I haven't done it this year but I have posted some about fishing at my dock at night. The big bunches of bait usually don't get to the dock until after midnight but after then it's incredible the hundreds of thousands of baitfish that can be seen swirling under the light. I use a clamp on light that plugs in to a 120V socket. The crappies are catchable and you can use jigs. If you catch one on a jig and then cut a tiny 1-2 inch strip of meat with the skin attached from the fish it works better than a bucktail or panfish assassin. I think that the little bit of scent really makes a diffterence. I little strip of yellow bass may even work better. You can use a dip net for the really little baitfish early in the year but a cast net will get you some once they get bigger. A cast net with a 1/4 inch mesh is great for early season baitfish. A little minnow on a 1/32 to 1/16th oz jig can be great, or just a little aberdene hook with a splitshot 6-8inches above the hook works great too. I usually start fishing just below where I lose the ability to see the bait and work down from there 1-2 feet at a time. I would love to be able to see the fish strike the bait but I think that I've only seen that once, usually they won't come up to where you can see them hit the bait. It's lots of fun just watching fish below the light at night. Fish go in and out of the beam, some bass, crappie, yellow bass, bluegill, and as I said before, tons of baitfish. Once you turn the light on you can start seeing fish drawn to the light. It's fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!
