WHAT COLOR LED'S FOR CRAPPIE AT NIGHT ???

I love to crappie fish at night more so than day time. I use (2) green submergible LED lights currently, one near the front and one near the rear of the boat. I'm wanting to install some LED light strips just under the rub rail to shine on the water surface. My question is which color is more productive for Crappie... Green or White. Back in the 90's I used the white floating lamps and the Aqua Star submergible. Caught lots of Crappie with them just killed the battery in 6 or 7 hours. When LED's hit the market I started using the Green LED 2ft submergible sticks. Would love to get opinions of the members of tried and tested colors that work BEST before installing the LED strip lights. Found some I really like from Southern Lite LED. Thank you for your feedback.

Did you do any good fishing at night like this? I'm planning on doing the same thing tomorrow night. Never have crappie fished at night but my idea was to drop the light, anchor the boat and wait with poles tipped with minnows in the water. The light I bought today has green LED.
On the box if says that green attracts plankton. Which In turn attracts bait fish then the big fish is what it says. Hopefully it works just like that.

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Originally Posted by Rammer1961

I love to crappie fish at night more so than day time. I use (2) green submergible LED lights currently, one near the front and one near the rear of the boat. I'm wanting to install some LED light strips just under the rub rail to shine on the water surface. My question is which color is more productive for Crappie... Green or White. Back in the 90's I used the white floating lamps and the Aqua Star submergible. Caught lots of Crappie with them just killed the battery in 6 or 7 hours. When LED's hit the market I started using the Green LED 2ft submergible sticks. Would love to get opinions of the members of tried and tested colors that work BEST before installing the LED strip lights. Found some I really like from Southern Lite LED. Thank you for your feedback.

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I am still old school and use halogen spotlights with my Honda generator. My buddy has been trying led's and only the white work somewhat. I can anchor next to him and catch 5 to his 1 so I have chosen to stick with old school

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I do a lot of shrimping at night and a lot of flounder gigging in past. Green light will not give you night blindness when you look up from light and look at surroundings. Green under water seems to bring in more minnows than white, but white seems to penetrate the water further to my eyes.

I also used the white floating headlights where they were all that were available. The key was to cast beyond the light circle then swim you bait back through the circle and out the other side. Sometimes I would receive a hit before the bait swim into the light circle but most of the hits came as the bait swam back out of the light circle.

I switched to a green halogen underwater light for my slip when I found them. I found they did an excellent job of attracting plankton/bait fish. The crappie were still the same, ambushing the minnows just outside the light circle. White and LMB would move into the light circle, chasing the minnows. It is fun watching the white bass swimming upside down inside the circle of light.

When the green led's came out I bought a good portable green light stick to use with my boat. I also run green led lights around the edge of the boat. Both would have minnows swimming in the green light within an hour of turning them on and the crappie would again be ambushing the minnows outside the circle of light.

Ketchn has me starting to fish under a float. Trouble is I can't see the float beyond a few feet at night. So he told me to get some green light sticks and attach one to my float. I tried it last night. There was five people fishing lighted floats last night. One had a white light on his float, two had red lights and two of us had green lights. The two green light floats caught more crappie last night than the other three, using white and red lights. Since it was only one night it might not prove anything. But it proved enough for me to order 250 green light sticks from China this morning. Enough to keep me in green lights for floats for the next year when they arrive. :highfive
(250pcs /50packs Night Fishing Float sticks Lights Chemical Luminous Glow light Stick in Green Color $14.49)

So my choice based on my experience is green light beats white light. Plus as said, the green does not mess up your night vision.

Well I tried a green light last night here in Mississippi, and our dingy dirty water did absolutely nothing. Dropped the light 5' and you couldn't even tell the was a light down there. Did not even get a single bite. $35 down the drain. Oh well live and learn. The kids and I did have fun night fishing though

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Originally Posted by Pithon

Well I tried a green light last night here in Mississippi, and our dingy dirty water did absolutely nothing. Dropped the light 5' and you couldn't even tell the was a light down there. Did not even get a single bite. $35 down the drain. Oh well live and learn. The kids and I did have fun night fishing though

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Dropping lights on a full moon is not near as productive as a dark night. Don't throw the towel in yet. Green lights have been the demise of many limits.

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I'm sorry, I should have made myself clearer. The green light led strips I use under the edge of my pontoon are for surface illumination only. https://www.amazon.com/Waterproof-SU.../dp/B00BSODFOK

This is the unit I bought for my pontoon which does a great job of pulling in minnows and crappie. LED 84 Watt, Fishing Light, 10,368 Lumens w/ Accs. | green-glow-dock
I use this unit 3-4 feet below the surface of the water, along with the led strips on the pontoon.

This is the green underwater light I use for one of my slips. Brilliant Green 14,000 Lumen Kit w/50''' Cord | green-glow-dock I place this about 10' from the end of the slip, 6-10 foot deep, depending on the water quality. This one I leave on 24 hours a day, even through they recommend 12 hours per day.

I would use the unit you have about 1 foot under the water. All you are trying to do is attract the plankton, which attracts the minnows, which attract the game fish. Your unit will work fine for that, just don't go very deep.

I fish a lot at night and catch plenty of fish, I also use the green drop sticks in the water but I use led light bars mounted to my rail of the pontoon, they are super bright and I have baitfish by the 1000's jumping all around my boat most nights, while my brother in law uses only a blacklight and doesn't have near as many baitfish. I run 4 of these lights all night on one 12 v marine battery. Check them out. I did put some green film over them just to soften the light a touch, they are super bright and will attract the fish. My friend and I were fishing side by side one evening spider rigging last summer when I turned these lights on at dark he had to leave they were so bright lol. He ordered him some after that.Attachment 336091Attachment 336093

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I fished with a combination of both white and green a few years back they worked so well at drawing in minnows there must have been a million of 'em; which made my little minnow lost in the crowd we didn't catch nothing that night but you could see the crappie bust'en threw the bait ball just too much competition for my bait to get noticed.

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Originally Posted by Lonnie84

I fished with a combination of both white and green a few years back they worked so well at drawing in minnows there must have been a million of 'em; which made my little minnow lost in the crowd we didn't catch nothing that night but you could see the crappie bust'en threw the bait ball just too much competition for my bait to get noticed.

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From my experience crappie do not enter the circle of light. White and black bass do, they are usually the ones breaking up the bait balls.
Crappie stay just outside the light circle and wait to ambush minnows leaving the light circle. Probably the minnows are fleeing the bass inside the light circle.

I have caught bass inside the light circle but never any crappie. That is why I use a slip float and throw my jig beyond the light circle and slowly retrieve it back through the light circle and out the other side. I catch a few crappie before I enter the light circle but I catch most of them as I leave the light circle on the other side.

If you do it this way your minnow is not one in a million that lost in the crowd. It's one of a smaller number of minnows that is either trying to enter the light circle or is leaving the light circle.

Make since I'll have to dust my lights off again.

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Originally Posted by Pithon

Well I tried a green light last night here in Mississippi, and our dingy dirty water did absolutely nothing. Dropped the light 5' and you couldn't even tell the was a light down there. Did not even get a single bite. $35 down the drain. Oh well live and learn. The kids and I did have fun night fishing though

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I myself went Friday night (FULL MOON, knew better but) to a bridge I usually fish with good results but I don't have much luck if the moon is even close to full on a clear night and this was one of those nights. Caught one strip bass and zero crappie. There have been times that they were biting really good but after the moon got up good they slowed down and eventually quit. Bright moon nights just aren't as productive from my past experiences over the years.

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Originally Posted by ezgoing

From my experience crappie do not enter the circle of light. White and black bass do, they are usually the ones breaking up the bait balls.
Crappie stay just outside the light circle and wait to ambush minnows leaving the light circle. Probably the minnows are fleeing the bass inside the light circle.

I have caught bass inside the light circle but never any crappie. That is why I use a slip float and throw my jig beyond the light circle and slowly retrieve it back through the light circle and out the other side. I catch a few crappie before I enter the light circle but I catch most of them as I leave the light circle on the other side.

If you do it this way your minnow is not one in a million that lost in the crowd. It's one of a smaller number of minnows that is either trying to enter the light circle or is leaving the light circle.

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ezgoing. . . I totally agree. For years I used two or three 14ft crappie poles with corks fishing 5 to 8 feet deep and tight lines on rod-n-reels. The poles always caught more crappie. Now I use 8 and 10 ft ACC Crappie Stix rod-n-reel rigs with slip bobbers. That's the ticket for sure. I just installed (2) 12ft Snake Tube LED green light strips I ordred from SouthernLiteLed.com, one on each side just under bump rails (a switch for each) on my 17' stick steer fishing boat. They look awesome. I plan on ordering 2 more white LED strips to go just below the green LED strips and put on separate switches.

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Originally Posted by Rammer1961

I love to crappie fish at night more so than day time. I use (2) green submergible LED lights currently, one near the front and one near the rear of the boat. I'm wanting to install some LED light strips just under the rub rail to shine on the water surface. My question is which color is more productive for Crappie... Green or White. Back in the 90's I used the white floating lamps and the Aqua Star submergible. Caught lots of Crappie with them just killed the battery in 6 or 7 hours. When LED's hit the market I started using the Green LED 2ft submergible sticks. Would love to get opinions of the members of tried and tested colors that work BEST before installing the LED strip lights. Found some I really like from Southern Lite LED. Thank you for your feedback.

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UPDATE: I just have ordered a 24" AlumiGlo SuperBrite-X2 8000 submergible LED fishing light that has both White and Green LED's. It has 3 conductors (one for negative, one for white, one for green) so you can have just white light or green light or you can have both white and green at the same time. Has a total of 432 LED's for 7,907 Lumens. Found it at www.fishinglightsetc.com . . They come in 3 different lengths, 12", 24", and 48". This is what I have been looking for, dual color lights best of both worlds !! Here is a link to a video with all the details about these lights in case anyone is interested.

www.facebok.com/FishingLightsEtc/videos/1009964495705351/

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Originally Posted by Pithon

Did you do any good fishing at night like this? I'm planning on doing the same thing tomorrow night. Never have crappie fished at night but my idea was to drop the light, anchor the boat and wait with poles tipped with minnows in the water. The light I bought today has green LED.
On the box if says that green attracts plankton. Which In turn attracts bait fish then the big fish is what it says. Hopefully it works just like that.

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Pithon.. Yes I have had good catches at night over the past 30 years. Especially in Spring and Summer. plus you don't have a lot of boat traffic at night. Been catching some good Crappie so far the last five weekends. Caught some cats and stripped bass too. I've got a new 24" LED fishing light coming tomorrow, it has white and green LED's (432 total) you can run the white or green LED's or run both white and green LED' at the same time.

https://www.crappie.com/crappie/images/attach/jpg.gif SuperBrite-X2 8000 24 Dual Green-White LED.jpg (4.5 KB)https://www.crappie.com/crappie/images/attach/jpg.gif Green-White LED 24 inch.jpg (4.6 KB)

problem I have is I can't stay up that late! have played around with LED member gave me but it drained my trolling battery down so fast. going to play around with one for my dock as we just dropped bunch of cedar next to my pontoon in open slot. especially for the grandkids.

great thread and lots of valuable info. will they place this in electronics forum?

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Originally Posted by hdhntr

problem I have is I can't stay up that late! have played around with LED member gave me but it drained my trolling battery down so fast. going to play around with one for my dock as we just dropped bunch of cedar next to my pontoon in open slot. especially for the grandkids.

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That's a bummer hdhntr. I use to use (2) 55 watt head lamp floating lights and the 100 watt Aqua Star quartz halogen fishing light and a couple 50 watt clamp-on lights several years ago and would kill the battery in 7 or 8 hours. Now I use all LED's, (2) clamp lights -w- 10 watt LEDs on a 120V inverter, 2 submergible LEDs, and a green SnakeTube LED strip light under the bump rail to illuminate the waters surface. I can go all night with no problem on my deep cycle battery. I do miss the Aqua Star, it put out a hot light. Good luck on the dock light. BTY, have you checked out the submergible dock lights and other fishing lights at fishinglightsetc.com ?? That's where I got mine at. They have some nice options to choose from.

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Originally Posted by hdhntr

great thread and lots of valuable info. will they place this in electronics forum?

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Thank you hdhntr! I don't know if it would pertain to electronics. Would be NICE to have a sub-forum just for "NIGHT FISHING" if there isn't one. That would be awesome for guys that are really into fishing at night.

May try or again in the summer when the days are hot

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I have not seen this page linked here yet, if I missed it then sorry for that! Anyway if you really want a strong LED Green light this guy makes real quality ones, but they are not cheap! He uses Cree LED lights which are American made and the strongest LED's in the world. These lights you don't need 100 lights to make it really light up the water. Really my only question now is, what is too bright? I have others that I have used over the years and just have not night fished in the last few years so since I got this super bright one, I have not used it enough to say a lot! Still check it out and if you want one to light up the water, here it is!

Loomis LED - High Intensity Underwater LightsLoomis LED | High Intensity LED Underwater Lights

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Originally Posted by hdhntr

problem I have is I can't stay up that late! have played around with LED member gave me but it drained my trolling battery down so fast. going to play around with one for my dock as we just dropped bunch of cedar next to my pontoon in open slot. especially for the grandkids.

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In my slip I have found it best to place the green light so that the light circle is about 10' from the front of my deck. That will pull in the minnows while leaving a shadow zone for the crappie that I can fish. I also find a lot of bass swimming in the light circle.

A friend bought a underwater green light for his slip after seeing the results of mine. He was catching crappie at the front of his slip before he bought the green light. I told him at the time he should place the light toward the middle of his slip but he felt that the green light would attract more crappie if he placed it at the front of his deck, right at the edge of the deck. He told me last week that he had not caught in crappie in his slip since he bought his green light but could always catch them in mine.

I suggested once again he place the light more to the middle of his slip, creating a hiding place for the crappie.

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Originally Posted by skiptomylu

I have not seen this page linked here yet, if I missed it then sorry for that! Anyway if you really want a strong LED Green light this guy makes real quality ones, but they are not cheap! He uses Cree LED lights which are American made and the strongest LED's in the world. These lights you don't need 100 lights to make it really light up the water. Really my only question now is, what is too bright? I have others that I have used over the years and just have not night fished in the last few years so since I got this super bright one, I have not used it enough to say a lot! Still check it out and if you want one to light up the water, here it is!

Loomis LED - High Intensity Underwater LightsLoomis LED | High Intensity LED Underwater Lights

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I think it depends on a lot of factors, like water clarity, temperature and climate. Down here in Florida, the bright leds are ineffective. I have proven this several times with my buddy who uses leds exclusively and I use halogen spotlights, I consistently out fish him. Because my lake is so clear I think it replicates daylight too much, which the slabs don't feed much during the day. I went last night and constantly caught slabs in the direct light, my rods that were in the shadow caught nothing but smalls, so I can't justify spending the money for leds

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I tried last year with 4 LED spot lights, I had bugs everywhere. Had shad jumping all over, spotted one nice walleye. Never caught one crappie. I would like to find a good bright submersible LED green light and give it a try again this year.

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Originally Posted by RobAnderson

I think it depends on a lot of factors, like water clarity, temperature and climate. Down here in Florida, the bright leds are ineffective. I have proven this several times with my buddy who uses leds exclusively and I use halogen spotlights, I consistently out fish him. Because my lake is so clear I think it replicates daylight too much, which the slabs don't feed much during the day. I went last night and constantly caught slabs in the direct light, my rods that were in the shadow caught nothing but smalls, so I can't justify spending the money for leds

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How deep are you fishing this time of year?

Thanks

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Originally Posted by pescador

How deep are you fishing this time of year?

Thanks

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Usually about 6 feet in 16 feet of water, but last night they were mostly about 9 feet. That's why I usually use about 10 rods at different depths until I get them biting

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Ezgoing...How do you protect the bulb from weights and baits breaking it? The one on the bottom of your slip. Thanks.

Knock on wood, I have never had a bulb broken by weights or baits in seven years of using one. I did have one stolen from the slip but never broken by people fishing in the area. Having said this I will probably find the bulb broken when I go to the slip tomorrow. :)

But you don't place them right on the bottom. It is best to have them suspended 2-3 foot from the top so the crappie can hide beneath the cone of light.

Coleman white gas lanterns hung above the water has worked best for me. I have several green LEDs the lanterns out fish them for me

You can use BASIKER Led, this is a type of marine-grade underwater boat light that is great even for fishing. That’s because it comes with a choice of also green light. The cool thing about this light is that because of its width, it has pretty good coverage, making it ideal for you to attract the plankton in the water. This will gather fish from all directions to come to your boat.