WINTERTIME
CRAPPIE FISHING AT WEISS LAKE
Here They Come
EDITOR’S NOTE: Jason Tucker, who guides out of
J.R.’s Marina on Weiss Lake near Cedar Bluff,
Alabama, has guided and fished on Lake Weiss, known
as the Crappie Capital of the World, for 18 years. He
guides more than 200 days a year for crappie during
the fall, winter and spring and for striped bass during
the hot summer months. Tucker’s also a member
of the Weiss Lake Improvement Association and Crappie
Unlimited, and you’ll learn more about both these
organizations. Crappie Unlimited has the most-unique
inshore artificial-reef-building program ever that’s
funded by crappie fishermen, for crappie fishermen,
and improves the habitat for all the fish in the lake.
During the winter months when the power company draws
down Weiss Lake 6 feet, most of the crappie from the
shallow water upriver migrate down the river, or else
they’ll be flopping on the bank. The Blow Hole
is a deep-water bend in
the river that’s loaded with nutrients and also
contains a municipal-treated discharge water and warm
water. That’s what makes this spot such a great
place to catch crappie during cold weather. In the spring
when the water level’s raised, the crappie will
go back up the river. This spot is so popular and produces
so many fish that on any given day 10 to 30 boats may
be fishing there, and all the anglers will be catching
fish. In one week at Weiss in the wintertime before,
I’ve produced over 800-keeper size crappie (10
inches or more) for the clients who fish with me. We’ve
tagged and released thse crappie back into the lake
for the Weiss Lake Improvement Association’s month-long
tournament. The money from this tournament’s entry
fees then is used to stock 100,000 crappie each year
back into the lake, to place buoy markers in Weiss so
that fishermen know where the channels are and to help
put brush in the lake to create habitat for the crappie.
We try and tag 1,000 fish each year, with each of these
tagged fish worth $25 to $1000. In 2003, a lady caught
a tagged fish that was worth $10,000.
We’re often asked why we’re stocking Weiss
Lake with crappie. Up until 2005, the State of Alabama’s
Fisheries Section of the Department of Conservation
and Natural Resources never had stocked the lake. So,
the fishermen and the business people around Weiss Lake
created this fundraiser to make sure we had plenty of
crappie in our lake for fishermen to catch since anglers
took a tremendous amount of crappie out of this lake
every year. Tourism is one of the main sources of income
for this entire area, and fishermen are the number-one
tourists
who visit this region. We’ve also learned quite
a bit about the crappie in our lake. In 1984, the area
around the lake experienced a severe drought, and the
crappie didn’t get off a very good spawn. We had
two other bad droughts in 1991 and 1993.
When the crappie have a bad spawn, you can still catch
keeper fish for a couple of years, but then the crappie
will have a down year. Biologists have learned that
the success of the crappie spawn is dependent on one
of two things: stable water conditions, or more importantly,
flood-water conditions. When a flood occurs during the
crappie spawn, the crappie will give off a tremendous
spawn. If the water’s stable, the crappie will
have a good spawn. But when the area around Weiss has
a drought, and the water falls, or the lake shrinks,
the crappie will have a terrible spawn. This reason
is why you see the boom-or-bust crappie cycles on most
lakes throughout the country. To solve this problem,
we’ve learned that if we put 100,000 crappie,
3- to 5-inches long in the lake each year, even if the
lake has a drought, still the crappie can get off a
fairly-good spawn. We’re stocking black nose crappie,
which are supposed to grow faster than the native crappie.
We can identify them because each of these crappie has
a black stripe down it’s nose.
In the past, Alabama’s Fisheries Section haven’t
believed that stocking crappie could stabilize a crappie
population. However, because of our stocking program
and the follow-up studies done by Auburn University,
we’ve proven that stocking crappie every year
and stabilizing the population keeps the lake producing
large numbers of crappie. Weiss also
has a 10-inch size limit on the crappie that anglers
can keep to ensure there’s plenty of young crappie
coming on every year that will be harvestable fish the
following year. Our program of restocking and the research
done by Auburn University has been so conclusive that
now the state of Alabama has helped us by starting to
stock crappie in the lake. In early December 2005, the
Fisheries Section stocked 100,000 crappie in Weiss.
If the state keeps up its stocking program, and the
Weiss Lake Improvement Association continues to stock
crappie each year, the lake will be receiving 200,000
crappie every year.
To learn more about Jason Tucker, J.R.’s Marina
and the fishing at Weiss Lake call (256) 779-6461 or
visit www.jrsmarina.com.
TOMORROW: WHY THE LENGTH LIMIT
AND WHY SPIDER-RIGGING
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