Not Crappie but hybrids

[Downwind]

When fishing from a dock at night, is it best to have a light in the water or shinning down on the water? Who knows, may turn up a few crappie.

[Ken Kinser]

Either way is productive it's just a personnel choice,lights above floating light or subermasible lights all work at attracting bugs minnows that bring the crappie,bass cats

[CrappiePappy]

When fishing from a dock at night, is it best to have a light in the water or shinning down on the water? Who knows, may turn up a few crappie.

Don't know which is "best" ... but, the docks that produce on Herrington have lights "above" the water.
On the last KY Afield show, it showed Tim Farmer fishing off the back of a houseboat, & catching Hybrids. The light the houseboat owner had mounted on the houseboat, was a light from the Lafayette High School football field :p (to give you a size reference).
Ken Kinser is probably right, though ... any light that draws a Shad school, circling underneath, could very well draw in a school of Hybrids.

Last time I was at Herrington, night fishing, there was a houseboat docked at Kamp Kennedy, that had a light off the back. It looked to be a clamp-on deal, probably not more than a couple hundred watts, and was about 1-1.5ft above the water's surface. It had a pretty good sized school of small Shad circling under it ... and you could see Crappie milling around under them, every now & then. When I found it, I was on my way back to the truck, and I didn't have any Crappie tackle with me, anyway :D ... I was taking my buddy & his wife out for her first night fishing trip for Bass, so we didn't have anything to throw at them :o

I used to fish for White Bass at night ... using nothing more than a two burner Coleman gas lantern. If you were in the right place/right time ... that was more than enough light. With that in mind, if there's a dock with a light mounted on it, and that light is generally "on" during the night ... the Shad will usually be there, and the Hybrids/Whites/Crappie/etc will become accustomed to them being there. They don't/won't produce "every night", but when they do ... the action can be downright frightening (read that as "awesome" ... LOL !!)

... luck2ya ... cp

[Downwind]

Just happen to see that show last night. Must be an omen!!!!!!!
Any way--I have the dock tonight and tomorrow so hopefully something will show up. I'll let you guys know sometime Friday. And thanks for the replies!

[skeetbum]

Used to fish under the docklites along the Intracoastal waterway south of Daytona. Same thing applied there. If a lite was normally on at night the fish were frequently there. And the action is sometimes smokin hot!!

[Downwind]

Had everything set up and the bait fish started rolling in by the 1,000's. Waited for the larger fish to come in. And waited, and waited! No luck! I did feed every Gar in the Lake though. I've always heard that if the gar are present then the other fish won't come around. Don't know if that was the case or not but after several hours of waiting just decided to give it up.