WEISS LAKE By Reed Montgomery /Reeds Guide Service
7 pounder!
After being lowered as much as 6 feet this past winter season, Weiss Lake the first of six Coosa River Impoundments is back to full pool. At least for another six-seven months.
During the months of May and June (early summer), this means bass anglers will now see loads of shallow water aquatic weeds growing lake wide. In addition there is plenty of wood cover such as resident-planted (and angler planted) brush piles, stumps, laying logs, trees and of course those summertime favorites, piers and boat houses.
Including bass release sites seen around Weiss lake’s Marinas. Places that have seen
Tournament Size Bass!
released, thousands of both spotted bass and largemouth bass this past winter and spring seasons, let go in both major bass tournaments and local, weekly bass tournaments as well.
Meaning a lot of those bass bedded and survived another spring spawning season.
By the month of May bass anglers will discover the majority of Weiss lake’s bass have all but abandoned their precious beds. Places they called home (they previously spent many weeks around), as they guarded the newborn baby bass fry for the last time, before they are let out on their own, in their new underwater world.
Topwater Time!
Topwater lures are the ticket to enticing some of Weiss lake’s “big bass bites” especially now, as the months of May and June show recuperating bass, still lingering around the lake’s shallow spawning grounds and once again ravenously feeding on hapless bait fish and other prey.
Tailoring your enticing little lures to the taste of these bass may include choosing and using many types of topwater lures. That is, if you hope to get bit. Around the lake’s weeds, wood cover, and rocks, there are always some hungry and very cooperating bass to target during this post-spawn, early summer period.
To successfully fish around the lake’s new growing weeds and to avoid frustration while hanging up (and then losing expensive lures and/or wasting time going after those hung lures in the shallows), use lures that were meant to be fished right up in these weeds without hanging up!
Imitation frogs are one type of lure that all anglers should have rigged and ready for this type of situation. You may have to try several different types of weedless, hollow bodied two-hook frogs, to discover which one has the best weedless capabilities. Some solid plastic-bodied frogs can be rigged with a 3/0 to 5/0 size hook as well. Heavy line is suggested.
Although not always labeled as “topwater lures” soft plastic, brightly colored air-injected worms such as Zoom’s “Trick Worms” and their soft plastic shad imitations Zoom’s “Flukes” are lures worked along the waters surface.
Or these lures can be allowed to sink, while still being visibly seen just under the water’s surface (with a good pair of polarized sunglasses), as anglers twitch and jerk these very enticing plastics for some big bass bites! Line in the 12-15 pound test category is suggested for these lures, when fished weightless.
Try topwater lures this May and early June period on Alabama’s Weiss lake!
* Other types of topwater lures (mostly those types featuring weed-grabbing treble hooks), can be successfully fished right up in weed lanes, openings in the weeds, around small weedy islands, or within thinner-growing weeds, mixed in with thicker varieties of aquatic these weeds (without hanging up) can be;
Chuggers, poppers, single or double prop-baits, walking-type topwater lures like Zara Spooks and Sammies or even older model waddlers like a Crazy Crawler or jointed body, broke-back jitterbug.
All of these lure types and the many other dozens of topwater lure choices, are great lures for fooling big, Weiss lake largemouth bass and maybe even an occasional big, spotted bass found cruising the weed edges!
Or maybe try a noisy, irritating clacking-type buzz bait. Which could entice that bass of a life time. Always use trailer hooks on buzz baits for short striking bass. Heavy line is suggested.
But, you have got to be there, trying to entice these big bass into biting your lures…to even have hopes of getting bit. Or you can always call on Reeds Guide Service…first!
” Weiss Lake’s Oldest, Professional “Bass Fishing Only” Guide Service. Guiding for Largemouth Bass, Coosa River Breed of Spotted bass and Some Huge, Striped Bass For Over Forty Years”
Frog Bass Caught in the Weeds!
Thanks and Good Fishin’ Reed Montgomery / Owner of Reeds Guide Service in Alabaster, Alabama. Website www.fishingalabama.com “Guiding For Bass Throughout all of Alabama For Over 40 Years, Year Round”
