crappies at nite

[Family fisherman]

Just curious if any one has had luck fishing for crappies at night? I usually leave at sundown, But thought about staying after dark to try my luck for crappies. Kids don't get home from school till 3:30 and with dark at 5:30 don't give us much time to fish. Just wondered about fishing till 7:00 or 8:00 in the evening. Would we be wasting our time?
Central iowa

[went522]

I don't head out to the lakes till 4pm. The best crappie bite for me is after dark. If I have my choice of times to chase crappies, it's after dark. That goes for any of the local crappie lakes I frequent. 5-10pm is PRIME time. Not a waste of time at all.

BIRDDOG

[stinkycat]

I second "went522" the last hour of day and then into the dark for 2-3 hours unless we have a cloudy overcast day and I am in a spot where the schooling crappies pass by. Then an all day bite.

[no1son]

Definitely best early and late in the day, and the biggest fish I have seen the past couple of years on local heavily fished waters came after dark.

I fish a lot after work and in the mid to late afternoons. Excellent time to hunt crappies. Early morning from about first light to a couple of hours after dawn is also a very good time. I have my best catches in the mid to late afternoon to about dusk. I seldom fish after dark anyway. I catch a lot of my fish by line watching; so when I can no longer see the light bite which can be most of it on a lot of days, I tend to head for home and pizza.

The best time to go fishing, however, is whenever you can. The crappie bite isn't limited to just the "best" times.