Night Time Crappie Fishing Help?!

[baptistpreach]

I live in Oklahoma and our temps have been in the high 80s to 90s now for some time. The lows at night are in the 70s. I'm planning on taking my first ever night time crappie trip.

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?

[jimmydee1]

I don't know how the professionals, WB, Torch, etc., do it but I start with a cooler of my favorite adult refreshment, make sure my minners are healthy, get some stout sammiches made up (plenty of chips, etc), find a good partner that you can share some touching moments with, throw your lights over some favorite stickups, have a couple refresments, eat a sammich (or two, heck the fish don't care), tell a few lies, then fish about 3-4 feet deep for several hours and go home and clean fish. Pretty simple adventure. Works for me.

[jimmydee1]

Woopsie, Baptistpreach, you might want to adjust your cooler with some sweet tea. Unless of course you're out there and nobody else can see ya! LOL Just funnin with ya. Have yourself a ball with the night fish - it's a hoot.

Oh yeah, and substitue the lies part with a 'few tall tales'.

[skiptomylu]

Look for creek bends and locations you maybe can find some wood on the bottom. If you still have standing timber look for creeks around that. If you had a little more time you could put some brush in that spot and they will come.

Hard to know much other than general things since we don't know you lake or anything about it.

Skip

[baptistpreach]

Yes, sweet tea will be my beverage of choice . I have standing timber in a 5-8ft area I could try or would that be too shallow?

[FISHER HAWK 186]

Bridges Work Great For Night Fishing

[jimmydee1]

If you normally find or have found crappie there, I think in 5-8 fow fishing about 3 feet deep would be ideal, especially if it is near a little deeper water or creek channel - something they can use as their 'highway' back and forth from shallow to deep.

Sounds like you've got a good set up. Let us know how it turns out.

[skiptomylu]

Yes, sweet tea will be my beverage of choice . I have standing timber in a 5-8ft area I could try or would that be too shallow?

You should scout that and see, but that would most likely be more of a spring and late spring thing. On this lake once summer hits you have to be in water at least 20' and lots of time fishing 25'-35' deep water or at least that deep in the creek. I can't find them in less than 20' after early June usually, but even in the 35' of water they will usually be down about 12'-18' and that is where you need to be fishing. They will not feed down so at their level or above.

Also that standing timber should be good in the fall.

Skip

[chucky]

If you dont know the lake real well I would start with a map of the lake. As warm it is i would start in 20 fow or deeper. I have found that this time of year the main lake is the best. Look for some kind of structure. Brush pile, submerge stumps, ledges off of main and secondary points that drop to deep water. Find the schools of bait fish. Combine all these together at one spot and you will have a limit of good crappie. We went and fished a lake last saturday that we have never been to. Didnt get there till after dark which made it fun looking for a spot. Found a area with submerge stumps in
26 fow then found the bait fish. We set up and after about 30 mins started catching some nice 12"-15" crappie. Hope this helps. Good luck.

[baptistpreach]

Thanks for all the responses guys,

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? I also can't get a map of the lake, its too small for the map people to care about

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?