Night Fishing

It's getting to be that time of year again to go after crappies at night. I was thinking of a place I may try soon. I know of a place where there is a fallen tree and the top is right on a ledge where the bottom drops off. The small lake is about 40 foot deep at max and this tree is near a huge drop off near shore. the tangled top shows up on my sonar from like 8 feet deep to 18 feet deep and there is just a mess there. I have tried just vertical jigging through it with a lot of lost jigs and only a few fish. The fish finder is telling me that it is absolutely packed, and over the last several years I have at times flat hammered fish out of it under the right circumstances. I was just wondering if it sounds like a pretty good idea to anchor near this tree top and put out a submerged light for some after dark fishing. Seems like it should. Just wondering what tactics you guys use. What color light? How deep do you let it sink vs. the water depth at your spot. What baits do you use? How deep do you place the bait? Etc. Thanks a bunch. Hope everyone is having a great season. Mine hasn't been good, so I'm looking for a big score!

Green lights, minnows, and start at the outside of the brush on the deep end... The fish will tell you how deep before long.

Fish on the edge of the light rather than directly in it. Ideally your light would be a few feet above where the crappie are suspended.

Thinking about doing some myself as texas temps are quickly rising.

My brother and I have had great success with the old style floating head light over the side of the boat. Soon after you put it over the side,the zooplankton start to gather in the light,then the minnows come in for the zooplankton and then you see the crappie start chasing the minnows. Some nights we filled the cooler very quickly. Most of the time,we had the lake all to our selves.

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Here's a suggestion for those times you're "vertical jigging" the jungle (tree tops, brush piles, stake beds) ... use a weedless jighead & your jig losses will decrease. :twocents

As far as night fishing for Crappie ... I started out doing it with a Coleman gas lantern back in the 1960's. Tied off to a tree, lantern over the side, minnows down about 6-8ft deep ... and wait.
I've also used the submersible white lights and floating headlights. I also have "blacklights" that I use for night fishing for Bass, and they have white bulbs in them. The last time I night fished for Crappie I put out the floating light & used the white lights in my two Blacklights (to light up the poles/floats).

In your case: yes, I would anchor out from the top of that tree to where my rod tips were just about over top of the outside/front edge of it ... use your submersible light & put it about 1ft under the water ... this should allow you to use rods of less than 10' in length. You "could" use floats on some of those rods to get your baits farther away from the boat (and to the outside edge of the light). You will likely need some light (in the boat) that can be directed towards your rod tips. I'd start with my bait at 7ft deep (around the highest point of the tree) and maybe a couple of other rods at 10-12ft deep in areas where the tree top will allow.
Scanning the tree with your electronics before dark will give you the layout so you can adjust the depths of your baits accordingly. I'd try and keep the baits at least 12-18" above the branches, so the fish have to come up to get them and you'll see the bite in time to keep them from getting back down into the tree.
That's how I would do it, but that's no guarantee that it would work :rolleyes: ... you'll have to adjust things "on the fly" (experiment) in the event they don't cooperate, and be prepared to move to another location if you're not having any success in the first hour or two. :twocents

We have a bridge down here in Grand Isle, Louisiana where the lights shine on the water, and you can literally catch hundreds of trout at night, you can see them chasing the shrimp and watch the shrimp jump up out of the water, all you need is tandem jigs, and catch two at a time. This goes on almost the entire year, except when it gets real cold.

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Originally Posted by longhunter

Green lights, minnows, and start at the outside of the brush on the deep end... The fish will tell you how deep before long.

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at first they will be a bit deeper and they will rise as the night goes on and the baitfish show up is what I have seen .
light just on the surface or a foot down , live bait makes it much easier and not to terribly close to the brush so when some monster bass or kitty kat comes along it down ruin your night :Rofl

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Originally Posted by Techno2000

We have a bridge down here in Grand Isle, Louisiana where the lights shine on the water, and you can literally catch hundreds of trout at night, you can see them chasing the shrimp and watch the shrimp jump up out of the water, all you need is tandem jigs, and catch two at a time. This goes on almost the entire year, except when it gets real cold.

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on the way out of where they dock boats in cancun to the open water , at night there are lights under a bridge there as well , 4 to 5 foot tarpon cruise lazy like all under the masses of shrimp in those lights picking them off every night . really cool to watch for sure .
I asked the boat captain about ketchn them and he said right off the bank there at night was really good . then he went on to tell me they taste great ...the tarpon ….:yikes

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Originally Posted by Ketchn

on the way out of where they dock boats in cancun to the open water , at night there are lights under a bridge there as well , 4 to 5 foot tarpon cruise lazy like all under the masses of shrimp in those lights picking them off every night . really cool to watch for sure .
I asked the boat captain about ketchn them and he said right off the bank there at night was really good . then he went on ato tell me they taste great ...the tarpon ….:yikes

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I never heard anyone talking about tarpon as an eating fish. Interesting.

Love me some night fishing.
LittleJohn