It’s finally starting to feel
like summer around here! The rain and
cold fronts are finally starting to come to an end giving the local ponds and
lakes a chance to remain at a consistent water level. Once that begins to happen you can guarantee
that our local waters will start to show some heavier weed growth…some more so
than others. This can be a really
frustrating time for a lot of anglers because what worked in the spring is now
getting piled on with weeds and muck every other cast. It makes it even more frustrating because
the bass take shelter in the hot summer days underneath these weed mats and
lily pads making them harder to access and catch. I remember fishing a local pond in my neck
of the woods four or five years ago that used to get choked up with weeds every
summer. It was nice because it kept the
weekend warriors at bay for a while, but it also made it tough for me to figure
out for the longest time until I started using a few key lures…
1) Topwater
hollow belly frog
2) Zoom
Fluke
3) Buzzbait
4) Weightless
Senko
5) Swim
jig
6) Weighted
Texas Rig
The lures above aren’t completely fool proof, but 9 times
out of 10 you should be able to work the bait effectively without bringing in a
10 lb pile of weeds every cast.
The areas you want to target with these lures are…
1) Open
pockets within the weedline
2) Thinner
patches of weeds in the weedline
3) Outer
edges of the weedline
Open voids and thinner layers of
weeds always allow bass to blow up on a lure much easier than the thick matted
weeds that line parts of the weed bed.
The easier it is for them to see and get to the bait, the easier it will
be getting a good hookset. Weightless
lures like a senko and fluke should also be worked into open pockets and outer
weed edges. What I like to do is throw the lure past the pocket….give it a
couple good pops before it reaches the pocket to create disturbance on top of
the weed bed…and then once I get to the edge of the pocket I give it one more
good pop and then let it sink into the pocket.
I have caused some major blowups by doing this and really gets them fired
up!
If there were only a couple of
things I would add to my gear line up for fishing in weedy areas, it would
first start with braided line. Braided
line has no stretch giving you solid hooksets after a fish takes a lure under
into matted weeds, and it cuts through weeds and lily pads more easily than
fluoro and mono. The second thing that I
would have handy is a longer MH or H spinning rod or baitcaster. Braid does help you achieve a more solid
hookset but means nothing if you don’t have some backbone to back it up. The last thing you need is a nice bass
blowing up on a frog and you are throwing 10 lb mono on a medium light rod….that
won’t end well.
Hopefully these tips will help
you out on the water the next few months, and I guarantee the strikes that will
occur will be heart pounding! If only I
had video of the topwater strikes I have had on a frog the last few years….just
incredible!
Tight lines!
Fluke
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