I’m heading out to Weiss Lake next weekend to go crappie fishing. Where is a good place to go on the lake, and what baits and strategies should I use to catch them?

Weiss Lake is well-known and bountiful with crappie that its nicname is “Crappie Capital of the World”. It really depends on what time of year you are fishing and some very diverse variables. When you are fishing for crappie the prespawn time, you really have to know the lake and the crappie and keep up with their movements as the day progresses and weather might change. See, the fish move higher and lower in the water as conditions change during the day. During prespawn, as the day warms, the crappie are going to move into the shallows. The real trick is determining where the crappie are holding in Lake Weiss. If you use your sonar, you can pretty easily find them, but if the water is very clear or the crappie are spawning, they will be about a foot to a foot and a half in the water, and your boat will spook them, and your sonar show nothing when the crappie are just all around you. You will have to adjust your depth continually all day long as the conditions change though. It can be very hard to see crappie when they are right on the bottom too. So, that is another approach to take when you see nothing on your depth finder. Fish that 1 to 2 feet just under you, and if you have no luck, switch to the bottom. You’ll find Weiss full of deep channels, coves, drop-offs and shallow flats throughout the lake. Keep an eye peeled in these areas and you will find the crappie. There are a lot of crappie lures out there, and you can still catch crappie on minnows and the old stand by baits as well. Try a 1.5″ bass assassin in pearl, with a 1/16 head in chartreuse, or a 1/8 jig head tipped with a minnow. Something as simple as a bass assassin tipped with a minnow will work well for you too!