Lake Weiss Fishing Report – January 2006

Weiss: Level: 5.7 feet below full pool — much of the lake is down to the channels, and the lower lake is extremely dangerous. Temp: 50 degrees. Clarity: The Coosa is stained, the main lake is clear.

Bass: Kevin Randall said that the only thing he would have tied on with the lake so low is a jig ’n pig. “With the lake so low, about all you have to fish is the channel and the mouths of the creeks,” he said. He would be targeting log jams along the river channel, drop offs and working the jig slowly across rip-rap around the bridges.

Crappie: Excellent. Guide Jerry Sims said he has been catching fish in both Little River and the Chattooga pitching chartreuse jigs and reeling them slowly back to the boat. “The fish were in two to five feet of water over eight or 10 feet of water,” said Jerry. “If you pitch a jig around any stump or brush, you should catch fish. I guess the warm sunshine had them up.” Crappie have also been hitting bottom-bumping rigs in 12 to 14 feet of water on the river-channel ledges, and jigs and minnows under corks have also been catching fish. “The fish are starting to school up already,” said Jerry. “The fish aren’t humongous, but we are catching them up to about a pound, or a little more.”

Stripers: The bite has slowed down, said Jerry. The water temperature is in the mid 40s, and when it is that low, the fish just don’t bite as well,” he said. “When the temperature rises into the 48- to 50-degree range, the fishing will pick up.” Jerry fishes for schooling fish over the river channel and uses artificial baits, primarily shad imitations like a Sassy Shad, or crankbaits like a Shad Rap.