Fishing News - 3/23/01
Lake Weiss Fishing Report
DATE: 3-23-01
LAKE LEVEL: 565.7
FULL POOL LEVEL: 564.0
SURFACE TEMP: 49.8 in AM - 60.1 in PM
WATER CLARITY: up river in Riverside area is very poor except Godfrey's Island.
Three Mile Creek is clear, Cowan Creek is not in bad shape, all coves from Cedar Bluff bridge down are
fishable. Main river channel is still muddy.
Monday March 19th : 5 inches of rain hit Weiss. An extremely bad cold front came through. I canceled my trip for that day because of the weather.
Tuesday March 20th : Rain continued, 25-35 mph winds, cold as a day in January!!! I canceled my trip for this day also.
Wednesday March 21st : 15-20 mph winds, clear with a high pressure. Fished Dead Boy out of Riverside only because my guide party insisted on going fishing. Had 14 keepers in Dead Boy.
Thursday March 22nd : Fished out of Bay Springs. Found some fish 13 ft. deep in 18 ft. of water. I had 8 fish that weighed 17.8 lbs.
Friday March 23rd : The lake is fool pool +. over most docks on the upper end of the lake. I fished out of Riverside and went to Dead Boy. It was almost too muddy to fish. Went to Tillery, not bad in the back end, picked up 4 fish. The fish were about 4 ft. deep in 6 ft. of water which made no sense. Went to Waterhouse, water in bad shape
there, picked up 1 fish, no short fish. I went to Godfrey's island. Water was in good shape, marked a lot of fish but could not get them to
bite. They were about 7 ft. down on 10 ft. of water. Caught 3 short fish. Went back to Dead Boty on the right arm, started in 2 ft. of water (surface temp 60.1). started pulling 2 1/32 bubble gum's, 2 triple blue's.& 2 triple green's rods had a dukes mixture on
them. Humming the trolling motor. Picked up 8 - 10 in just a little bit of time and my day was done. I have not seen but 1 fish that showed spawning colors. The fish are wanting to spawn!! They have got to come up out of the deeper water and go shallow but maybe not in my lifetime (LOL( but they are going to do it) .With the night water temps the fish spreads them out really bad. I can see the water is starting to drop a little
bit. And I hate not to sell minnows but I am going to give you a little advice that might work for you. You probably ought to be using a couple of rods 2-3 ft. deep and another 3-4 ft. deep about 20 feet behind the boat (bubble gum seems to be the prevalent color) you might tip the jigs with a minnow and it might even be more
successful. I very seldom recommend this but when they are picky & tricky feeders it can't hurt. I am grasping at straws. I am going to the hardware stare this afternoon for 3 sticks of triple chartreuse dynamite. FISHING WILL IMPROVE!! :-)
BASS: I have talked to several bass fishermen on the water today and one of them caught an 11 inch stick and started to put in the live well!!! :-)
BREAM: Zip
STRIPE: Still mixed in with the crappie when you can find the crappie. If I was going to stripe fish I would go to Powerhouse Lake and watch for the birds. Generally, they have been around Pine Cone Marina and they have been pretty shallow. You can troll Mrs. Cheryl's jig's though them and with 6 lb. test have a ball.
CATFISH: I watched a couple of "Q TIPS" (now I am one of them), fishing off their pier with what looked like night
crawlers, wearing them out in shallow water. Again, big catfish are going to be around fish cleaning stations. You can catch them by fishing with rib cages or take the fish eggs and tie the up with a small piece of panty hose and put them on your hook and they just love it !! Sorry, the guys around here have used up all of Cheryl's old panty hose so bring you own!!
We deeply apologize that we have been unable to update you with what has happening here but just like the water, the new computer decided to go off the scale. I will do my best to update you everyday to let you know as conditions change with what our guide service is doing. Again, we are always at Bay Springs Restaurant at 7AM every morning for breakfast and we will be glad to help in any way we can. ( come meet us and maybe you might have some ideas for us :-) We are ALL out there flapping.
Be looking for you on the water or at the restaurant. We are all in the same situation!! Sincerely, Steve
Saturday March 24th: We had 20 GOOD crappie and 1 big stripe. The fish were shallow 3-4 ft. deep no matter what depth of water.
Sunday March 25th: Fish started 2-3 ft. deep Bubble Gum & Blue. After the end of the day the fish wet DOWN to 7-10 ft. deep.
Monday March 26 : Fish started out 5-6 ft. deep on a slow troll. Hot color was bubble gum & blue. Mid afternoon the fish moved shallow 2-3 ft. deep on a fast troll on no matter what depth. Short cast 2 1/1/32. Had 34 nice fish. 3 LB +.
Tuesday March 27th : Lake has fallen 2 ft overnight. Cold front came through last night.It was 24*F at 7AM this
morning. I started fishing at 10 AM and at 10 AM they were 4 ft. deep in 7-8 ft. of water. By 1 PM they had moved to 2 ft. deep in 4 ft. of water. I was running 1 1/32 blue or bubble. Had 60 keepers at quitting
time. Still not seeing spawning fish but females are CLOSE.
Best advise I can give you is start shallow in 7-8 ft. of water. If you cannot troll, or if you are out there flapping, use floats and jigs. Set you float to 2,3,4 ft. of
water. Approx. 20 feet behind boat, troll slow & control depth.
Start out using different color jigs ( 2 1/32) to see what is most productive for you.
Fish should BUST WIDE open any time.
Sincerely, Steve, Butch & Harry
www.lakeweissguideservice.com
256-927-6617
