Night time crappie

[shimano19]

I recently started ice fishing crappie, and love it. During the day I usually find them in the deep pockets around 20 FOW, as soon as the sun sets they vanish. I have drilled many holes trying to locate them and I am positive they leave the deep water. During the night I have tried mouths that enter a bay, shallow water around the deep holes and even flats. Where do they go!? What should I be looking for to find the crappie when the sun goes down?

[BryanG]

They will not move far in the night you can also catch them 1ft under the ice very often try very very slow movements

[shimano19]

They will not move far in the night you can also catch them 1ft under the ice very often try very very slow movements

Well I had my sonar and didn't mark any in the whole water colomb while fishing the deep areas after dark. I drilled around 20 holes in the deep area and couldn't mark a single crappie after dark

[middlewick]

There is an article under fishing at the top of the page that talks about swirling your transducer in the hole that may pick up suspended crappie that a still transducer may not pick up. It's an interesting concept the I hadn't considered as it may show fish briefly just outside the transducer beam, that are still close enough to bite on your presentation.

[dirtus]

we fish them close to weed edges after dark , around 10 to 12 fow, I just drop my jig down a few feet under the ice. the crappie we are fishing right now tend to stay in the weed during the day then emerge after dark to feed. we do catch a few during the daylight hours but not many large ones. We kept 7 over 12 ", 2 over 13" and a 14.25" slab the other night using this method .

[ak47]

We fish the closest point to a great basin area that has 20+ feet deep. The crappie are often all over the water column but we fish 6-9ft depths and suspend our lures from 2-5 feet down. Keep trying and you will find them!

[shimano19]

Thanks for all the tips guys I see everyone has different views on where to find them and how far they move. Guess I have lots of work to do. Any other info helps!

[intothedeep]

It depends on the lake you're on... I used to catch a lot of crappies thick in the weeds in 5-9fow at night... But that was in scugog where most fish are shallow... My guess is they would be shallower at night, but again depends on the lake...