Night Time Crappie Help

[gillcommander]

Gentleman...up until now most of my ice fishing (less than a year) has been geared towards bluegills! However, I am starting to fish more with tip-ups and am very eager to start fishing at night for crappies but I don't have that much info to get me started. I am NOT looking for any specific lake information since I think I know of a couple decent crappie lakes close by. I am just looking for technique info. Currently I am rigged with about a half dozen ultra-light setups for bluegills and have about 30-40 panfish jigs (mostly Fiskas with a bunch glow in the dark ones). I have a flasher!

1)Do I need a lantern...hear alot about guys using them(or other submersible lights) for attractants!!!
2)Any specific jig recommendations?
3)Best bait recomendations - I mostly fish for gills with beemoths or spikes (are minnows a solid bait I know deadsticking with a slip bobber is a common technique)?

Thanks all...hope for some good responses!! Just got back from a Missouri deer hunt with my son and am ready to get after it!!!

 

[crappiehunter]

last year we had a good time about 1 hr before sundown and 1 hr after. The lantern was just for warm and light. I used glow jigs tipped with spikes, we caught ours in about 20ft of water. The flasher will show you what depth to hit, they may be suspended. Good luck and look forward to your posts.

[JP-TKO]

tip downs with minnows

[FelixD]

They seemed to like slow and small tonight.

[abishop]

Crappiehunter, nice crappie. Did you get them on stone or pine they look like 11 or 12 inches. Are those 4 the only ones caught? SWEET

[crappiehunter]

lol, sorry guys didn't mean to mislead anyone, those were caught last year not this year. I was posting them as examples of what we caught last year in the evening. They were caught on the  Valpo Chain.

[hoosier-iceman]

I like to use minnows under a float.

[fishshack]

We night fished for crappies a lot last year. I found that we almost always would catch more jigging than on minnows.. We would bring the tipdowns and minnows but eventually found that it was easier and more productive to just jig. Super glow jigs. Keeping them charged with a bright light really helps. Also, having 2 poles rigged with different colors helps put a few extra in the bucket.  When you mark a fussy one that won't hit sometimes sending a different color down would get them commit.

[indiana ice man]

One of the best spots i have for a night bite is the slip at wawa any depthe from 8-20fow. I use a minnow under a bobber i have a vex so i chase them around but i have had great sucess with out a flasher.

[bubbagill]

I would like to say dont overlook, old stand bys.  IE the glow Ratfinkies are amazing.

[gillcommander]

ok...weird question...when i drill a hole and drop the vex in will they normally show up already suspended? or will i need to work them like a bluegill and start on the bottom and jig them up? or drop my bait down to bottom and work up and see if they come in from the side?

 

[Hoosier]

When im fishin for craps,I always start HIGH in the colum,jig a little pull up and drop to same spot pause ,repeat,..Then move down the colum a little more repeat,do this till ya get 6-8 inchs from the bottom then do it all over again.. Just my method seems to be workin for me,just check out "front yard".. JT

[Fishking83]

Depends on the lake but I would say 90 percent of the time they are already suspended.  Lake I fished today was the 10 percent where they hug the bottom just like the gills.

[wax_worm]

Depends on the lake but I would say 90 percent of the time they are already suspended.  Lake I fished today was the 10 percent where they hug the bottom just like the gills.

Probably a result of the high pressure we had today.  That tends to put alot of fish on the bottom what would normally be up in the water column a bit.