Weiss Report, 5 April 2016

One fish.......that's all. A little windy today but seems the fish were hiding someplace we were not at. Put in at Yellow Creek launch, along with everyone else, and caught nothing. Went across and fish the causeway - nothing. Went out to main channel and nothing. Fished shallow around one of the islands and nothing. Finally caught one fish, not a keeper, while fishing toward the ramp.

I saw a few fish on the HB, but not a lot. Water temp (surface) was 62F, which should have been in the sweet spot, but the fish just don't seem to be there. I only saw one other boat landing a fish, and it wasn't a keeper either. What is going on with Weiss? First two times there we caught fish - not a boatload but we did catch fish. We were long-lining with different color bait, but no joy. So here's the real question - has Weiss been overfished?

Was at Weiss last week for 3 days had a total of 11 keepers and a lot of undersize fish. There was 2 of us fishing which tells you it was slow. There was more fish being caught off the docks and rocks at night at Little River Marina than I saw caught from boats. One morning we even trolled out from the marina just staying out from the docks to not interfere with the people that were fishing on the docks. Even had a guide come into the same area. On Yellow creek the first day we were there that was 23 boats in the same area. That afternoon we went to another place to fish a rock wall and you had to pull into a parking place just to cast up near the rocks. I think the lake is over fished. Their is more out of state license sold for Weiss lake than the rest of the state.

No way . they are their they sure get the pressure though!!! But that is one awesome lake.

Well if you go back and look all the posts about the catches and the number of boats that have been long lining from February till now............. some talking about 50 to 70 boats in the same area at 3 rods per person per boat ......as evidence see the pictures of "a weeks catch at Weiss " from some of our northern buddies.............. over fishing??? naw

Weiss can be tuff, I went 2 weeks ago after cold front took 2 hours to figure them out! Had 60, by 2:30 19 were keepers. I look at posts and I have one guide I trust for info.seems to me...everyone piles up in the same creeks? The fish are all over the lake. Little River is hard to beat but pressured. Look at the crappie USA tourney...after all the boats piled up in there the winning team found BIG fish in little river. Weights were up,and I had connections with a team in amature division. He said they had 200+ Lots of keepers,fish everyday. The trolled kicking up mud then. Had big fish on corks too. What happened to big noise and little? What about Cowen, Spring, and 3 mile? I wish I lived there , if the Lord wills I hope to retire there in 5 years.

If you notice its tough every where right now. One cold front after another with most of the fish up shallow makes it difficult. But, as I have said before the Lord protects his creation. I agree that Weiss has a lot of pressure and have long been an advocate of lowering the n limit. I would like to see 15 per person and 30 per boat. However, I know a lot of my friends who make a living one way or another off this fishery fear that a lot of tourism would be lost if this occurred. There is also an over abundance of catfish in Weiss lake and believe it or not they eat a lot of crappie and people don't keep catfish because of pcbs. We also have more and more comerants and pelicans. Of course its against the law to shoot them or any other nuisance and they eat a lot of fish. Also for some reason bait and fish seem to all go to one or two creeks at the same time. A couple of weeks ago when all those fish were in yellow creek and getting hammered every day I checked out Big nose and cowan because they are all similar in depth e.ct. There was very little in either creek. I live on the upper end of the lake. I did well last week in Ball play and mud creek. Did nothing in 3 mile or other mid lake creeks. Its a mystery to me. That is why its called fishing.

I believe some are right on with the out of state pressure.The same issue exist around the Big -G the word is out for trophy Bass and high creel limits of crappie and Bluegills.There are 15 per day limits of crappie and certain states and Brim no more than 30.
When you have Guides that take out 2 to 4 individuals sometimes 2 times a day and if you limit out? that could average 240 fish a day x 6 guides 1,400.00 fish.That is all good if the population of spawning fish can keep up with pressure from the experts and the novice fisherman.
Just few years ago on the Big -G a group of individuals from up north had close to 1,500 bluegills and shellcrackers and a freezer they had brought with theme and were caught at a local camp site.
I know there are guides that do a great service for the lakes and community and thank you for your hard work and fishing tips.Maybe a hand full of lakes can handle that much pressure but it's obvious the northern lakes can not.

I am fishing Weiss this week. Went Fri. And struggled to catch 8 fish! Tried shooting docks but had a novice fisherman with me and it was hard for him to make good cast. Planning on going several times this week. I am from out of town and I C&R. Always wondered why anyone would want to keep 60,120,180 fish? If I keep any it's 6,8,10 to eat within a few days and not to stock freezer. So it any locals see a red Lund/Mercury from Oh, Iam just having fun and releasing most of what I catch.

I fished Wed. 13th water temp in Yellow Creek and the Nose was 3-4* cooler than last Fri. Trolled and fished docks. Caught 2 trollin and 3 on the docks. The dock fish appeared to be BIG females full of eggs? Hope a few days of sun warm up the water and they will start bite n'.