Green lights

[NorthShores guy]

Hey guys I'm new here thanks for adding me. I have a houseboat on Lake Ouachita (Arkansas) several of the owners have green lights. They attract fish very well!!
My question is the fish seam to not like our minnows or jigs.they will swim up to it look and turn away . Something's not right.
My line color. Hook color. Something??
Please help. There EVERYWHERE!!

[lowe175]

The one's that you can see will not hit not sure why I've never been able to get them to bite. But you can cast a jig and let it fall about 10 count and reel slowly. Or let a minnow down about 7 -10 feet. Hope this helps you buddy.

[scrat]

If you have changed colors, different actions with your jigs( fast, slow,slower,twitching,etc.) try a scent on them like garlic, anise oil, worm oil, crappie nibbles,etc. If you are seeing them and all else fails try a regular old earth worm.

["G"]

Dont fish in the light ring.....fish out past it a little

[NorthShores guy]

Thanks guys. Seams like the ones I have caught have been outside a little.
But I have tried several colors/presentation. Hook color as well.

Ps. It's crazy the crappie come up and feed on the minnows at the light. But turns away at my baits😏

[concreteman]

I think you need to catch the shad from the lake. Use a throw net to catch them. Good luck

[CrappiePappy]

Thanks guys. Seams like the ones I have caught have been outside a little.
But I have tried several colors/presentation. Hook color as well.

Ps. It's crazy the crappie come up and feed on the minnows at the light. But turns away at my baits

Put on a plastic body that looks like the "minnows" circling under your light, cast well out from the edge of the light's influence, and work the bait right up into the circling crowd.

Or another thing to try is using this method: Crappie Pappy Article ... with your baits (alive or artificial).

One way that I've also used before, and caught Crappie from under a lighted Marina (while sitting on the walkway of that marina) is to do the following :

put a minnow on a #4 litewire hook - no sinker
get your rod wet
let out just enough line for the minnow to swim on the surface
wet line will stick to rod and minnow won't pull line down
leave a foot to 18" of loose line at the front of the reel (close/engage reel)
have minnow swimming at near the outer border of the light
no movement/noise from anglers or boat

Crappie should see the struggling minnow at the surface as injured prey/easy meal ... and come up and grab it. The loose line allows the Crappie to retreat to a more secure depth, and also signal to you that you need to grab that rod and prepare to set the hook. In order to insure that the fish doesn't have time to swallow the minnow/hook ... I'd set the hook as soon as I saw the line feeding out through the guides.

Short of cast netting or dip netting those "minnows" in another area, putting them in a circular shaped container of lake water & with aeration of some kind, then transporting them to the spot where you intend to set up to fish ... and use them instead of jigs or minnows ... the above methods are worth a shot.

Those "minnows" under your lights are likely Shad, if they're in a school & circle under the light. Those that flit around right on the surface, and are skinny pointy nosed critters, are likely Silversides. Shad can be cast netted, using a cast net with 1/4" mesh. Silversides, on the other hand, have to be dip netted with a net made of wire window screen mesh ... and you'll have to put a light out over the side of the boat and ease along the bank (after dark) and dip them as they follow the light alongside the boat. It's not an easy task, but they will out fish Shad or minnows on any given day ... at least that's been my experience with them. They don't survive for long, but even the recently dead ones (cut or whole) have caught Crappie for me.

That's all I got ... so I hope something here will work for you.

... cp

[Ketchn]

like they said in previous posts ......
fish the edge of the lit area for sure . and beyond it some as well . crappie like the dark and only come there because of the bait the light attracts .
they are an ambush predator and use the dark to their advantage . they have "owl" eyes and can see real good in low light .
you might want to go with a very light jighead and a natural color plastic .....
a super slow falling bait on the perimeter of the light will get bit if they are there ......

[NorthShores guy]

Thanks guys. I'll be trying these methods when I return. I will be posting some pics.