?!

I'm planning on going fishing tonight for crappie at a local lake (Crowder). I've got the floating and submersible lights, I've got my slip bobbers rigged up, and I've got minnows in the bait bucket. My question is,

Where should I set up my lights? What should I be looking for as to a location?

Also, any suggestions as to what depth to fish for starters? And how deep should I put my light?

Preacher; Crowder Lake as in Checotah? We usually set the 2 sub. lights 1/4 the way from each end of the boat, and put the floater in the middle. If you have a sonar unit it will tell ya how deep, if not stagger the depth of your rods. Try setting up on a channel break first.

Thanks, I mean Crowder lake as in Weatherford though. Channel break? Where there is a channel? Where it changes depths?

What I do is find a really nice big brush pile in 18 to 20 feet of water and set my lights up to one side of the brush pile. I do this sometimes before sun down but I have also done it at 3:00 AM. There may not be any fish in the structure when I set up, but usually within an hour of putting the lights out I start to mark fish comming into the brush pile. I believe the crappie are hiding in the brush waiting to ambush the bait fish the lights attract. I can also dip net some of the shad the lights bring in and use them for bait with good success, after all that is what they are eating anyway. I then set up 5 rods with slip corks at different depths and keep a rod in hand jigging. You will find that as the bite begins the fish are deeper but as it cools off they move up to be close to the surface. Be ready, you bring in some big blues and flat heads which can be interesting on light tackle. This tactic has work for me on Oologah with out failure. I usually use up 1/2 lb of minnow in about 4 hours. I usually try my best to catch the bait fish the lights bring in. I hope this helps.

Well, the trip turned out pretty bad (as far as the fishing). I didn't read any other posts till now, and I was fishing way too shallow. I had my bobber at 3 ft. and was probably only fishing 6ft. deep. I had a couple of other problems tho I'm hoping for help with.

1. My fishfinder isn't working. The screen always diplays the feet at 0.0. Can I do the night fishing without one seeing as I don't know the lake very well?

2. The lights?! I could only get them to go out about a foot from the boat, how do I get them to stay out further? The submersible light I get, I needed more weight (I only had on 4ozs - btw, what do you guys use for weights on these things and how?) but the floating light? How do you get it to stay where you want it? I only have about 8ft of length on the floating light too, is that normal?

3. Do you drop your light deep or do you drop it shallow?

4. How much weight do you put on your hook to get it 12-18 feet deep? My one thing of split shot was barely keeping my active lil minnow a couple feet deep?

Fishfinder not working didn't help, but that's not the reason you didn't catch fish. Perhaps they just weren't biting?

2. The floating light is set out beside the boat preach, no reason to get them out any further.... in my opinion.
Not sure what type of submersible you're using, but they usually sink on their own and go straight down. Berkley makes two types that I know of, one is a sorta blue neon type and the other is a halogen. Both work really well and they're heavy enough to sink right down.

3. I sink the light shallow at first - 4-6 feet, then lower it gradually until I get some action. Not uncommon to have it all the way to the end of the cord.

4. I use crappie rigs when fishing with minnows and find a 1/4 to 1/2 ounce weight is sufficient.

Like I said preach, maybe they just weren't biting last night.

Well said Stink; Yeah we normally get setup and kick back eat a sandwich, relax and take a nap untill midnight. That gives the lights time to draw in fish, then start to seriously fish sometimes it's 2:00 am before the crappie turn on. The floating lights....just tie them off close to the boat, your hull actually helps to reflect the light.

I don't consider myself an expert, so take this with a grain of salt. But I have inquired on this site and studied/practiced several methods.

The consensus was that the lights don't need to be more than 2 feet deep to be effective. And the weight on your line should vary with the conditions (i.e. deep water/heavy wind/strong current 1/2-1 oz. Light winds and <20 fow, 1/8-1/2 oz.). Doing it successfully without a depth finder would be tough, but it's possible. Drive slowly straight across a cove while bottom-bouncing a heavy weight; when you feel a significant drop (break line, channel ledge), anchor down. Remember, you don't usually want to cast out when night fishing. Just drop the lights and the baits right off the side of the boat.

I have a fish lite I bought at bps and it takes an 8oz weight to take it down. Other wise it floats on top. I bought my weight at a bait shop. Lots of things can be tied on the bottom for weight. I've never used the floating lite. If you would still like to drive to Ft Cobb lake to fish send a pm, and we'll set up a time to go. I'm sure we can catch some catfish.