Lake Weiss Fishing Report – April 2007

Weiss: Level: .5 feet below full pool. Temp: mid 60 degrees. Clarity: Mostly clear.

Bass: Warren Barnes reports seeing some buck bass already on the bed at Weiss. The big females hadn’t showed up yet, but with water temperature’s skyrocketing, it won’t be long. When the bass are on the bed, Warren likes to fish a Gambler Ace, a soft-plastic worm similar to a Senko. Bright colors that you can see in the dingy water at Weiss work best. Spinnerbaits on shoreline cover, and small crankbaits on the main-lake and secondary points have also been catching staging fish. Warren said he has seen some bass running shad on the surface, but they aren’t hitting topwater baits, yet.

Crappie: Weiss guide Kelly Matthews said the fishing is excellent. “The fish have moved up to spawn, and we are catching them trolling 1/32-oz. Southern Pro Hot Grubs in water 4 to 6 feet deep.” he said. The top colors, at least on March 23, were blue with a chartreuse tail and Popsicle — a bubblegum/purple body with a chartreuse tail. Out of 40 fish Kelly and his party had in the boat when we talked to him, about 10 weighed 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 pounds.

White Bass: According to Warren, you can catch white bass out on the river channel by casting a Rat-L-Trap on the ledges. There will also be a striped bass mixed in once in a while. On March 22, Warren caught one that weighed 18 pounds.

Lock & Dam Report: Jeff at the Lock & Dam Bait Shop said it is all good right now. “When the parking lot is full, the fish are biting,” he said. “And the parking lot has been full.” Jeff said there had been good catches of crappie, white bass, yellow bass and catfish. A 2-lb. crappie was weighed recently. The most popular rig is a tandem-jig rig with a white jig on the end of the line and a chartreuse jig a couple of feet up the line. The striped bass have not shown up in numbers, yet, but they should arrive by mid April.