Angler's Choice "The Largest Team Bass Fishing Trail in America"

At full pool the lake is 52 miles long with 447 miles of big fish harboring shoreline!

Weiss is probably the best kept big bass secret in the state. Prior to fishing Weiss, the only thing I had ever heard about the lake was the fabulous Crappie (that silver thing that looks like a fish - but smaller!) fishing. Every year they have several big Crappie tournaments on the lake, and fishermen from all over the country come to catch them. There are more out-of-state fishing license sold on Weiss than any other lake in the state. In all the marinas and tackle shops around the lake you can see mounted specimens in the two to four pound range. However, if you continue to look around the same walls, you will find mounted Kentucky Spotted Bass in the four and five pound range and Largemouth Bass in the teens!

My ten member Krystal Fishing Team started sponsoring the first tournament every March for one of the local Weiss Lake team trails about eight years ago. The winning weight for the five fish tournament has been right at thirty pounds, with the big fish being in the nine-pound range. One year the top five teams all had over twenty-five pounds, and there were nine fish weighed in over eight pounds. That is pretty strong for any lake. It is about the only lake that I fished that you could loose a five pound bass and not worry about it because you were sure to hook another one before the day was out. The last few years Weiss, as has every other lake that I have fished, or heard of, has had a dramatic downturn in their fish production. Still yet, I would rather fish Weiss than any other lake around here because… "on any given cast…".
The patterns I am about to share with you are only used by a few of us, but we consistently come to the stage to pick up a check. They fly in the face of logic, so when we tell people what we are doing, they don't believe us. Some even watch us, but still don't believe us. But, that's OK, we enjoy the money and being able to fish pretty much where ever we want, without a lot of company!

During these hot months, June - July - Aug, about everyone thinks deep. The deeper the better! If you are one of those, then try the river ledge South of the "short cut bridge" on Hwy 9, from Marker 28 down to Marker 24. That's where the Little River and the Chatooga Rivers meet the Coosa River, and it consistently gives up some real heavy weight Bass. Your best bet is a deep diving crank bait that will run 15 to 18 feet deep, a Jig-n-Pig, or a Carolina Rig with a 10 to 12 inch worm or a 6 to 9 inch Lizzard, fished slowly across the mouth of the creek drop-offs. The ledge between Marker 14 and Marker 12, where Yellow Creek and Big and Little Nose flow into the Coosa, is another great location. Although there is a lot of River Ledge from the Hwy 411 bridge in Leesburg to the Hwy 9 bridge in Cedar Bluff, most of it is hit-and-miss, with the exception of the two places I just pointed out. The bluff from The Hawg's Den Marina at the Hwy 9 bridge in Cedar Bluff all the way down to Marker 34, across from the State Ramp on Hwy 9, is excellent when there is some current flowing. Several tournaments have been won off that stretch using a Jig-n-Pig or a worm hopped down the rocky bank. The point just above the bridge, on the left going into the Hawg's Den Marina, comes out a good ways and always holds some good fish when there is some water running. The deep diving crank bait and the Carolina Rig both work great here. Most of the "deep water" fishing takes place between the Hwy 411 and Hwy 9 bridges.

However, remember one thing - fish, most of the time, come to shallow water to feed. The second thing to remember is that Weiss is a shallow water lake. That means that the vast majority of fish in the lake are used to staying in shallow water 24/7. It doesn't matter how cold, or how hot the water gets, they will still be in relatively shallow water. We have caught fish in less than two feet of water when the temperature has been from 40 degrees to 96 degrees. I don't mean sometimes, I mean all the time.

Last July my partner, Jerry Lackey, and I won the U.S. Angler's Choice, Georgia Division, tournament on Weiss with 19.96 pounds. Second place was, if I remember right, about twelve pounds. Our two largest fish, one 5.93 and one 5.96 pounds came out of very shallow water. The water was 93 degrees, and both those big fish, as did the rest of the string, and seven more that we culled, came out of less than two feet of water. One was on a Jig-n-Pig, and the other was on a worm, but both were in brush and log jams. Here's the secret - the shallow side of the brush piles and logs! A boat pulled in front of us and cut us off as we were fishing a line of logjams up river. We just waited until they left the one they wanted to fish and pulled up to it and fished the brush closest to the shallow water. They had fished the outsides with a crankbait and a spinnerbait where it dropped into the channel, and didn't get a bite. On the first cast to the shallow side I caught the 5.96 on a quarter ounce jig. We had four more good fish on that pulled off, or broke off during that tournament, and we should have easily weighed in close to thirty pounds… all in less than two feet of water on the edge of the deepest water in the area. Some were on the leading or trailing edge of the bluffs where they started dropping into deep water. Others were at the leading or trailing edges of rip-rap around bridges or roadways, and others were on shallow blow-downs near deep water. You just had to fish slow and jiggle the bait in the shallow brush until they couldn't stand it anymore and had to bite it!

These are not isolated cases. We consistently catch big bass in "skinny water" year round on Weiss using the same baits that you normally would for other depths. I'm not going to try to tell you that there is some "super secret" baits that you just must use if you want to catch fish on this pattern. You use the same baits that you normally use, with the exception of really deep diving baits. Most people are going to "dance with the one that brung ya", which is OK in most cases. On a new lake, regardless of what you have been told the pattern was, you will revert back to your "confidence" bait if you don't get bit right away. It's human nature, and it's universal. I, and other members of The Krystal Fishing Team, have shown anglers from the weekend novice to the BASSMASTER contenders patterns and baits. However, if they don't get bit right away they go back to what they think the fish must want, not what we know they do want, because it flies in the face of logic.
This pattern has worked on all parts of Weiss, up river, down river, sloughs, main river, flats, or wherever. It has worked especially well up Yellow Creek, Little River, Chatooga River, around Hog Island and Big Nose Creek. It works on rocks, wood, trees, brush or weeds. You just have to get a different mind set. You wouldn't think it unusual if I said to throw top water in shallow water first thing in the mornings would you? That water is still in the 90's, or close to it, at that time of the day, right? The fish are there, right? They are in shallow to feed, right? For the most part, they are big fish that hit top water, right? The only thing different later in the day is sunshine. That is the only thing that changes, so you change with it. You fish in the shade! Rocks trees, brush, weeds or the shady banks. Throw what you normally catch fish on this time of year, but fish it differently. Throw a lighter weight Jig-n-Pig, and throw it around shallow wood, brush or trees, not just on bluffs and ledges. The same with worms and lizzards, except downsize! This is important. Use a 4-inch Ringworm, a 4-inch Lizzard or a Baby Brush Hog, but use it with 17 to 20 pound test line, a one-eighth ounce weight, and a 2/0 Gamakatsu Super Line hook. Do Not Use a regular 2/0 hook because the big fish will straighten them out and break smaller test lines. The fish will be close and you will break them off on the hook set if you use light line and light hooks. You won't catch a lot of fish, but the ones you do catch will be worth catching. The big advantage you will have will be the lack of competition for your fish. You will see boats lined up all along the bluffs and ledges sharing the few fish that are to be found there, and there are some to be found on those places in hot weather. However, you can fish this shallow pattern virtually all day without meeting another boat. That means you will have first shot at all the fish you come to, with a better chance of a hook-up. You just fish the same places you fish your top water baits, but use worms or jigs instead of a buzz baits or poppers when the " big eye" comes up.
Give it an honest effort and it will give you more than you expect!

Jim Shank and his ten man Krystal Fishing Team regularly fish most all of the lakes on the Chattahoochee, Tallapoosa, Coosa and Tennessee Rivers. He can be reached by E-mail at JEShankWVa@aol.com. Be sure to put "U.S. Angler's Choice Info" as the Subject.