First time Weiss Lake trip.....

[Wade2131]

Weiss Lake fishing…..
Well I got to fish Weiss Lake for the first time on 2/9/13… so I thought it might help a few “newbies” that may or may not be considering Weiss Lake…
I arrived on 2/8/13 and drove around looking at the lake; it was very low, about 4 feet below winter pool. There was a lot of dry land visible in the lake. I was expecting higher water levels for this time of the year but again this was my first visit.
I drove to the lodge that I had planned on staying at and it was in very rough shape, the lake looked even worse at this location due to the water level. So with that said, I drove to another lodge (Weiss Lake Lodge) and got a room. This lodge is off the water (major drawback) but the rooms are very well maintained and the cost was every affordable. I would recommend this place to anyone that doesn’t mind pulling your boat in and out of the water daily, great place to stay. Oh by the way, there is a 3.99 LB black crappie mounted in the office and if you have never seen a 3.99 LB crappie, stop in and take a look at it LOL.
Now onto the fishing….
With this being my first trip to Weiss Lake I got several recommendation from Crappie.com board members and settled on a guide named Kelly Mathews, his website is (http://www.weisslakeguideservices.com/contact.html), we settled on a departure time of 7:00AM and Kelly was on time and picked me up at the lodge, a good starting point. So we drove to Little River Marian and launched the boat. I must say that his boat was very well maintained neat and orderly. We had a rather chilly boat ride to a cove that had about 20 boats in it and began long line trolling. This was my first experience fishing this method and I must say it was pretty cool! I normally spider-rig or float and fly on KY and Reel Foot but after long line trolling I will try it on my home lakes.
I had a ½ day trip scheduled and we caught 100+ crappie with 20 keepers many where 12 to 13 inches. Most of the short fish where 9 ¾ and very heavy crappie, very thick healthy looking fish. With that said I would recommend Kelly for anyone looking for a crappie guide on Weiss, his boat set up, equipment, and ability to locate fish really surprised me. I know I watched other boats and we were catching fish when they were trolling looking for schools. The only drawback for me was all the short fish, but it was a blast catching so many in a short amount of time! Hopefully the last week of March will have the spawn in full swing.
-Wade

[kycreek]

Sounds like a successful trip.

[BAMA S]

Good report.... Congrats

[shipahoy41]

Very nice report. The best place to stay would have been Little River Marina and lodge. Not too many people know about that place but it is first class all the way. Google it and see for yourself. Nice catch.

[feeshrman]

Great report. I went to Weiss about 5 years ago and although I have crappie fished for years I bit the bullet and hired a guide. I did not regret it, we limited out with a great stringer of fish. Weiss is a dangerous, hazardous lake during winter pool, if you tear your rig up cause you don't know where you are going you will wished you had hired a guide.