Night Fishing for Crappie in October

My wife and I recently bought a retirement home on Lake Wedowee in Alabama. I've been enjoying crappie fishing at night on my dock. I bought a submersible green light and it brings in the bait fish, and the crappie follow.

In the past week I've fished three nights - caught 10 keepers one night, 23 another night, and 17 another night. Plus some big flathead catfish (biggest was 8 lbs). All on live minnows. I caught the 8 lb flathead on a 5-foot light action rod and reel with 6 lb test line. It took 3 or 4 minutes to get him to the surface.

Are any of you night fishing for crappie right now?

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Sounds like a good retirement to me! Good pics, thanks for sharing

I used to really enjoy night fishing for crappie with live bait. Those were some great times. Haven't done it very much in recent years. Those fillets look mighty fine. Sounds like perfect retirement to me.

that is the relaxing ist way ever to ketch crappie , used to do it some back when .
makes for a real dandy sit if the bugs aint on fire for sure :highfive
congrats and KABOOM

Nice, look like some good size crappie too. :cheers2

Awesome pics! Thanks for sharing

We would if we got an invite......:Rofl

Nice. What kind of light you buy?

I've tried it 3 times, under the same bridge. First time, I caught 9 fish. Second time, a front was blowing through and we didn't get shad or crappie...nada. Third time was just a couple of months ago. TONS of shad showed up, and I only caught 2 crappie and 2 catfish. Just inconsistent success, so I'm guessing it's not a great location. I'll have to find better options.

Congrats on your success!

Here's what I've noticed: when I see tons of bait fish swimming slow in schools around my light, I catch just a few crappie. Not many. If lots of crappie came in to feed, the bait fish would scatter.

On the other hand, on nights when I see just a few bait fish swimming erratically, I catch more crappie. I read this to mean that the crappie are feeding and scattering the bait fish.