Moonlighting for Crappie during August
If you use a floating light or lantern, the crappie will concentrate around that light. The main concentration of crappie fishermen at night is around bridge pilings, vertical structures that allow the crappie to move up and down in the water, on the edges of old river or creek channels.
However, you may catch more crappie by looking for spots where underwater creek channels run into the main river channels. These natural highways for crappie easily will concentrate the baitfish under lights and lanterns, just as effectively (if not more effectively) than fishing under bridge pilings where all the other anglers are fishing. The real secret is not to go home early. You may need 2 or 3 hours after dark to concentrate enough baitfish and crappie around your lantern or light along these crappie highways. Generally, you’ll catch the crappie close to the bottom when you first start fishing, and as more and more baitfish move to the surface, the crappie will come away from their deep-water haunts and move-up higher in the water column to feed on the bait. Often just before daylight, you may catch crappie as shallow as 1-1/2- to 2-feet deep. The crappie aren’t the only fish that travel the edges of the channels. You also can catch white bass, catfish, largemouths and even hybrid white bass and stripers using this strategy.
The angler who introduced me to this hot-weather crappie tactic explained, “If you don’t stay all night, you won’t catch many crappie, because the bite often comes an hour or two before daylight.” I’ve found this advice to be absolutely true. From 9:00 pm until 3:00 am, you only may take 8 or 10 crappie. But often from 3:00 am until 5:30 am, the fishing and catching will be nonstop. You may be able to catch a limit and even release the smaller crappie. Sometimes if the fishing and catching are fast and furious, you may have to put a dead minnow right back on the hook and in the water. Before I have caught as many as 5 crappie on one minnow.
To learn more tactics about how to catch crappie when the weather sizzles, check-out John E. Phillips’ book “Crappie: How to Catch them Spring and Summer” at http://www.amazon.com/Crappie-Catch-Spring-Summer-ebook/dp/B007IV9A14/. Too, you can go to http://www.amazon.com/kindle-ebooks and type-in the name of the book to find it. You also can download a free Kindle app that enables you to read the book on your iPad, computer or SmartPhone.