Green river night fishing

[aps71285]

Going to green river next weekend. Staying at pikes ridge campground. I plan on dropping green lights at night to crappie fish. Anyone have any suggestions such as depth of light, depth of fish, ect. Any input will be appreciated

[crappiepappy]

According to this : https://www.lrl.usace.army.mil/Missi...Green-Profile/ .... I wouldn't fish any deeper than 20ft, and would probably start at the 10-15ft depths (where the water temps make a significant drop of around 3degrees F.

Mind you, though ... these readings are taken at the dam, so there is a potential for slight differences in the area you're staying.

I know some people say to drop your lights several feet below the surface .... but I've never understood the reasoning for doing that. The lights draw in Shad (to feed on the plankton drawn in by the light), and the Crappie are drawn in by the vibrations of the circling Shad ... and since they will hang out below the Shad, or just on the outside edge of the lighted area of water, why would you want to put the lights down deep ?? And, also by doing so, you run the risk of a fish getting your line tangled into the light's wire.

I'll admit I'm "old school" ... and brought up using a Coleman gas lantern for night fishing for Crappie. And the current way I do it is with a "12v headlight/styrofoam" surface light. Both of which still work very well.

The only other thing I can think of to mention, is to remember the creel limit is now 20/person/day ... but, the size limit is still 9in.

Luck2ya !!

[aps71285]

Thanks pappy. I'll take a white light also and see how well it does

[crappiepappy]

You might also be interested in this page : https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer...546499999&z=13

Shows where the KDFWR set out brush piles, and some good ones are just out in front of the Emerald Isle "swimming beach" and up at the far end of the island bank across from Emerald Isle. They should mostly be in about 15fow.

If you don't have any way to anchor over a spot, slowly drifting or even Spider Rigging around those brush piles should get you on some fish ... and you really don't even have to put a light down in the water, just pointing out towards your rod tips will work (or you could drop the green light just below the surface & use the white light to see your rods). Pretty much any light shining on the water is going to bring in Shad, Silversides, and other minnow species.

Last time I was there (6/5/18) my partner & I caught 109 "keepers" & kept 29 (over 10") ... Pushing Slabanator Booty Shakers behind 1oz of weight @ 1.1mph at a depth of around 10-12ft down in 15-20fow. Probably caught about as many dinks as keepers. Hottest part of the afternoon hours seemed to produce the majority of the larger fish. But, no Shad schools in the area meant mostly dinks and not many of them.

[aps71285]

Thanks again. I'll definitely post a report and pics Monday

[aps71285]

Sorry I forgot to update. We struck out on crappie completely. Went to the spot you told me about dropped green light and used a surface white light. Caught bluegill, largemouth, and a channel cat. The gills kept us busy so it was still a fun night fishing.

[crappiepappy]

Glad you had fun !! That's what's it's all about ... the catchin' !!

[sweetwater]

Sorry I forgot to update. We struck out on crappie completely. Went to the spot you told me about dropped green light and used a surface white light. Caught bluegill, largemouth, and a channel cat. The gills kept us busy so it was still a fun night fishing.

We used to night fish under lights on GRL quite a bit. We'd usually anchor and tie up about 50' out from a rock wall over the river channel. Some of the best spots was between the dam and Butler Creek. For bait a good size crappie minnow is hard to beat. I know the population is down now but we caught tons of white bass, bukus of decent size crappie and the occasion channel cat. The best fishing usually comes between midnight and sunrise but we'd be set up before it got dark. It never hurts to come a little early and set a few limb lines back in the coves. Always caught some nice cats that way. Although they attract a lot of bugs it's hard to beat a Coleman gas lantern as a light source. When you get a good number of shad circling under your light and you start seeing something slash through them it's best to keep a hand close to the rods.