Author Topic: Night time crappie colors?  (Read 474 times)

Offline Les Young

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Night time crappie colors?
« on: 07/04/22 21:25 UTC »
What are a few of the most proven colors for fishing at night for crappie when using green lights. I'm trying a few different things & having trouble catching them at night using jigs or plastics whether using lights or not. There are chasing  shad everywhere  so that may be the problem. With thegreen  light out you can literally have what looks like thousands of shad up in a few minutes & i'm dropping down on crappie & they'll come up & look hard at whatever i'm throwing & then just turn away & when they don't leave i'm just barely able to feel them peck it. I'm watching it all on livescope & seeing it by the way. Lastnight i tied a bigger head on to get a quick drop & when i'd see one sitting still on bottom away from the shad i could drop on some of them & they would drill it & i put them in the boat. I'd like to just tie up & put the light out & after getting shad up sit there & catch a mess without resorting to live bait. Any suggestions?

Offline ctom

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Re: Night time crappie colors?
« Reply #1 on: 07/04/22 23:06 UTC »
Honestly and looking back on my ice fishing days, I'd kill the lights and put a glow red jig on with either a glow red plastic or plain old glow green plastic.
There are good ships
and wood ships
ships that sail the sea
but the best ships are friendships
and may they
always be ......An Irish Toast

Offline Les Young

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Re: Night time crappie colors?
« Reply #2 on: 07/05/22 09:01 UTC »
Tom, thanks.  I never dreamed crappie fishing coukd be as hard as bass fishing can. When you’re a newbie a man gets stumped easy. The thing that gets me is I really caught them good one night on livescope just drifting along with my black lights only & now I don’t hardly do anything with or without light when the crappie are in Shad out over the channel just like they were before. Driving me crazy lol
« Last Edit: 07/05/22 09:04 UTC by Les Young »

Offline Shaunm81

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Re: Night time crappie colors?
« Reply #3 on: 07/05/22 19:39 UTC »
Les what I learned to do was do away with plastics pretty much once the water heats up they go deep and  using a green under water light definitely brings them in but me and my friend used minnow on bobber float and destroyed them one after another.  I love using my soft plastics but it's like here in ohio once summer and stuff rolls around you might as well forget the lures.

Offline ctom

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Re: Night time crappie colors?
« Reply #4 on: 07/05/22 20:24 UTC »
I use plastic all year long. I haven't bought a crappie minnow in maybe 30 years. Different areas have different needs.

Les, are these white crappies or black?
There are good ships
and wood ships
ships that sail the sea
but the best ships are friendships
and may they
always be ......An Irish Toast

Offline Les Young

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Re: Night time crappie colors?
« Reply #5 on: 07/05/22 22:06 UTC »
A buddy told me he never bought a minnow either. Had a fellow tell me he was anchoring up anywhere from 30 to 50 feet of water & putting the light out & when he gets the shad up they're snagging one & dropping it down & doing way better than they can on minnows right now. me if i can i'd rather catch them on jigs or plastics.

Offline Les Young

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Re: Night time crappie colors?
« Reply #6 on: 07/05/22 22:09 UTC »
I use plastic all year long. I haven't bought a crappie minnow in maybe 30 years. Different areas have different needs.

Les, are these white crappies or black?
Tom there are both in this lake.