Editor’s Note: This story was originally published in the August 1995 Issue of Outdoor Life. Check all local regulations before employing these tactics.
Alabama in August is all that you imagine. And then some. Every morning the temperature and humidity race head-to-head for the 90s and stay there until sunset, although sometimes the temperature doesn’t even pause until it hits three digits. You’ve got to be less than half-bright to go out in that stuff unless you absolutely have to.
That’s why I was so surprised when my cousin John Henry Berryhill called one 95° August day and asked me to go crappie fishing. I thought John Henry had lost his mind. It was bad enough he wanted me to join him out where the air conditioners don’t run, but everyone knows that crappies don’t bite during hot weather.
But John Henry insisted. He had a friend who had fished the lake a week earlier and had caught a coolerful of crappies. It was only when John Henry told me that his friend had caught the fish night fishing that my faith in the family DNA was restored.
On the way to the lake we spotted some people with the same idea, only their boat trailer was sitting on the side of the road with a flat. When we stopped to see if they needed help, the boat owner introduced us to his young son and confirmed that they were indeed headed to the lake, to follow up on a couple of good crappie nights they had recently had. We supplied more conversation than actual assistance in changing the tire, but we were rewarded anyway when the man asked if we intended to fish a particular piece of water. “No, sir,” John Henry said. “Tonight is our first on this lake after dark.”
“Well, then, you fellows just follow us,” said the fisherman. “I know a submerged river channel that usually produces plenty of crappies at night. Sometimes it takes a while, but if you know what you’re doing and you’re willing to stick it out, at some time before daylight the crappies will turn on and begin to bite.”
“See what a good turn can do for you?” John Henry said as we got back on the road. “Free guide service.”
We trailed our newfound friends to the lake, and after launching we continued to follow them about two miles up-lake before we anchored beside them. We could see the channel on the fish finder, but without their help, we never would have found it. We set up our lantern, threw out our lines, and settled in to catch some fish.
By 11:00 p.m. we’d only caught two or three crappies, and our friends, in defiance of their own advice, were packing up to leave. Seems the boy had to be up early the next day. But they still had confidence in the spot. “If you guys stay here until daylight,” the man said, “I guarantee the crappies will bite.”
His sureness convinced us to stay anchored, and at 1:00 a.m., his guarantee was fulfilled. Crappies started hitting so fast and furiously that we fished out all our live bait in an hour and resorted to recycling dead minnows. My personal record was five crappies caught on the same sad minnow.
Even then, we hadn’t reached our limit of fish. With plenty of night still left, John Henry came through again when he found some 1/24-oz. jigs in the bottom of the tackle box. We tied them on and caught crappies until daylight.
If I’d had any doubts about fishing in August, catching crappie by starlight put them to rest.
Night Lights
Although some species of fish shy away from light at night, crappies are definitely not among them. In fact, mounting a source of artificial light over the side of your boat can attract crappies. There are three different types of lights to choose from.
The first is a simple lantern hung over the side of the boat. While this might draw fish, the primary goal of such a light is to draw insects, which fall into the water and draw baitfish. For convenience, safety, and ease in handling, some fishermen use battery-powered lanterns, but it’s hard to beat a gasoline lamp for all-around bug attracting.
The second type is a floating light—generally mounted in a Styrofoam ring—made specifically for fishing. It uses alligator clips to operate off the boat’s battery. These units sell for under $20 and pump out about 26,000 candlepower, which is enough to project a strong beam of light into the depths—or play a couple of innings of softball.
The third type of light is a fully submersible unit that has the advantage of putting the light source at the level where the baitfish are holding, instead of drawing them to the surface. Although these lights put out as much as 300,000 candlepower (after all, they’re water-cooled), they also sell for under $20.
Okay, so it’s night, you’ve got the boat loaded to the gunnels with live bait and lights…so where do you go?
Read Next: The Best Crappie Lures: Proven Baits for Catching Slabs from Spring to Fall
Professional Help
Well, if you’re not lucky enough to meet up with an expert crappie fisherman with a broken-down trailer, why not let Ken Cook be your guide? Cook, past winner of the Megabucks Tournament and the B.A.S.S. Masters Classic, enjoys crappie fishing as much as anyone, but he is also a fisheries biologist and can put an analytical spin even on his panfishing.
“Bass and crappies are members of the sunfish family, so it’s not surprising that they share many of the same traits,” Cook says. “Both species are structure- and cover-oriented. And after the [spring] spawn, both fish move to deep water. Crappies often frequent the same areas and use the same travel corridors that bass do.”
During hot spells, that means you will find crappies in deep water and in the cooler water in creek channels. But finding structure in the middle of a lake is not the only way to catch this fish. Bridge pilings are a lot easier to locate, and they can be equally productive. The pilings not only create current channels but they also provide the vertical structure that bass and crappies relate to.
Topographical maps and lake charts can help you find places where creeks run into a lake to form underwater points. Such spots provide cool currents, plus shallow feeding areas near deep water, conditions that wary fish like crappies are attracted to in hot weather.
I find that points with grass or brush on them are especially good because they have the cover for crappies to hold in when they are not on the attack. At night, unless you are completely familiar with the lake you are fishing, it’s best to use a depth finder to pinpoint the area you want to fish.
Don’t expect to lower the anchor and start reeling in crappies. Crappie schools will move onto and off these points at various times during the night. You may catch crappies every time you let your line down for two hours, not have a bite for another two hours, and then take fish when they return to the site. Fishing underwater points will put you in a spot where crappies are and, usually, where fewer anglers fish at night. Darkness can be disorienting, and even with a depth finder you can waste a lot of good fishing time trying to relocate a submerged river channel or point. If you find an old river channel during daylight with your depth finder, mark it with buoys. After you’ve buoyed off, say, a 100-yard section, work along the edge of the underwater riverbank looking for traces of stumps, brush, or other structure. If you find a likely spot for crappies, leave a buoy marker there to help you locate it when you return after dark. It sounds like overkill, but believe me, the first time you spend an hour crisscrossing the same area in the dark trying to find that stump field you know is there, you’ll be a convert.
Other natural crappie hot spots include underwater bridges and roadbeds. When lakes are impounded the bridges that once crossed the creeks and the rivers are usually blown up. However, the pilings often survive relatively intact and draw crappies. Again, study topos and charts to find indications of such ruins.
When you target an underwater roadbed, anchor first where it drops off into deep water. Crappies, like bass, use these sunken roadbeds as highways for traveling and feeding. When you hang your lights over the edge of an underwater road, they act much like a stop sign. With any luck, you will create a traffic jam of actively feeding fish.
Read Next: Is It OK to Keep a Trophy Crappie? Here’s What the Fisheries Biologists Say
Terminal Philosophy
Once I’ve anchored, I usually start out fishing with minnows on a two-hook rig. It consists of a sinker with two dropper hooks about 8 and 10 inches above it. I’ll let this rig all the way down to the bottom, then slowly reel it toward the surface. It’s important to count the turns you make on your reel handle as the lead comes up. Crappies generally hold at the same depth for some time, and when they do hit, you’ll know how many cranks it’ll take to put your bait in their face on subsequent drops. Live bait is hard to keep alive—and active—in hot weather. A tip I’ve learned is to fill plastic medicine bottles half-full of water, screw the caps on, and freeze them. Put these frozen bottles in your ice chest. Then about every two hours, take a bottle from the ice chest and put it in your minnow bucket. The frozen bottle not only cools the water in the minnow bucket but it increases the water’s oxygen-carrying capacity so that the bait stays more active and attractive to crappies.
Most fishermen are resigned to slim pickings for crappies during the steamy summer months. But if you’re willing to switch to the night shift, it’s the action that will be hot.
John E. Phillips is author of The Masters’ Secrets of Crappie Fishing (Larsen’s Outdoor Publishing).
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