Lake Weiss Fishing Report – February 2006

Weiss: Level: 5.2 feet below full. Temp: 48-55 degrees. Clarity: Stained.

Bass: “If my money was on the line, I’d be out on the ledges,” said John Boggs. Try fishing a Texas-rigged Zoom Finesse worm in green pumpkin or a black/blue jig ’n pig. Position your boat over the river channel, cast up onto the flats, and pull either bait off the ledge. Fish slowly. If there has been a February thaw, the fish will quickly move up and a No. 7 Shad Rap on pea-gravel points, or a spinnerbait in the stump flats will catch fish if the water temperature spikes up.

Crappie: Excellent, according to guide Mark Collins, who has been fishing in the Bay Springs area. “That area is loaded with fish,” he said. “I was out with a party on Friday, (January 20) trolling jigs and caught between 220 and 240 fish. We had between 70 and 80 keepers, and we kept 60 fish. The fish are suspended in 10 to 14 feet of water over 12 to 24 feet of water in the mouths of the spawning bays.” Solid-blue jigs produced best, but black/chartreuse is a good color on Weiss, and so is black/yellow. The fish averaged about 11 inches, with their best fish weighing about 1 1/2 pounds. “People are catching crappie all over the lake,” he said. He said the deep trolling will hold up until mid March when the fish begin to move back onto the spawning flats.

Stripers: Mark said the stripers were congregated in the mouth of Yellow Creek last weekend to the point that they were running crappie trollers out of the area to avoid getting their lines twisted and broken. You can catch them trolling the creek or river channels with jigs, or by trolling plugs like a Rat-L-Trap or Shad Rap. Soft plastic imitations like flukes or a Sassy Shad will also catch stripers.