While trolling for crappie during daylight hours has become a favorite among the crappie culture, night-fishing is and always has been a stationary past-time. Guide Rod Wall, a long-line trolling aficionado, indicates there’s room for change.
“In truth, I’ve not had a lot of success with long-line trolling at night,” he said. “My son, Braxton, and I have tried it a couple of times, and our best success was during the full moon when crappie were scattered.”
Slow, vertical trolling — what many anglers refer to as spider rigging — has been more productive. Wall said the secret to slow, vertical trolling at night is to go about half as fast as you would go during the day.
“Crappie at night are very nomadic; they get up and suspend high in the water, and they just move,” he said. “I believe they’re more active at night in the summertime because they can suspend, especially when the water is clearer in the summertime.”
Wall trolls more to find congregations of fish than to actually fill his cooler. He may slow-troll a while until he finds a school, then he cuts off his trolling motor and fishes down in the school.
“I put my lights out and draw bait first,” he said. “If I’ve been in one spot a while and don’t have bait or I’m not catching fish, it’s time to move. What I’ll do is I’ll turn the spot-lock feature off and turn the iPilot on and set a course across the channel or further back moving at just 1/10 to 2/10 mph. If you’ve got bait and start losing it, slow down. You can go too fast. Move down that break ‘til you start getting bites, then put the lock on and fish.”
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