Night Fishing Crappie

[sprint61]

If any of you guys chase crappie at night where do you setup? Creek mouths, flats, points, channel swings?

[Tony L.]

Flooded timber has always been my go-to. I look for fallen trees that have toppled straight out into the water. Not necessarily parallel to the shoreline, but stretching out from it. There's lots of cover here that covers a wide array of depths, so I fish up and down it until I find where they are holding. More ideally though, I look for man-made habitats, if there is someone with a lot of knowledge of the lake and who is willing to share a secret. There's a spot on one if the lakes I fish where someone has sank some old Christmas trees. We go from time to time with a light bar aimed directly into the water. The idea is that the light attracts bugs and small fish, and eventually predator fish like crappie to eat them. I'm not sure if the light is necessary. I feel like the crappie would be holed up in those Christmas trees regardless, but the system seems to work, so I don't mess with it. Maybe it gets them excited because it makes the bugs and minnows frenzy a bit. Maybe it helps them locate the bait easier. Maybe none of the above.

I've also heard of people doing the same thing, but snapping a handful of glowsticks and tossing them in the water. Seems like they'd be hard to keep track of, and I'm not one to littler, so I have never tried.

[scaleface]

I have never night fished for crappie but have an experience that I think were crappie.On an August night  I was  fishing for channel cats on a huge flat close to the river channel. I mean I was way out in the lake and catching lots of catsfish. I had bow lights on in both the stern and bow. All night long there were fish hitting topwater all around my boat , I think they were crappie hitting baitfish that were attracted to the lights .