I like to fish at night. Pioneering ice angler Dave Genz, who has long worked with the In-Fisherman staff on ice projects, does not. Perhaps that’s because I spent my formidable years in search of nocturnal flathead catfish on the rivers of southeast Iowa, while Genz grew up fishing for smallmouth bass on the Mississippi River near his home in St. Cloud, Minnesota.

Habits established during childhood often prove difficult to break, just as the way anglers fish for one species often affects their approach to other fish, even in much different fishing situations. So it is that Genz prefers to fish lots of holes for crappies during the day, while I’m more inclined to set up in a high-percentage area after dark.

During a trip to South Dakota last winter, though, we merged our approaches by hitting several key areas after dark. Most of the fish responded to tiny jigs tipped with maggots and jigged aggressively through the middle third of the water column, but we took some of the largest crappies on small minnows suspended beneath floats.

Perhaps more important than the experience was the night fishing perspective that Genz passed along during the short intervals between bites, a perspective formed through thousands of hours spent on hundreds of frozen lakes from New York to Montana.

Dave Genz: Lots of good reasons to fish at night during the open-water season. Less recreational boat traffic after dark, especially on lakes near major metropolitan areas. Less fishing pressure during the first and last hours of darkness, especially on weekends, but also during midweek on popular fishing lakes.

The fact remains, though, that every fishing task is harder to perform after dark. Simple knots are difficult to tie, familiar lake sections look foreign, and the mountain of gear that seems so organized during the day is transformed into a tangled mess after the sun goes down. Versatility usually suffers as a result, and most veteran night anglers usually settle on a single presentation to minimize tackle and rigging.

Cooler nighttime temperatures may offer relief from summer’s heat, but often are uncomfortable during early spring and late fall. The effect is even worse during winter, when a mild winter day gives way to a bitterly cold night. Holes freeze solid, ice forms on rod guides, and the feeling in fingers and toes eventually becomes a numb memory.

So Why Fish At Night?

But that’s not to say that there aren’t some good reasons to fish through the ice after dark. Often the only time people have an opportunity to fish is after work. With more hours of darkness than daylight, fishing after work during winter usually means fishing at night. And in most areas, fishing at night means either walleyes or crappies.

For me, that decision always has been easy. During most of the ice season, crappies are just more fun to fish for than walleyes. They often suspend several feet off bottom, making them easy to locate on sonar. They’re typically more aggressive than walleyes, too, especially during the middle of the night.

Many ice fishermen tell me that the average size of the crappies they catch at night is larger than during the day. That might happen on some lakes, but probably not for the reason these anglers suspect. Often their baits are just bothered less by sunfish and perch, which allows more crappies to find the bait. Large crappies, in particular, may observe a bait for several seconds, while a small sunfish will rush in and engulf it.

One thing I can’t explain, though, is how an area can seem void of fish just before dark, then suddenly full of crappies as soon as the sun dips below the trees. The middle of the flasher dial lights up, and all of the fish are biting. I used to think that the fish were moving in from deeper water, but sometimes the angler in the middle of a large group is first to see the fish.

This phenomenon is common on many large lakes, such as Red Lake in Minnesota. You look around and see hundreds of people fishing, but no one—I mean not one person—is catching fish. Then the sun dips below the trees, and everyone is catching fish. Those fish were somewhere, seemingly everywhere, but none of them were biting until the light conditions were right.

It’s Still About Location

The type of area I fish at night depends on the type of lake. Many of the lakes I fish are what I call basin lakes. These waters have few structural features, and crappies usually suspend off the bottom over the deepest water. On lakes full of structure, though, I usually find crappies relating to some structural element during the day, then suspending over deeper water adjacent to these structures after dark.

Unfortunately, many of the lakes that anglers consider featureless often contain brushpiles, fish cribs, or other manmade structures that attract and hold crappies throughout much of the ice season. This kind of cover is much more important on barren lakes than on lakes full of bays, points, and green weeds. In a truly featureless lake, I usually begin my search in the deepest available water.

The best areas on a structured lake depend on when I’m fishing. Early in the season, for example, I’m confident that I’ll catch crappies in narrow areas. Narrows can be a necked-down area joining two lake sections, the area off the tip of a long shallow bar, or the deep water between two bars. Scour holes that form at the mouth of a creek or river also can be productive at first-ice.

Later in the season, I usually move to the largest bay on the lake and start drilling holes in the deepest water within the bay. In some lakes, crappies relate to green weeds during the day, then move to the edge of the weeds or suspend over deeper water after dark. In a particularly large bay, it sometimes pays to move a bit looking for fish on sonar. In smaller bays, though, it’s usually better to stake out a spot and wait for fish to move through.

A Few Presentation Pointers

I’ve long been a proponent of aggressive ice fishing. I’ve seen it pay off many times. Say three anglers are sitting in a fish house in the middle of the night. Two traditionalists are fishing minnows beneath floats, while the third is constantly jigging an ice jig tipped with maggots. Not only will the angler with the jigging rod usually catch more fish, but the flash and vibration emitted by his jig likely will attract more fish to his partners’ minnow lines.

In states where more than one line is allowed, it sometimes pays to jig with one rod and soak a minnow with another. During a hot bite, though, it’s often difficult to keep both lines in the water and avoid tangles. In this case, I always opt for a jig because it’s more efficient. I can tip a jig with maggots faster than I can grab a minnow out of the bucket, and I can drop a jig to the level where fish are holding faster than I can set a float. Efficiency is an important key to successful ice fishing.

My standard offering is a #10 Lindy-Little Joe Fat Boy tipped with three to five maggots. I really like the new glow colors available this year, since they’re more visible after dark. Charge the phosphorescent paint with a camera flash or a Lindy Tazer every 10 minutes or so for maximum visibility. I also add fresh bait at about the same interval to entice finicky biters.

If there’s a time when minnows produce more fish than maggots, it’s right at dusk. This is when crappie activity level peaks and the fish are searching for minnows and other forage. Too many anglers, though, let minnows sit motionless beneath a float and wait for a bite. Instead, occasionally lift the minnow a foot or so, then let it drop on a slack line. This keeps the minnow struggling against the weight of a #6 jig or lead shot pinched a few inches above a #6 hook, which triggers more bites.

Another minnow tip is to hook the bait through the tail or just beneath the skin behind the dorsal fin. Hooking a minnow too deeply usually kills the bait or at least impedes its swimming ability. And instead of setting the hook immediately as you would when a crappie takes a jig and maggot combo, let the float ease down the hole a foot or so before setting the hook.

A Closer Look At Jigging

If I don’t see any fish on sonar, I usually begin my jigging routine with my rod tip about three or four feet above the hole, depending on the size of my shelter. I slowly jerk and wiggle the rod tip down to the top of the hole, then start working it back up again. The objective is to make the bait look alive and attract the attention of any fish holding nearby.

Once I see a fish on sonar, though, I stop the aggressive jigging and begin quivering my rod tip. This maneuver, called pounding, primarily keeps the jig from spinning in a circle and also makes it look like living prey in a sort of defensive posture. As the fish moves closer, I keep the jig quivering in place. Consistency at this point usually triggers more strikes than sudden jerky movements.

Countless refinements to this system, of course, but the basics are enough to put crappies on the ice. Just make sure that all of those fish don’t go home in buckets.