Anybody run into crappie not biting in the dark?
I’ve been getting to the lake about 1.5 hours before sunrise and haven’t caught a fish until about 10 minutes prior to sunrise.
I know I could wait to get to the lake but I’m up so I might as well be fishing.
Any tips on getting these fish to bite? I’ve tried tungsten jigs with meat, spoons and rippin raps.
Plain red hook with crappie minnow under a bobber. That’s my go to. Then I jig next to it. When they are finicky its usually the bobber that works best for me
Got out on a small lake in Wisconsin this weekend. We weren’t out at dawn but rather fished through the afternoon and evening until it was dark out. The bite window with the Crappies was pretty short, maybe an hour around sunset. And they were biting light too. But once it got dark they abruptly stopped. Mid winter doldrums?
S.R.
100% agree with Bearcat.
Make sure you have plain hook and minnow down there.
Because If you don’t have the right jig color combo they won’t bite.
No live bait allowed at this lake.
I’ll consistently mark fish but they won’t bite.
Banjo minnow. Ha ha just kidding.
Slip bobber with Barkley 1.5 inch power minnows work well
Gulp alive I think is what they are called. In the little jars. Give it a shake every once and a while. But leave it still for the most part
Yep saw crappies move in, caught one just at dark, then nothing. Bronze Aberdeen and minnow.
I have a lake near me that I commonly crappie fish and also do not catch many, if any, until the sun comes up. I like to get out about 1-2 hours before sunrise and get a lot of holes drilled. I will mark fish but rarely catch them, then once the sun is up the next 2 hours is usually very good.
I generally fish a plain hook with a minnow and bobber in one hole, then hole hop jigging between tungsten/waxie, small spoon with waxies or minnow, small jig with waxies or minnow, or smaller rippin rap or slab rap.
It may be a lake that crappies are not active in the real dark portion of the 24 hour day during the cold months. Maybe the primary food source in that for crappies are not active in the dark in that body of water. Unless you have a camera you could mistakenly think a school of shiners is a school of crappies….be certain you are actually marking crappies.
The no live bait thing might cripple you though as crappies do like their minnows. Can’t you use the waxies or spikes? Red Spikes would be a great teaser for crappies when fished on a jig. The Gulp 1″ minnows would be my approach and if the fish are fussy on size just cut the minnow in half and use the tail end.
Steve Root has mentioned crappies hitting in a real narrow window of activity and that may well be the case on the lake you’re on.
Another thought for you is to start early as you say you have been doing but fish right under the ice, like only a foot down below where the ice stops. Any fish up that high will be feeding and your electronics will not pick it up. In winter some of the crappie’s forage dies and will float up to the bottom of the ice sheet and crappies will rise and pick the stuff off the bottom of the ice, but if you’re approaching them in this way don’t use lights and tread lightly. Drill a mess of holes and clean as you cut, then quietly walk back to the first hole and start fishing.
You haven’t mentioned exactly what you’re dropping down the hole but glow red jigs seemed to do me the best under the ice when poking around for crappies. And I always preferred a vertical type of jig and presentation using a glow red 1/16 ounce Forage Minnow. Glow Red Jigging Demons worked great too. I’d use a small white active plastic tail on one of the hooks when I wasn’t using the Gulp 1″ minnows. If you interest in your bait offering but they won’t take it, try moving up in bait size. Try the smallest of the Rippin Raps or a larger jig/plastic. Just because its cold doesn’t mean that crappies will not hit on a bait way larger than you are accustomed to using.
Fish behave different on different bodies of water, sometimes greatly different. Just because a species of fish has a “typical” behavior trait does not mean they are going to act that way. Thats why its important to thoroughly fish a lake before you write it off.
Ive got a lqke that is a daytime crappie bite that starts about 8am and stops about 4pm. can’t get bit to save my life at nite.
LOW has almost no nite walleye bite but they feed during the day which is a 180 from most other lakes.
Bass guys on ML get just as many walleyes fishing shallow in mid summer as guys trolling lead core in 30’…
Just part of the game, figuring out different lakes. Its what keeps it interesting.
Big tip of the hat for getting there and setting up before first light -that is a low light fish, they have GREAT vision in low light, that is their big advantage vrs. their prey. Plus if you aim for an hour B4 sunrise and if something throws you off by a half hour (thousand things: gas, wife, dog, kids come to mind)you are still in the low light window. Crappies are crazy weird though, and as others have said, windows vary by lake, season, etc-you will figure it out on this lake though-good luck
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