I’ve heard night fishing for crappie can be good. Is this true? If so, what’s the best way to catch them?

Sure you can catch crappie at night.  In fact in the spring months I have had great luck fishing shallow waters, between three and 6 feet, near the docks seem to produce crappie in the late hours of the day through the early to mid night and very early morning through the late morning.  If you get on when the temperatures are just right you will catch them any time you throw a line in the water.

Crappies often hunt by sight so it makes sense that lighting has a big part when and where they are biting.  When night fishing I had my best luck fishing an area that was shaded from the dock light.  In fact the area was barely lit from the light and lots of brush in the water creating cover for this little morsel.   When fishing remember the golden rule: mimic the bait fish.  The bait fish are going to be attracted to the light looking for small insects and other food and dodging the big predators.  So you want your hook to be that one unlucky little minnow that gets ate.

You can by all sorts of lights that create a false bubble of light in the water.  Some are completely submersed some float on the surface in what appears to be a Styrofoam cooler upside down.  I have not had great luck with these as they focus the light in an area but on the other hand they don’t attract as many biting bugs.  These lights can work when properly placed but the whole trick is to draw food to where the crappie are taking shelter and make your jig stand out.  I found it best to go out when the moon is large and there is lots of night light.  

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