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Night-Bite Winter Crappie
By  Tim Allard

The sun about to hit the tree tops. I was sitting on a great crappie lake, charging up my glow jig and waiting for the start of the night bite. It didn’t take long and the action was fast and furious for just under an hour.

While many anglers focus on walleye, crappie are another species worth chasing at twilight. Here’s what you need to know about this productive technique to catch more paper-mouths.

Crappie Characteristics
Although not to the same extent as walleye, crappie are light shy. For this reason they often feed during twilight periods and during night. During winter, crappie whereabouts can leave even seasoned ice anglers scratching their heads during the day, but once dusk starts fish can suddenly materialize on various structures and aggressive feed. The good news is crappie school, so once you find them you’re sure to ice a bunch.

Good Spots
One many lakes, finding points and reefs in 10 to 20 feet of water are prime zones to ambush night-feeding crappie. Bays can also be deadly, especially if they start around 15 to 20 feet with a moderately fast taper up to shallower water. Look for areas adjacent to the main basin, as crappie likely suspend off the last break during the day. It will take some time to find the best night spots on your favorite lake, but the effort’s worth it.

Best Baits
The size of baits crappie will hit varies. Slabs will easily crush a 1.5-inch jigging spoon. Top jigging spoons include Northland’s Forage Minnow, JB Lures Varmits, and Lindy’s Frostee Jigging Spoon. When crappie are picky, go with tiny ice jigs. Some need to be tipped with live or artificial baits, while others come rigged with plastic tails. The latter are handy when fish are aggressively feeding and you don’t want to waste time re-baiting.

Lure Details
Whether you’re using spoons or ice jigs, tipping lures will get you more bites if you do the following. Work lures through the entire water column as crappie often suspend and feed up. At night, it’s been my experience glow lures outperform regular baits. Charge lures frequently. Often, bringing in a bait, charging it and dropping it down is often all that’s needed to get a finicky fish to commit and hit.

Tip lures with live or artificial bait to increase your strikes. Live maggots are best. Some prefer scent-laden soft baits as they’re easier to find and keep. Be careful not to over tip baits. A small 0.5-inch piece or two maggots will suffice to sweeten a spoon or enhance an ice jig. Do re-bait often as scent is big-time trigger for crappie.

Deadsticking
Although jigging will often hook you a ton of crappie, dead sticking can produce a few slabs too. Once you’ve found a good crappie hole consider using out a dead stick rod (if fishing regulations allow more than one line). Suspend baits below small, floats to indicate when you’ve got a strike. You can use tipped ice jigs like you would jigging. A small minnow on a tiny, thin hook below a split shot is deadly for big slabs.

Stay Bright
It’s handy to have a few items available when fishing at night. A fuel or battery powered lantern is an excellent accessory to light up your fishing space. They help you detect light bites on spring bobber rods or floats. Lanterns also give off plenty of light so you’ll be seen by any traffic on the ice. Headlamps are handy when it’s time to pack up and walk back to shore. They’re also lighter than lanterns and a better option if trying to keep gear weight to a minimum.

Fishing for crappie and night can produce excellent catches. Be sure to limit your harvest and release big slabs. Plus, fishing under the stars of a clear, winter sky is an experience every ice angler should do a few times a year.