night bite?

[chuckwagon]

I always read and hear about how crappie fishing is a decent night fish to target. Why can I not catch them after sundown? Every time I venture out the fish completely shut down at dark. I have tried lots of different presentations, but nothing seems to work. I am fishing metro area lakes FYI. Any tips tricks or advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Jim Uran]

Do you move out from where you were catching them at sundown?

In my experience I don't catch them after dark where I caught them at sundown.

[chuckwagon]

I was in 13 FOW with some green weeds at sundown and drilled about ten holes from my set up to about 28 FOW and the marcum was showing nothing but bottom in all ten holes. Should crappies be in deeper water right now?

[Jim Uran]

Were you catching fish at sundown in that 13 foot spot?

[OnAFly]

I've had two distinct scenarios.

One is a weed bite. They bite strong in the weeds from 3 to 5 and nothing more. I tried off the weed edge in deeper water and saw nothing. It appeared as though they just hung around the weeds and got active during certain times.

The other was the opposite. They would sit in the weeds and you would pick on off here or there, but nothing at all consistent. Then at 3:30, they would start biting in the weeds a little more then it would stop. We would then move to the deep water closest to those weeds and they would be schooled up feeding until about 8.

It probably just depends on the lake.

[50inchpig]

there are many better ice anglers than myself but i prefer to fish in the dark and most of the crappies i catch are suspended over 20-30 feet and 90% of them i catch on plastics. if you find the right general area you should have fish coming through pretty consistently.

one thing that has helped me a few times in finding the right spot is to shoot through the ice with my vex before drilling to see if there are any fish down there before i spook them with the auger. i carry a milk jug of water out with me for this purpose and i don't know why more people don't find fish this way before they drill.

deep water close to obviously good shallow spots, steep breaks or your good daylight spots would be where to start. sometimes it takes a little patience after you set up to get the first one but i believe it gets better once everything calms down a bit, you know, shuffling around and noise from the auger. i also think having a bait down there will bring suspended fish into your vex beam that are close but would not otherwise be seen if you're just hole checking.

[Slabasaurus]

From experience, it is very much dependent on the lake.

One lake i fish regularly I will use larvae or plastics during the daytime and set up just off of the weeds, but when 6:00PM comes, at least during hard water, you'll find me in the middle of the deepest part of the lake with a pail of crappie minnows.

In open water on this lake the nite bite is great too, but they're not in the basins then.

Another lake i fish regularly I can't buy a bite after sundown. I've tried, hard, for the past two seasons and nothing bites after dark there. Well, oddly enough I caught a pike (my PB actually, 36"), some largemouth, and some pumpkinseeds after dark on that lake, but no crappies.

[chuckwagon]

Yeah they were biting in the 13 FOW , but right after dark they would not take anything. They were still showing up in that depth for an hour after they shut off. So it didn't seem like they moved ... Just wernt hungry any more. Thanks for the quality replies ... All info is greatly appreciated to this newer fishermen.

[kinn0159]

I notice that usually it takes a couple hours after dark for them to go into feeding mode again, but there are always exceptions, i have smoked them at 8 pm then went back the next night and there were almost no fish and the ones around were lock jawed. Also some lakes have better night bites than others. Just keep trying your bound to run into em.

[mallardnwalleye]

Sounds like a fairly clear lake if you have weeds at 13 ft..Here is a Clear water-Weed Lake Crappie Pattern: DAY-Usually the crappies sit in the weeds during the day. If the ice is thick and the snow deep mid to late winter in some years they will leave these areas for the deep water. They are neutral to negative during the day in midwinter but can turn on during late melting ice. You can catch them by sight fishing in the weeds. SUNDOWN-As the light gets low and the sun goes down the crappies turn on and go on a feeding binge around sundown and dusk. They are usually as you found them just off the bulky weeds where they start to diminish but where there is still 1- 2 ft of weeds on the bottom. NGHT-The bite dies about 45 minutes after sundown and then you get a flurry every hour where you might catch a couple. Some nights are better than others. They are usually just off the weeds in deeper water at night. Makes sure of a couple of things. 1) You are in a proven crappie area that has a soft bottom. 2)glow up your jig and keep it glowing 3) Shake the jig up higher in the water column and drop to 2-3 ft off bottom 4) make sure you use a flasher to see the fish come.5) try the same but leave the jig halfway down just to check if they are suspending. 6) Practice catch and release as it is too easy to load up on crappies. Keep a few only as an occasional frying treat. Don't become part of the bucket and brag brigade.

[chuckwagon]

I got out on Waconia today from 10 to about 530, got on the perch like I always do so I moved around a bit and found some blue gills with a few crapies mixed in. The wind was really giving us a work out so we left. I am guessing the crappies moved out deeper from our spot in 10 FOW but never got the chance to look. thanks again for the help. I'll report back tomorrow if I can find them!

[th64]

As others have said some lakes have a night bite some do not-do not let anyone tell you that has something to do with water clarity-dark lakes may have a after dark bite and clear lakes might-and either may turn off after dark-Watch the locals and good luck.

[mallardnwalleye]

If your catching Perch early and not Crappies late the bottom may be too hard. Crappies like a marl to mud bottom generally with deep 15-18-20ft nearby. Usually a soft bottomed area that has a bunch of shacks is a good place to start.

Sometimes people don't do well on Crappies because A high pressure system came in, they have been pounded, the lake is in a down cycle, or it doesn't have a night bite although that is rare. I have a crappie in a fish tank and it is cool to see the change in attitude as the sun sets. His fins get going and he is cruising and eating minnows. During the day he is calm and sits behind a rock.

[mallardnwalleye]

Another tactic mid-Late ice is find a deep hole with a soft bottom. Drill holes until you find fish usually suspended and the fish them. This one is out of all the magazines and books. All it seems to have ever produced for me is smallish crappies that take little jigs. Then again I usually only fish clear lakes for Crappies. All this crappie talk has me heading out for them instead of Wallys tonight. GOOD LUCK- stay with it, more than half the fun is figuring out the pattern.

[mallardnwalleye]

They were just into the weeds right on the deep weedline after dark last night at the lake I occasionally fish about 7 miles from my house that is probably simmilar to your lake. Got 10 in 1 1/2 hrs. 8.5 to 11 in.. all well after dark. They were not in the deep areas for what it's worth.

[Farley]

I caught 6 last night on waxies between 6:00 and 7:00 in 22 FOW comming up to shallow water from a 50 foot hole. The biggest (13.5") was only 5-7 feet under the ice. I marked quite a few from 5 to 10 feet down. Tried up sizing for the bigger ones and they didnt bite but it got them to come in and check me out, had one hit the set line that way after I switched that line from a minnow to a waxie. Went back down in size after that but it seemed too late.

[chuckwagon]

would the deep weed line be the same as the outside weed line?

[mallardnwalleye]

would the deep weed line be the same as the outside weed line?

YES, that is where I found them the other night but as you can see some one caught them over 50 ft suspended up in the water column on another Lake as the one I was fishing is only 30 ft. max. I haven't had great success on large fish fishing them deep and suspended like that. If I were fishing Waconia I would stop in at In Towne and/or Cabin Fever. Nothing beats a local or a bait shop for a specific pattern.

[chuckwagon]

And boom goes the dynamite! I finally found some slabs tonight ... although it was at about 8 pm. And they wouldnt bite the 20 different combos I threw down the hole. I am guessing they were already fed well or not on the feed yet. I was happy to just see some suspended fish on the vex! Thanks again for the replys