late night crappie?

[maddowg1192000]

I have never really done any late night crappie fishing. Is it better to go shallow or stick to deeper water, just a general question.

[wlmrs]

I think it all depends on what lake your on and how well you know it.I also think feeding times are minimal at night.Just my opinion.

[Shack]

I got out with a friend on Sat. night for some crappie action on a local crappie spot. Due to issues, we did not get out until around 7:30 pm and we search around and found fish in 25-27 feet of water. They started hitting hard and fast from 8:30-untill 10:30pm. I was amazed, because the ultra light rigs (spring bobber and small jigs) where not what they wanted. The key on Sat. was larger jigs and small floats like a small Thill or a small Ice buster, 2lb-4lb test, light action to med. action rod and Neon Glow Grubs - #10 gold hook, like the one the Outdoors Pro store sells, but with the eye one the first round body. They wanted nothing to do with flu-flu and plastics alone with no minnow and to my amazement they wanted med. sized crappie minnows, not little dinks. Also the couple stickle backs we had came in handy. The fish would bite them, but you had to give a little hook set to keep them in their mouths, other than that when the float would shift, come up or go down, you set the drag light and start reeling to get them up. So it was a combo between light and heavy, but they where hungry and wanted big action.

Any thing from the top row of the image below was hot. I even had to barrow one out to my buddy, so he could get on some of those crappies

From 10:30 to 11:30, things slowed up a bit, but fish where still on the electronics. We started off first with keeping to what was hot and adjusting depth and how we hooked the minnow on. Then after a series of ultra light bits (bobber being popped and going down an ½ inch or so) I switched back to a small red glow Genz bug and plastic tail, with a ultra light spring bobber rod. This carried us into around the 1:00 am hour and then we headed out. I will also add, it started to snow around 11:30/12:00, when the fish started to feed again.

All in all it was a great night. Given your ability to change things up, night time is a great time to catch fish. You just have to give them what they want, when they come threw.

I have a slue of pics and will throw some up tonight when I get home.

Good luck.

[David Kasten]

Wow,them sound like some finiky crappies, sounds like you guys did your work for thoose crappies. I agree with shackbash they are there its just sometimes you have to try some new stuff. Shackbash, i have a cabin up that way, do you ever fish oak,sturgeon,fish,either of the pines,moose,etc?

[Shack]

No, have not been to them. Is that the Sturgeon lake in Pine County? I have heard good things about this lake.

Actually, it was an easy night compared to others. It was just hard to get the bigger ones to bite. I did how ever get one of the biggest of this winter that night and will give more of run down when I post the images tonight.

[Shack]

Here are images of some of the crappies we got.

[blackdog1101]

I prefer to go out for crappies at about 4:30 - 5:00pm as the bite seems stronger then, but during the work week I can't get out there until about 7:00pm or so and fish until about 10:00pm. I've found fish both in deep water and in shallower water adjacent to deep water. Depending on the night I've used 1/64 oz jigs with Little Atoms plastic, 1/64 oz hair jigs, 1/32 oz Ratso's, 1/32 oz jigs with Maki plastic, 1/80 oz Ken's horizontal jigs tipped with Gulp maggots, Swedish Pimples tipped with a minnow head or whole minnows on a plain hook. In my case finding the fish hasn't been the problem, but some nights figuring out what they want has been tricky.

[Note from admin: Blackdog, Ccheck out the jigs pictured above in shackbashes post by Outdoor Pro Series. A lot of folks have been very successful with these.]

[Shack]

 Originally Posted By: blackdog1101

Depending on the night I've used 1/64 oz jigs with Little Atoms plastic, 1/64 oz hair jigs, 1/32 oz Ratso's, 1/32 oz jigs with Maki plastic, 1/80 oz Ken's horizontal jigs tipped with Gulp maggots, Swedish Pimples tipped with a minnow head or whole minnows on a plain hook. In my case finding the fish hasn't been the problem, but some nights figuring out what they want has been tricky.

Blackdog,

That is some good advice. It is what gets you fish.

[bimbo]

i'd say you just gotta know the lake well enough and make sure your not just wasting your time.

[David Kasten]

yeah the sturgeon in pine co. Heard there the grapevine they are catching walleyes out there, trying to find the real down low.