The first thing that I learned REALLY quick the other night is that I wasn't set up for night time crappie fishing.
The moon was bright enough that I could read the settings on my Terrova hand held part without a light. I figured the fishing would be just amazing but, it wasn't to be and it probably had a lot to do with my ignorance. I didn't use a "drop" light but, I had the small "glow stick" on my floats. Out of 3 bags of the "sticks" with 3 in each bag only 3 glowed when I broke them and 1 wasn't bright enough so see if I cast it very far but, the other 2 could have been spotted from a mile away. I didn't change anything on my rods and used my same tandem rig flies and assumed that the white flies would produce better but, I was wrong and the light pink out fished all the colors. I started out slow trolling in an area that had produced plenty of big crappie for me during the day. The depth finder was black with bait fish and larger fish suspended 2-3 feet deep so I set my flies about 18 inches deep. The first crappie that I picked up was a 14 in black crappie and I thought that I was going to wear them out. I stopped and cast back to where the fish came from but, didn't pick anything up so I went back to slow trolling and caught 2 "dinks". As I went into some shadows I wasn't paying attention and got into the shallow water and every float I had went under. I picked up 1 keeper and 3 dinks and while putting minnows I tossed my rods over the side and caught 2 more dinks. I then went to casting the shallow water but, never caught anything so again I went back to slow trolling. I caught 1 more dink a catfish and the biggest white bass that I've ever caught. I fished for 8 hours with the same results... all dinks. I varied my depth from just off the bottom to 18" and the later it got the less that they bit. I'm going to give them another shot in a few weeks and hopefully learn a few things before then.
