WEISS LAKE — Green is a most desirable color for summer lawns, St. Patrick's Day, and inside your wallet. It also has significance for Weiss Lake. Barely observed by most lake passersby is a blossoming of greenery that sprouts around the perimeter of the summer shores of the lake.

Every year by late April, grass sprigs begin breaking the water's surface. They emerge as tiny, green stalks, thin at the base, splitting and sprouting at the top. The grass, or “weeds” as it is sometimes called, grows thicker throughout the summer, appearing like a wavy, green wig by Labor Day.

Just as a fern or potted plant might add color and distinction to a room, Weiss's grass lends a degree of aesthetic beauty to the lake. Yet the group that most anxiously awaits the grass's spring arrival is the fishermen. Bass fishermen flock to the grass much like zealous women race to sale racks in department stores.

The grass is a Weiss shoreline secret. While pontoon partiers and jet-ski thrill-seekers may be the more obvious type of spring and summer watercraft, dozens of anglers discreetly meander to the grass patches in the lake's backwaters.

Robert Farrar, an avid local angler and head of the Weiss Lake Junior Bassmasters, has noted the trend. While fishing recently on Weiss, he observed five other boats fishing the grass, one right after the other on the shoreline opposite him.

“You don't hear many fishermen talking about the grass, but when you're out on the lake, you find that a lot of people are fishing the grass,” said Farrar, who once caught a seven-and-a-half-pound largemouth bass while fishing the weeds.

“The grass will draw the bass into it,” he said. “There, it has food and shelter. “Everything about catching bass really revolves around the edge of the grass. By the summertime, there are not a lot of open spots inside the grass bed for lures to be cast.”

All of Alabama's lakes on the Coosa River are known for sporting such shoreline grass. Though bass-filled grass patches can be found on Weiss from the Leesburg canal to the Georgia line, the preponderance of weed concentration seems to be in the areas east of Centre and Cedar Bluff.

Fishermen point to Godfrey's Island, Three-mile Slough, James Branch, and Mud Creek as prominent grassy hotspots.

Derek Coburn of Oneonta recently fished in a bass tournament on the lake and was quick to credit the Weiss weeds for his catch.

“I was glad to see the grass. I wish there was even more of it,” Coburn said. “Just throw your lure into any little gap in the grass, and you better hang on!”

The green patches that dot the Weiss shoreline have often led to anglers pocketing green of a more profitable kind, as well.

Mark Pike, who has bass fished on Weiss for 23 years, said most summer fishing tournaments are won “in the grass.”
“I like to fish the greenest weeds I can find, but anytime the weeds are there, the fishing's better,” he said. “You can catch even in the shallow weeds during the heat of the summer.”

Former fishing guide Elton Beason doesn't describe himself as an avid grass fisherman, but he visits weeds because bass stay there.

“It starts revolving around the spawn and bass definitely stay around the weeds near the spawn,” Beason said. “I like the weeds closest to deep water myself.”

Beason, who recently caught a bass well in excess of five pounds from the grass, began fishing Weiss even before he moved to Cedar Bluff in 1986.

“There are a lot of people that will fish in the weeds and won't tell you.”

While most anglers agree that largemouth bass dwell in and around the spring weeds, lure recommendations for landing those lunkers vary as much as gas prices.

Farrar is partial to casting spinner bait and buzz bait on the grass line. A spinner bait has a wire connecting two twirling, silvery blades with a skirted lure, while a buzz bait's wire connects a metal propeller-type gadget with its skirted lure.

Coburn prefers little plastic baits (lizards, worms, and the like) with the occasional buzz bait over shallow grass. Pike likes the spinner bait and a plastic twitching worm called a fluke, but says that “swimming a jig” is also an effective technique. A jig is a skirted lure like a spinner bait without the wire and the blades.

Pike also states that “chatter bait” has become popular in the grass this year. A chatter bait is similar to a jig, but with a metal plate attached to the head.

Beason, too, likes a spinner bait and buzz bait, but says a plastic lizard is not only effective, but inexpensive. He also says that “swim bait” may also be successful in the Weiss weeds. (A swim bait is a very realistic imitation of a small fish with a tail that moves.)