This time of year a lot outdoorsmen are gearing up for the upcoming hunting season hoping to bag that big buck that visits them in their dreams every night. This is also the time when crappie anglers get real itchy to set the hook and bring back memories from this past years spring crappie season. This is one of my favorite times of year to be on Weiss -when the heat and humidity from the dog days of summer are gone and when foggy mornings and fall foliage signals that transition time has arrived. Crappie behavior is about to go from sluggish mode to one of aggression - the feeding frenzy is about to begin. Fueled on by cooler water temps and an appetite of a newborn baby and for crappie anglers this means one thing good times are on there way!
During this time of year most of your crappie are going to be found holding tight to cover right on the channel ledges of the old Coosa River waiting to ambush there prey as they seek shelter on under water stumps that are dotted up and down the old river bed. This pattern will hold true from October all the way thru mid November. The most popular technique for going after fall crappie here on Weiss Lake is simple technique called Bottom Bumping and if there ever was a finesse fishing technique for slab crappie this is it. It is simple rig to tie and is deadly when fished correctly. I like to start out with my reel spooled with 12 lb Sufix line using an eight foot BnM Pro Staff rod. You may ask why 12 lb line for crappie will you are going to be in contact with the bottom of the lake 99 % of the time and hang ups are a guarantee. Using this heavy of line allows you to pull free from hang-ups and save your rig every time. All we need to complete our bottom bumping rig is a simple a half oz weight on the bottom - come up 18 inches and tie on a #2 Eagle Claw snelled hook put on a minnow and go after them. All of this tackle is nothing special and all can be bought here locally. We now have our rig setup, so where do we start?
There are miles of channel ledges marked on Weiss Lake with markers on both the up stream and down streamside of the lake. I can tell you this from Bay Springs all the way up to Sand Valley has always produced fall slab-sized crappie. The most important part of this technique is being able to find structure on these ledges, there is no use in fishing a section of ledge that doesnt have some type of structure. Most of the structure on these ledges will be found in 10 to 14 feet water with the lake down at winter level,so this will give you a good starting point on your search for these paper mouth beauties. One last thing about Bottom Bumping - when you think you are going slow working the ledge you need to slow down even more, it should take about hour and half to work a 100 yard stretch of ledge. Fall fishing on Weiss is underrated and overlooked sometimes and to me is one of the best times to be on the water. So if you get an itch to cure those summertime blues get into a cooler full of line stretching slabs and you'll see what I mean...
Thanks
Good Fishin
Kelly Matthews
www.weisslakeguides.com