Fishing News - 4/17/01
Lake Weiss Fishing Report
DATE: 4-17-01
CURRENT LAKE LEVEL: Full pool + a couple inches
NORMAL SUMMER POOL: 564.0
SURFACE TEMP: 66.1
WATER CLARITY: Good
CRAPPIE: Catching a lot of short or just barely 10" males. None of them in their spawning colors as of
yet. "Where are the big females?" I do not know.Am just catching the occasional good
female. My guess is they are still out deep because of the crazy
weather. Alabama Power jerked the lake down about 2 foot about a week ago, just when they started
in. The lake is full + now. All this in about 1 week. Now on top of those problems we are going to have a couple of nights here in the
30's.
I had 14 crappie today. I fished everywhere I knew to fish and every way I knew how to fish for the 14.Generally our season goes through mid May and possibly through the first of June. I do not believe that the crappie fishing is done for the spring on Weiss Lake. I believe that with some stable weather and water it should break open. I will keep the fishing report up to date as things change but as of today things are VERY tough! Best colors have been triple green & bubble gum.
I saw a young man and woman fishing off a dock in Powerhouse down by Lack's fish camp and they were throwing minnows about 6" deep with a float and they had probably 12-15 crappie when I saw them
yesterday. The kicker was that they were fishing off a dock that was so shallow that I couldn't even get to with my
boat. This leads me to believe that the fish could possibly be in a foot to one and 1/2 feet of
water. But, I cannot get into that shallow of water in a boat. I am not going to throw
minnows. I am going to throw jigs. This area was just a flat, no drop off no deep banks,no rocks, just a few scattered pencil size stumps in
there. I do not know if this information will help you or hurt you as things change on a daily basis sometimes.
BASS: Bass fishing started to loosen up. Sand bars and rip rap and around the edge of the bank
some. Rat'l traps and spinner baits were doing good. However, the cold we are going to get will not help the bass fishing
either. Expect they will get lock jaw for at the very least a few
days I will try to keep you up to date as to what the cold has done to them.
WHITE BASS: Have been mixed in with the crappie. I presume they are trying to do the same thing the crappie are trying to do.
BREAM: Starting to show up shallow now. I presume they are wanting to spawn
too. They are very aggressive right now.
STRIPE: I had a gentleman and his son and wife. The son was 32 years old and his name is
Jeff. I fished them on the 10th & 11th of this month. eff is a remarkable young
man. He can tell you every governor of every state and state reps and
congressmen. Jeff's favorite thing is the news. His next favorite thing is catching
fish. Friendliest fellow you would want to meet. (And yes Jeff, as I know you will be reading this, I am going to put your pictures on the web
site.) On the 10th we had 66 nice crappie. The morning of the 11th by about 9:30 we had 15.I was leaving the Hawg's Den area when I saw birds diving on shad in open water out by the second channel
marker. I asked them if they liked to catch stripe. They said they were not sure but would like to
try. We put Mrs. Cheryl's 1/16th oz. Bubble Gum jigs on and threw out 6 lines with ultra-lights and 6lb.
test. We had not gone 20 feet and we had one on. Jeff's mother got the first one
on. I have never heard a noise like she let out before.
Two cigarettes and a half later we landed her stripe. Jeff got the next one on and he did a super job with
him. To make a long story short, 3 hours later we had 15 in the
boat. We continued to crappie fish and caught another 15 and fished to quitting
time. We came right back through where we had caught the stripe earlier and Jeff's mother said " Oh please just one more" We threw our lines out, went 20 feet, and 2 1/2 cigarettes later we boxed Jeff's fish. Finished the day with 16 stripe and 30
crappie. There is a little trick if you fish for stripe on ultra-light line and
rigs. Make sure your line spool is full, use a light action rod, and back the drag off as far as it will go (The reason for this is so he does not break the line on his first
run). Get him on and start tightening the drag just a little bit at the
time. Start slowing him down and hold your rod tip high.Keep tightening the drag until you get him
stopped. Make sure there is plenty of slippage in case he makes a second
run. Take it easy and work the fish until he tires out and you can get him to the boat.
CATFISH: They are catching them around the banks after dark using just about anything from rib cages to chicken livers.
As always see you at Bay Springs for breakfast at 7am.We are always glad to help anyone out whether you need a guide or
not. See you on the water!
Sincerely, Steve, Butch & Harry
www.lakeweissguideservice.com
256-927-6617
