Lake Weiss Fishing Report – January 2008

Weiss: Level: 5.1 feet below full pool. Temp: Low 50s in Little River, upper 50s in the Coosa. Clarity: Stained.

Bass: Awesome, said Jason Tucker at J.R.’s Marina. Jason and a friend entered two tournaments on Dec. 8 and won both of them. Their catch was five bass (three spots and two largemouths) that weighed 23.66 pounds and included big fish (5.8) and second big fish. “We had 13 bass, and the smallest weighed 3.4 pounds,” said Jason. He said they caught fish on a spinnerbait and a jig fishing river-channel ledges. Jason said they threw jigs into cover on the ledges and worked the bait slowly through the cover. “There is a ton of cover on the ledges that you can fish, you just have to slow down and fish it carefully,” he said. He throws a 1/2-oz. jig to maintain better contact with the bottom. Black/blue, green/chartreuse and brown/brown are all good colors. The spinnerbait he is throwing is standard issue: a double willowleaf with a white or white-and-chartreuse skirt. “Just throw the spinnerbait out, let it sink to the bottom, then slow-roll it back,” he said. “You could probably catch fish on a crankbait in the same places, but you would stay hung up all the time.”

Crappie: Crappie fishing on Weiss Lake is great said Weiss crappie-fishing guide Kelly Matthews. “I have been catching limit stringers of crappie fishing the upper Coosa around Riverside down to Spring Creek. Fishing is best early in the morning when Alabama Power is pulling water — current is pushing the crappie tight to structure. We are catching these crappie with several different techniques — spider rigging in 12 to 14 feet of water being the best. Throwing a fly-and-cork rig using a Southern Pro Hot Grub in blue/chartreuse is also producing good stringers in the same areas. Look for log jams, and working them real slow with either technique will produce good stringers of crappie. Also, limit stringers of crappie are starting to be caught fishing the Cowan Creek bridge tight-lining minnows — this bite will only get better at Cowan as more crappie migrate up into the creek. With the mild temperatures we have had over the last few weeks this will only prolong the river-channel ledge fishing. As we get more rain and cooler weather look for the crappie to start moving up into the shallow-water flats with creek channels close by. That’s when I will switch up techniques and start long-line trolling Southern Pro Hot Grubs. I look for this to happen around mid January, and it will continue on into March. I see nothing in the future that would slow the bite down as we move into our 2008 crappie fishing season here on Weiss Lake. Jason Tucker said that 1,000 crappie had been tagged over a two-week period in December for the Weiss Lake Improvement Association’s tagged fish tournament. Local businesses sponsor fish and award prizes to anglers who purchase a $10 tag. Proceeds are spent to improve fishing and fishing access on the lake. Crappie fishing has been excellent, said Jason. “We are catching them by casting jigs to the river-channel ledges,” he said. “Anything with chartreuse in it will work — red/chartreuse, black/chartreuse or blue/chartreuse. A 1/32-oz. jig makes for a better presentation, but a 1/16-oz. jig will work if you have a little wind.” The long-line trolling bite for crappie in the bays and sloughs had already begun to pick up, he said.

Stripers: Weiss guide Mark Collins said the stripers are on the edges of the the old river channels of the Coosa River, and a few are starting to show up in Little River. Target the area from the Cedar Bluff Bridge up river to Spring Creek A 4-inch curly grub in chartreuse glitter or a Sassy Shad in pearl or chartreuse on a 1/4-oz. jig head trolled at 1.5 to 2 mph on 12-lb. test line on the river ledges should catch fish. Weiss fishing guide Jerry Sims said the striped bass fishing has been pretty good — most days. “You might go one day and catch three, and the next day catch 60,” he said. Jerry said the fish are schooling over the river channels on the main lake. He said he has been catching them on the ledges and along sandbars by throwing a shallow-running crankbait. Something along the line of a Shad Rap. “If you just watch the gulls, they will tell you where the fish are, and you can go have a ball,” said Jerry. When the fish are out on the river channel, Jerry recommends a Sassy Shad or a small bucktail.