Short lining at night technique

Title sounds good, but I ain't tried it yet. Should work though.

I know from night fishing, you can gather a lot of bait fish with a green led submerged light. I usually set mine off the rear of the boat 1-2 foot deep.

These are the facts:

You can build a bait ball just about anywhere with a submerged light. You may not catch fish though.

If you leave the light on and tm troll away from initial setup, the bait fish will follow you. You can watch them follow you. IF you speed up, they speed up. IF you stop, they stop. They will follow you till you turn the light off.

My thoughts:

IF you decide to move to another location nearby, why not take the bait fish with you or why not just place you baits around the bait fish. You could slow troll with your own bait ball crowd.

Sounds reasonable or do I sound like Moose?

I would have my "baits" just about a foot BEHIND the baitfish school that's following the light, and maybe even a foot deeper than they are .... seeing as how Crappie like to ambush the "stragglers" (or in the case of sitting still or barely moving, those baitfish that are on the far outside or at the bottom of the school).

I actually did that, once ... with two poles down right close to the green light & one pole trailing behind (w/bobber) ... and I caught most of the fish on the pole trailing the bobber, which was a couple of feet past the influence circle of the light.

we used to night fish alot . sometimes bait balls you could walk on would show up . crappie at night can be difficult . most of the fish we managed were under the ball a good bit or off to the sides of the perimeter lighting .
often times after hours of sitting still the fish would ease up closer to the surface as the night went on .
i am sure you could drag a bait ball with you if you went slow enough though .

I've never heard of this concept of dragging a bait ball around behind you. I'm going to give it a try.
Yes, since the world as we know it is about to end Tuesday, I have decided to only venture out at night to loot and pillage.....and crappie fish !!!

When I have fished at night with a submerged green light.....i used a slip cork set at the depth of bait fish.....and I found I caught more fish by placing my bait just outside of the light ring....the fish coming in to the bait ball in the light ring would hit my baits before they got in the light ring.

I think you’ve got a plan! I can’t stay awake much past dark though.

Blueball and I were out night fishing across the lake from where I stays. We accumulated a bait mass, but did not get any fish. We trolled our way home with the bait following the light. SO, I started messing with the crowd of of bait fish. I would speed up, they would speed up. I would slow down, the would slow down. I cranked the speed up and started outrunning the shad ball. We could see the shad trying to keep up. I slowed down and the shad would catch up. The bait fish followed us across the lake. I messed with them all the way back to our boat dock. They followed right into the boat lift water. When I shut the light off, they scattered. We saw and heard the water noise with respect to surface. I turned the light back on and the heard of bait came right back. We fished around the dock with the light, but caught no crappie.

This was a fun night messing with the minners..............

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Originally Posted by CrappiePappy

I would have my "baits" just about a foot BEHIND the baitfish school that's following the light, and maybe even a foot deeper than they are .... seeing as how Crappie like to ambush the "stragglers" (or in the case of sitting still or barely moving, those baitfish that are on the far outside or at the bottom of the school).

I actually did that, once ... with two poles down right close to the green light & one pole trailing behind (w/bobber) ... and I caught most of the fish on the pole trailing the bobber, which was a couple of feet past the influence circle of the light.

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YEP. What you did is what I call short lining. You don't need much line out. You can also see the plankton rise starting a late sundown. My sonar screen goes from a blue sky display to a snow storm display as the night progresses.

Did I get the story right Jamie?


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I think that’s a sound concept, let me know how it plays out when you get it put to the test. That’s what keeps you young Tom, you’re always thinkin on how to reinvent the wheel.

Good concept it will be interesting to see of it works. If it doesn't at least you can move bait ball to a new location with out waiting for one to form.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cane Pole

Did I get the story right Jamie?


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Yep,good memories

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Huh ?