Years ago, we only fished crappie at night using lighted bobbers and tube jigs or minnows (Rice Lake)
On Pigeon, in the spring, we catch them in the daytime depending how warm the water is...a cold night, we wait until the sun warms the water...last time out we never started until after 10:00AM...The bite was sporadic but we caught them all day until 05:00PM...