New to Nights

[Nightprowler]

Is there a certain time that crappie bite best at night?
I've been out 3 times and it seems that after 2am the bite just stops.
Or just early night season?
I also was thinking that there is only so many fish within sight and sound of the lights. Once these fish are caught or full of shad...is it time to move?(knowing it take some time for lights to draw baitfish)

[eddiebhome]

We have found that the fish seem to move around in schools, not stay in just one spot. So are there more than one group of fish patrolling an area? I don't know. Once we caught a smaller crappie fixed the hook in his mouth and attached a 20 foot leader with a balloon on the end and released him. We were anchored on a creek near the river bed. When we released the fish it swam straight out to the river and out of sight of our lights. About 15 minutes later we saw that balloon reappear and he swam right back to the boat. So I pulled him up and removed the hook. An interesting experiment. Draw your own conclusions.

[fish-wva]

i had the same problem in eastern ky when i first started nightstalking i tied a light to the front of my boat and one to the rear. but i tried something different and wala it works i drop my 1st light as deep as my chord will let me (about 12 to 15 ft) and then i drop another light right on top of the 1st one (only about 4 to 6 ft) i dont know why but when i changed it seems i can catch fish all night and all around the boat. oh yeah as per the experiment from eddiebhome. nice thinking ill have to try that in my home lake

[joewildlife]

I fish nights once a week April through August and have been doing it for three years now. We seem to have perfected the art for what it is worth, here is my opinion.

Right at dark you can expect to catch a mess. We have caught limits a few times before midnight. We have finished out by 1 am or so several times. But now I think of it, we rarely have finished by 2 or 3 or 4....meaning they must not bite that much in the wee hours of the morning.... but if you can wait for dawn, HOLD ON! We have to drive a bit over an hour to the lake and figure we are shot mentally and physically anyway after fishing past 1 am, so why not stick it out and just fish till dawn? Heck, we did it last night. We had maybe 30 at 1 am and 35 at 4 am and had our 50 at 5:30 am and they were hitting great when we left with full coolers of iced crappie! Dang, life is good.

We fish with a Green Magnet on each end of the boat hanging down vertically with the top of the light just at the surface to help light up the rod tips. We set up on good drop offs in 20' of water, weeds are best. Always use minnows but I need to try Skip's Glow Jigs!

Let me know if you ever want a Green Magnet, I can help get you the best price you can find! (and no I don't sell 'em)

Joe

[bobberdown]

I have had some great crappie in the early AM using a submersion green crappie light. I have used the floating white light and the bite turns off earler. I also use Crappie Magnets.