An unexpected find

[Ruimachado]

So yesterday the goal was finding white perch on a stocked trout lake that I know for a fact has them( caught 1 on open water a few years back but never chased them on the ice there), but of course struck out on the whites, got into a few yellows but the best find was the decent sized crappies, they where aggressive and roaming the basin of the pond, between 3 guys jigging we couldn't find the school on the basin( that is 20 yards wide and 100 yards long) but got fish almost every hole if we waited long enough, so we decided to just stick to the sharpest drop off and camp out until after dark.
The bite completely died after the sun was down(wich surprised me with the crappie) and the screen was absolutely covered in fish just not bitting, threw everything in the tackle box for almost 2hours and just quit after that.
Still a decent day and fish tacos for lunch will be the reward for dragging a flip over sled on 1ft of snow across the pond( took almost 1h each way and a good amount of breaks in between  )

[fishinator]

Nice catch. I know of a couple lakes where the crappie just stop biting at dark. Most of them have pretty stained water.

[jigmaster5]

nice fish!

can confirm dragging a flip over thru deep snow sucks.  sometimes a smitty sled helps - other times makes it worse.

should help in 1' of snow.   

[hardwater diehard]

Nice catch. I know of a couple lakes where the crappie just stop biting at dark. Most of them have pretty stained water.

I have one spot I fish you cant buy a bite at dusk ..I chalk it up to stained/brackish water ..but before dusk bite is on .

[fishingeek]

Try to fish in the upper column of the water. I find that when my screen is loaded on the bottom they are not willing biters. Pull up my jig above that they all show up out of nowhere and bite.

[Ruimachado]

Try to fish in the upper column of the water. I find that when my screen is loaded on the bottom they are not willing biters. Pull up my jig above that they all show up out of nowhere and bite.

We tried everything, we had marks from 28ft all the way up to 8ft and none wanted it.

[THE JIGGER]

Great job.
After dark Glo jigs

[rmoody79]

as mentioned above the common denominator for success at night is a glow jig

[Sam Gee]

I've been fishing a spot at Oxbow recently and the crappie there will hit up until dusk then as it gets darker, yeah you can se them on the flasher but it takes some finessing to get them to bite.

[lowaccord66]

Great job.
After dark Glo jigs

100% and I second the right below the ice comment as well.  I have found the best bite to go from sunset into the evening but that was with deploying a green light at 4pm.  They usually hang around until im good.  Also watch out for sleeper bullhead.  Ibsee those weirdos under the ice all the time on livescope. Surprised me when I started getting them regularly.

Nice work OP good eats for sure.

[Ruimachado]

100% and I second the right below the ice comment as well.  I have found the best bite to go from sunset into the evening but that was with deploying a green light at 4pm.  They usually hang around until im good.  Also watch out for sleeper bullhead.  Ibsee those weirdos under the ice all the time on livescope. Surprised me when I started getting them regularly.

Nice work OP good eats for sure.

Definitely good eats

[FrozenFlags]

Those tacos look so good! I make tog tacos in the summer but have been craving fresh fish recently.. there’s a lot of heavy metals in my local waters so I might have to take a ride for some eaters!

[ICEHOLE]

I ran into the night time bite dying tonight. Screen filled with activity until the sun went down. New pond for me, my regular spots  it's the opposite

[lowaccord66]

Those tacos look so good! I make tog tacos in the summer but have been craving fresh fish recently.. there’s a lot of heavy metals in my local waters so I might have to take a ride for some eaters!

I eat that year round.  Havent harvested crappies because my freezer is full of tog and seabass filet.

[FrozenFlags]

I eat that year round.  Havent harvested crappies because my freezer is full of tog and seabass filet.

I dive for them. Didn’t get to go much at all this past summer so my stock is low. Also need a vacuum sealer as my older filets taste a bit aged.. key words fresh fish!

[lowaccord66]

I ran into the night time bite dying tonight. Screen filled with activity until the sun went down. New pond for me, my regular spots  it's the opposite

No green light?