Crappie generally spawn when water temperatures reach between 55 and 60 degrees. For the spawn they move into the shallows and lay their eggs near structure like brushpiles and fallen trees. When the water temperature is just below the level required for spawning, the papermouths tend to “stack up” in slightly deeper water and feed aggressively in preparation for the spawn. This is the best time of year to catch plenty of crappie fat with eggs and hungry from the winter fast.

One of the best methods for catching crappie during the pre-spawn period is by trolling small jigs or minnows over ledges near flats. There is a lot of cover on Weiss so the fish may be spread out a bit, but you may find bunches of them in schools. Dragging an array of jigs or minnows slowly behind the boat is a great way to locate fish. If you get a strike or two as you pass a certain section, turn the boat around and drag the baits back through that section. If you hit fish again in the same area, you may want to stop the boat and cast either jigs or minnows to those fish. If you are on a school, you may load the boat in a very short period of time.

Once the fish have moved in for the spawn, it’s often tough to troll a bait by them in the shallow cover. In that case, suspending a live minnow under a bobber in the spawning area is a better bet.

Another method that is particularly popular at Weiss is “pushing.” This is a method of slow trolling where the rods are placed in the bow of the boat rather than the stern. Extremely long rods of about 12 feet are used to get the baits well out in front of the boat and a heavy weight of 3/4 to 1 ounce is attached to the line to keep the offerings straight down and away from the trolling motor. With the baits suspended in that fashion it is easy to maneuver the boat around the cover and get the baits right in front of the bedding fish.

Abundant cover is one source of Weiss’ excellence as a fishery, but it also introduces hazards that can spell real trouble for boaters. Very shallow overall, the lake contains so many stumps that it’s impossible to mark them all, so proceed cautiously while on the water. You can be going along in relatively deep water and suddenly find yourself in the middle of a stump-laden flat only a foot deep.

It should be noted that Alabama and Georgia have concluded no reciprocal license agreement for Weiss, so you’ll need to have the license of the state whose waters you are fishing in.

According to Hakala, the best locations to find crappie on the Georgia section of the lake are in Brushy Branch, Kings Creek, and Mount Hope Creek. Stay off the main section of the lake and back in the creeks for best results early in the year.

ALLATOONA LAKE
Allatoona Lake, 30 miles north of Atlanta, is a 12,000-acre impoundment on the Etowah River. This is one of the older lakes in Georgia, with the dam completed in 1950. It is also one of the most heavily visited U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lakes in the nation.