Panfish at night

[uwecsteeple]

I work till dark every night and wonder if pannies would still bite under the ice when it is dark. I would love to fish weeknights but for some reason I convince myself that panfishing slows down considerably at night. So the question is, anybody have good luck under the moon for panfish?

[Carp-fisher]

I've often had decent action for crappies well into night. They do slow down abit from the primetime sunset bite, but the bite at 8 p.m. is usually better than say at 1:00 p.m. For bluegills, it seems to be a lake to lake phenomena. On some lakes, I can't seem to buy a bite after dark whereas certain lakes have a red hot late evening bluegill bite.

[fisherdog19]

I do most of my crappie fishing after dark into the wee hours of the morning. If you can find a sharp break near shallow water over some mud or a 20+ foot hole surrounded by a shallow flat over mud, the little critters slabs feed on usually don't come out until the sun goes down. I currently have my permanent house in a hole surrounded by shallow water that is over mud. I have caught crappies there as late as 1:30am and they are full of these little clear worms that are no longer than a half inch and as big around as 16 gauge wire. Give it a try, you may be pleasantly surprised!

[Deitz Dittrich]

We talked about this a couple of years ago... Many moons ago I lived in northern Minnesota.. I had a lake that I would get monster coming through an area at about 1am in the morning.. it lasted about an hour and then done...

as many have stated, crappie are a panfish and agressivly bite at night. I was fishing the other evening and caught a few gills as well..

[CALVINIST]

I too have had good sucess after dark for gills as well as crappies. As Carp-Fisher said, the gills are more lake specific. Just make sure you use a glow jig and charge it up good. One effective jig that I use at night is the Maynards flutter bug (get the ones that glow). It has a couple tiny blades on it that send off vibrations and call in fish really well, just keep it moving with ocassional pauses until you get fish in the area.

[uwecsteeple]

Thanks for the input, I think I will have to try fishing one of these night soon. I get to pick up my FL-8 tonight, so I wont be out there blind anymore (got it for $100 from a nice gent on hsolist!).

[JP Z]

I regularly fished late season craps after dark last year with very good success. Once they are in that pattern it can be lights out. I would get on the ice at 5-5:30 and fish till 7ish or later dependent on if I was actually trying to keep a limit or just catch some fish.

[bgreen82]

this has also enticed me to try to get out a little bit after work. i thought it was suicide going out since i work til 7.

[uwecsteeple]

I decided to try fishing tonight, got out to Como and walked about 20 feet out, heard the ice starting to crack around me so I ran back to shore. Be carefull out there!! I will have to give it another crack after the cold of this weekend.

[CALVINIST]

Quote:

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I decided to try fishing tonight, got out to Como and walked about 20 feet out, heard the ice starting to crack around me so I ran back to shore. Be carefull out there!! I will have to give it another crack after the cold of this weekend.

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If you're worried about going through the ice, measure the ice you're fishing on. I would also wear a life jacket, and get a set of ice picks and wear 'em around your neck. And fish with a buddy. That way if you do go through, the worst that could probably happen (unless you panic) is you get cold and wet.

As far as the sounds of ice cracking is concerned, I wouldn't worry too much on a lake that has 4-5" of good ice on it. That is just the ice going through periods of expansion. It is a very creepy sound though, and sometimes a good crack will scare the dump out of me

[superhawk16]

hey uwecsteeple, when did you graduate from EC. I run XC out here and live in the cross house.....you wouldn't happen to be goertz would you?

[uwecsteeple]

thats me, graduated in december of 03

[bgreen82]

with the cracking ice talk going, i often notice that a lot of the cracking you do hear is only when you are first walking on the ice, then when you get further out you dont really hear it. is this something others have noticed. i figured obviously near shore where the water is shallower, the ice must be thinner.

[uwecsteeple]

I dont know if it happens more near shore. Cuz when I hear the ice crack like it did last night it, I start runnin'!

Maybe I am a big wuss, but at least I am a warm&dry wuss.

[Scott M]

Me and a buddy really banged up on bull bluegills after dark this past weekend. Slowed down after 8 p.m. but they didn't start till dusk. Read somewhere that last year there was a thread by Matt Johnson about doing the same thing. Would like to read that, I'll get to searching when work slows down.