Night fishing with a light with no luck - tips?

[foolhardy]

Sunday night I put a light on my pier at Lewis Smith Lake (northern Alabama) and attracted thousands of shad. Despite this, after fishing for four hours, we left without catching a single fish.

Here is a video of the shad:

Shad swimming around light on the water - YouTube

We tried vertical jigging and casting out/reeling in towards the light a number of Bobby Garland baby shad lures and a few Mr. Crappie lures. We even tried float-n-fly'ing (bobber with lure hanging beneath it) but nothing proved effective at all.

What's amazing is that our place is in an area where people catch crappie all along the shoreline. Also, under the pier (and between the pier and the shore) I've sunk four cement and bamboo habitats, two plastic drip tubing habitats and even a crate. I don't know if the fish are down there but they sure aren't showing themselves.

Can anyone offer any suggestions?

[BULLFROG-1]

U may try using shinners.I only use live bait at nite

[skiptomylu]

I use a double rig at night in the summer. I have a 1/8 or 1/4 Oz jig on the bottom as weight and bait and then personally I use a Gamakatsu Drop Shot hook about 15" to 18" above that tied on with a palomar knot and just have a long tag end that I go through the eye of that hook one last time so when I tie on the jig the hook stands out hook point up. Sometimes I feel the minnow will help get one started and then it will fire the rest up and usually I catch probably something like 80% of the larger fish on the jig. Sometimes they do not want it moving at all and some time maybe just move the tip of my rod a few feet and let the line swing back under that.

I do like having some brush right on the edge of a creek, but have also tied up right across a creek and done well without dropping brush, but we have a lot of timber in this lake.

Also there have been time that the crappie just wouldn't bite until later and do have some times where I would go out in my boat and son in his, me with my wife and she got tired of waiting so we went home and not long after we gave up he caught fish and plenty of them.

[ifish]

We always use large shiners. They will not hit a jig for me. We always fish over deep road beds or humps in 25 fow. It may be to shallow there to hold crappie right now. Keep trying and you will figure something out that works!

[foolhardy]

Thanks for the great info folks. I probably should have included a few more bits of info. The water is ~32ft deep under the light. We turned the light on at sunset and left it on until 1am. We fished from 9 until 1am.

[BULLFROG-1]

If the big shinners dont work for you,then try what we call pole shinners.Pole shinners are smaller.I have resisted switching to pole size shinners for years,but have had good luck with thats size here in Louisiana so far this year....For yo yo's and trot lines im sticking to the "biggest" meanest shiner i can find....when i dont have goldfish

[river scum]

some nights you just cant make them go. im assuming they had a good feed earlier in the day? everyone has experienced this, it just happens. there are also nights when you cant draw many minnows. maybe they are just lower in the water and cant see them? lots of ?s in fishing. thats what makes it interesting. lol try again in a couple nights and it should be different.

another thought would be current. if your on a reservoir the dam actions can and will dictate the bite times. when they open the gates and water flows, fish turn on! you mite have been fishing on a shut down period(if this is a res.)

[Dave and Lynn]

I have had limited results night fishing under lights. I have had more luck on minnows under floats then anything. Need to get your bait away from the light. Just at the edge of the light where you can barely see the float. Omniglo makes a bobber light that attaches to your bobber that helps see it better. It is neat to see the bobber go under and the light down in the water. Good luck.

[NIMROD]

Go in the daylight. lol Night is for the things that go bump in the night. Watch out for the snakes and other critters.

[efdavis]

Fish a lot for crappie at night, most of the time they wont hit a jig as well as shiners.Try fishing various depths until you figure them out.