 WINTERTIME
CRAPPIE FISHING AT WEISS LAKE
Why the Length Limit and Why Spider-Rigging
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.
 Weiss
Lake’s fishermen and merchants have banded together
and asked the State of Alabama to impose a 10-inch crappie
limit at Weiss. We’ve learned that the 10-inch
fish is one of the best spawners and reproducers. Today,
crappie caught at Weiss have to be more than 10-inches
long before an angler can add them to his or her creel.
The fish over 10 inches in length are the bigger, better,
eating-size fish. We realize we have to take the larger
crappie out of the lake so that there’s plenty
of food for the smaller fish to grow. We’ve learned
that by leaving the crappie less than 10-inches long
in the lake that we can have a large sustainable yield
of crappie each year. Studies have indicated that 90
percent of the fishermen who come to fish at Weiss Lake
travel from out of state, primarily from Georgia, Tennessee,
Kentucky and Indiana. The drawing card that causes these
anglers to leave their home states, visit Weiss Lake,
and fish is that we not only have large numbers of crappie,
but we have large numbers of big crappie.  At
this time of the year, most of the average keeper crappie
will weigh from 1- to 1-1/2-pounds each. February through
April, you’ll catch a lot of fish that weigh from
1-1/2- to 3-1/2-pounds, and that’s a good grade
of crappie. Our winters are usually relatively mild.
For instance on December 27, 2005, by 10:00 a.m., we
had 50-degree weather. We very rarely get snow and very
rarely have freezing temperatures throughout the winter
and the early spring in this section of the South. Therefore
northern anglers not only come to Weiss to catch crappie
but also to stay warm.
Although we catch crappie all year long, our prime
month for crappie fishing is February 15th to March
15th, when Weiss’s crappie are staging-up for
the spawn. We’ll usually find large schools of
females suspended out in the middle of the river and
catch them by trolling, also known as spider-rigging.
 We
use 10- and 12-foot-long B’n’M poles on
the front of the boat and troll 8-foot B’n’M
poles. We’ll use either the Spike-It Superflys
or the Spike-It rubber jigs and 10-pound-test Mossy
Oak Fishing Line. But before February 15th, we usually
fish areas like the Blow Hole. On an average day, each
fisherman can usually get his limit of 30 crappie quickly.
One time a fishing buddy and myself caught over 400,
10-inch or bigger crappie in one day as we tagged and
released them for the Weiss Lake Improvement Association’s
annual crappie tournament.
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: CRAPPIE PLUS
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