Strange Aquatic Plant Growth In Amazing Private Pond. Seeking Advice To Fish It.

[Jay Ell Gee]

Good afternoon everyone. This summer, the private pond outside of my work has been overgrown with some seriously crazy moss (or something similar). This large pond is very well stocked, and has been known for some seriously monster bass, catfish, and even some nice redfish swimming around (no, I am not kidding, they were transplanted and have survived well). Seeing as how this pond is only accessible to employees, it is not fished very often and to make matters better, it has been seeing almost no pressure whatsoever since this crazy moss started growing. We have no idea what it is, but it is matted almost right up to the surface, just barely under. To give you an idea, it actually does break the water in certain spots, but a buzzbait over the submerged mat collects moss. I found a picture that looks similar to what I have been seeing, so I am including a link:

Here is my problem. I know that I have a very good chance of landing a very large personal best bass out of this large pond, but I am just about fed up with trying to fish it. I can usually pick off a few smaller (1-2 lb range) bass on a Ribbit, Pad Crasher, or Live Target Field Mouse, but when the topwater bite drops off, I am stuck fishing the inside weed edges between the weeds and the bank in less than two feet of water, usually with a texas rigged weightless senko. I will usually convince some fish to dart out from under the mat edge and hit the worm, but they are generally smaller guys as well. The pond has a decent drop (being 24/25 feet deep in the middle), but it is absolutely impossible to fish that far out with any lure that I have tried. These mats sometimes blow around when the wind picks up, and it seems as if they are finally starting to break up a bit (maybe the cold fronts are killing them?), but I am looking to expand my techniques to land my first lunker. Like I said, I probably have the best chance to land a monster here compared to any other places that I fish, so I really want to learn to become effective at fishing this place and start fishing for the big boys.

My question is this... do you guys have any lure/technique suggestions? We have to fish from the bank, so I was actually entertaining the idea of doing some "light" punching when I can find any thin spots in the pond. I say light because I really do not have the adequate tackle for a true punching setup. I will be using my Shimano Citica and Powell Diesel 7'2 MH/XF rod, as it is the stoutest rod I have for flipping. It only has a 3/4 oz max lure recommendation, but I should be able to use a bit more if I am just flipping and pitching, correct?

I am thinking about picking up some big tungsten weights and rigging some of my soft plastics weedless. I have plenty of Super Hogs, Pit Bosses, and even Rage Tail Anacondas (10") that I believe would work well. However, I have no idea what size/type of weight I need to use. I don't want to spend 20 dollars for a weight, but I want enough weight to fish the lure effectively in the weaker spots of the moss. I saw some wedge weights by Stanley in the 3/4 and 1 oz range that were much cheaper than tungsten but looked like they would penetrate rather well. Does anyone have any experience with these? Should I use an even higher weight? Do you have any suggestions as to WHERE I should punch? Edges of the mats? Do holes in the middle of larger mats hold fish?

I would really appreciate some advice guys, as well as any other suggestions to fish this area. Hopefully I can have my first real lunker to show when I get this figured out! Thanks in advance to anyone that contributes their knowledge!

[BrianinMD]

The rod should be okay, just don't get to comfortable and try to actually cast.

In regards to the baits you list, I wouldn't go with the Anacondas or anything which have a lot of appendages as they tend to wrap around the vegetation and not go to the bottom.

As for location, try holes in the weeds, where other structure maybe, in general any place that has some type of change to it. Whether its type of weeds, bottom structure, cover, any differences attract bass.

[deep]

  On 9/18/2012 at 3:17 AM, Jay Ell Gee said:

I saw some wedge weights by Stanley in the 3/4 and 1 oz range that were much cheaper than tungsten but looked like they would penetrate rather well.

Worked very well for what little punching I tried this season. I used the 1/2 and 3/4 oz weights only.

[papajoe222]

The general term used to describe that type of weed is 'pondweed' It grows down to depths of 10ft. but rarely deeper and will top out just under the surface. It is, as you've observed, tough to fish. It's tougher for the fish to navigate.

The first thing I would do is determine if the weed stems are as thick as the weeds themselves. It is rare that they are as most weeds are broader at the top than at the bottom. The next step would be how to present something to the fish that aren't willing to break through that mat and hit your top water. The last step would be to find an area of the pond that you; first can access and second offers the deepest water you can access.

You are correct in assuming that punching through the mat is likely your best option as there are likely few if any openings within casting distance.

Deadsticking your presentation after you punch through the weeds will acomplish two things. It will reduce your frustration when dealing with all the weeds that will cling to your lure every time you retrieve it and it will also give fish a chance to locate your presentation.

I recommend using some sort of rattle, preferably internal worm weights along with adding some sort of sent. I very rarely recommend specific products, but I'm going to make an exception here as I am a fanatic about adding scent to everything I use.

CB's Hawg Sauce is the best and most versitile one that I've found. It's available in both water based, which I would recommend for your situation, and oil based along with different 'flavors'

Good luck going after that PB and let us know how successful you are at fishing that jungle.

[mikey5string]

if you are absolutely stuck fishing from shore I would try these techniques.

1. Dont give up on the frog. The frog bite doesnt die when the topwater bite does. When people talk about the topwater bite dying or slowing, they are referring to the bass actively chasing shad or other baitfish on the surface. Generally the bass will go on "frenzies" and go after schooling baitfish at the surface. This activity slows down when the bait disperses or goes deeper. Frogs are always on or close to the surface, closer to the shore and in cover like weeds or mats. I separate "topwater" like spooks, buzzbaits and poppers from frogs. The former are more "open water" baits and the frog is great in heavy cover. I have had some of my best frog fishing mid day when the bass tuck in tight to cover in the shade and wait for an easy meal like a frog.

2. get some tungsten bullet weights. 3/4oz is pretty heave and will punch mats. Their smaller profile will help get them through heavy mats. I would peg a 3/4oz weight and throw something like a havoc pit boss in the weeds.

3. You dont have to throw senkos.. Try swimming a 5.5" hollow body swimbait along the inside weed edge. Try a heavy shakey head like the megastrike shake2 or chompers in 1/2oz with a craw liek a rage craw hopped along the inside weed edge.

4. Weightless t-rigged flukes on top of the grass. a drop shot with a heavier pencil weight and a texas rigged worm hook instead of a standard dropshot hook. This can get your bait throught the mat but keep it off the bottom for bass that may be lurking right under the weeds.

[deep]

Punching works just fine from the shore, as long as you can reach your target. The only trouble is, I had to wade out a couple of times to land big(ger) bass. But I don't catch a lot of big fish anyway, so once or twice in a while is all right with me lol.