Sports: Outdoors

Let’s vegetate

• Concentrating on fishing submerged grassbed spots can alleviate many grass-fishing headaches and ultimately result in multiple numbers of nice bass on the end of one’s line.

Bob Kornegay

The harried largemouth angler in the boat some 30 yards away must have held a masters degree in profanity. From his mouth flowed a stream of some of the “bluest” language imaginable. His vocabulary contained more noteworthy and creative curse words than Richard Pryor’s and Eddie Murphy’s combined. In the fisherman’s defense, however, he at least had the decency to beg the pardon of my fishing partner and me. His apology also explained the not-uncommon motivation for his considerable wealth of expletives.

“Forgive me, friends,” he said, “but this blinkety-blank grass is just about to aggravate me to death. I don’t know how folks can stand to fish it without going slap crazy. For every minute I’ve spent fishing today, I’ve spent another 10 pulling weeds off my lures and getting junk off my line.”

It wasn’t long afterward that a buddy noticed the man fire up his outboard and roar away toward the boat ramp. He went home, most likely not to return until fall, when the lake’s abundance of aquatic vegetation would be less lush, thinner, and easier to negotiate and fish.

Though all bass fishermen hate grass (here, a collective term for surface and subsurface plant species) at one time or another, the truly serious angler has reason to love it as well. This common Deep South love/hate attitude stacks up two ways.

“Thick grass and weeds in a lake or pond can be frustrating,” North Florida fisherman Bart Bradley said. “The traditional casting and retrieving techniques can often be useless and your lures turn into little more than grappling hooks for huge wads of vegetation. On the other hand, there is usually a large number of fish in the grass and that number often includes some very big largemouth bass.”

Bass and other warm-water fishes love grass and weeds for a very simple reason. Green vegetative cover provides what every freshwater predatory fish must have to survive: summertime shade, an ample hot-weather oxygen supply, and strategic ambush points from which the predator can successfully attack and subsequently consume its prey. Thus, many knowledgeable fishermen are quite willing to put up with the inherent fishing frustration that is an “occupational hazard” for thick-cover anglers.

But exactly how does one go about fishing vegetation, particularly in the summertime, when the biggest fish may well be secluded deep in the thickest weed bed, lily pad patch, or grass mat?

“The solution is to take what the grass gives you,” Bradley said. “Adapt. Don’t try to force your so-called tried-and-true fishing methods on the situation at hand.”

According to Bradley, the real secret to fishing thick grass and weeds, in general,

is holes and edges. Concentrating on fishing these specific “open” spots can alleviate many grass-fishing headaches and ultimately result in multiple numbers of nice bass on the end of one’s line.

“First,” Bradley continued, “there is seldom a patch of aquatic vegetation, no matter how thick or expansive, that isn’t pock-marked with open, weed-free holes and occasional pockets of open water. With the right lures and presentations, these holes in the grass may be fished easily and effectively.”

If the vegetation is lily pads, for example, start out with weedless topwater baits in a mouse or frog pattern. Lighter colors are good on bright days and dark is good early and late or during an overcast.

“Cast the lure onto the pads and retrieve it with a twitch-and-rest motion until it reaches one of those openings I mentioned,” Bradley said. “Then stop it in the open-water pocket and let it sit a minute before resuming your retrieve.

Repeat that process several times in the same spot before you move on to the next hole.”

If topwater action is not immediately forthcoming, a jig-and-pork or jig-and-craw combination or Texas-rigged worm can be cast directly into the open pocket. Once the bait is exactly where the angler wants it, he should then work it slowly, making it hop and wriggle in one spot.

For fishing surface or subsurface vegetation like hydrilla or milfoil, the same methods can be employed. The growth pattern of these particular plants, however, will also allow a bait to be presented not only in open pockets, but in the thick stuff itself.

“A heavily weighted worm or bass jig can be made to fall through the surface mat and down into the open water below,” Bradley explained. “Again, fish it very slowly.”

The edges of practically any kind of vegetation can be easily fished with lures like spinnerbaits, crankbaits, or worms. The spinnerbait is often an ideal choice. Work the lure as parallel as possible to the vegetation and run it right along the “grassline.”

“Fish as close to the grass as possible and experiment with both deep and shallow retrieves,” Bradley said. “Aggressive fish will leave the vegetative cover long enough to grab the lure before dashing back to their ‘hideout.’ Topwater baits along these surface and subsurface edges are not usually as productive.”

Weedless spoons like the old standby Johnson Silver Minnow or the newer Rapala models are also good grass lures. Tipped with a pork frog or plastic worm tail, they can be deadly crayfish or frog imitations and will often produce when all else fails. These spoons can be fished in the thickest vegetation without hang-ups or those aggravating grass-wads on the end of the line.

One final important point: Never fish thick vegetation without stout equipment. Stiff rods are needed for positive hooksets, while strong baitcasting reels and heavy line make it more likely you’ll hoist your catch from its grassy hideaway.

Don’t shy away from fishing the grass this summer. You’ll be one up on the fellow who got mad and went home.

More Sports>>