Jigs N Grass

[Redhed]

excellent info man..excellent. we do not have much weeds in my local lakes however our 4acre pond is loaded iwth it.. i may practice in that.. normally i go weightless and fish the outskirts and weedlines either close to the line or further out (pends on how agressive the fish are).. seems like high noon in bright light the fish are further in the weed trying to escape the sun.

[Lard_Bass]

Thanks Catt, I am inspired to give jigs a try this weekend.  Will let you know how I do.  I feel you have given me some basic knowledge that is giving me the confidence to throw some jigs.

[Choporoz]

Doing a little research before heading to a couple grass choked lakes and came upon this gem.  I realize this is a serious necro-thread bump, but wow, what great info for this time of year.  Thanks, Catt...and Steve and others.

[RichF]

The majority of my tournament earnings come from fishing this way.  I always have 3 different jigs tied on.  Hey @Catt, quit giving away the secrets!!

 

HA! Guess I should've looked at the post date..

[Dangerfield]

2 hours ago, Choporoz said:

Doing a little research before heading to a couple grass choked lakes and came upon this gem.  I realize this is a serious necro-thread bump, but wow, what great info for this time of year.  Thanks, Catt...and Steve and others.

thanks for the bump - good info in this thread.

[r83srock]

A lot of good information here. I learned to fish deep weed lines on my home lake by a guy who learned in the south. He won a lot out here, about 15-20 years back now, I was just a kid. He handed me his Waterloo Scrape rod with braid and a 1oz oldhams jig, and that’s where it started for me. The right gear made a big difference, as I was having a hard time detecting the bite, and controlling the fish once hooked up.  I remember reading a book by Terry Oldham called “Bass in the grass”, it pretty much explains everything everyone has been saying in further detail. I’ve done well fishing this way, it’s what I do when I need a kicker, but if course I’ve had days where it ain’t happening, like anything else. 

[JollyJoe]

What's everyone's most common weight jig you are throwing in the grass when fishing as described here. I fish a 1/2oz Outkast Tackle RTX jig and have never ventured heavier than that. Seems i am missing out. Thinking i should make a purchase on some 3/4oz or an 1oz. Where do i start....

[Bankbeater]

3 hours ago, JollyJoe said:

What's everyone's most common weight jig you are throwing in the grass when fishing as described here. I fish a 1/2oz Outkast Tackle RTX jig and have never ventured heavier than that. Seems i am missing out. Thinking i should make a purchase on some 3/4oz or an 1oz. Where do i start....

Depends on how deep I want to go into the vegetation.  1/8 ounce for skirting across the top, 3/8 ounce for going down a couple of feet, and 1+ ounces if I want to go all the way to the bottom. 

 

[Catt]

Depends on thickness of grass, 1/2 oz on the outside grasslines & up to 1.5 oz.

[WRB]

10 year old thread that pre dates my BR membership!

I will be one of the first to admit my weed/grass bass fishing skills are limited to weedless surface lures and fishing edges and pockets most of my bass fishing experience. The reason is simple I learned to bass fish on a like with heavy weed beds in the 50's when weedless spoons were the lure of choice.

Moved to where bass lakes were deep structure with sparse weed/grass cover the majority of the year, only the mid summer period had weed/grass growth and could still fish the edges and pockets.

It was only when fishing the Delta and Clear lake that targeting heavy cover became essential and had to learn to bass fish that type of cover. 

Interesting topic that I can't add to.

Tom

[r83srock]

5 hours ago, JollyJoe said:

What's everyone's most common weight jig you are throwing in the grass when fishing as described here. I fish a 1/2oz Outkast Tackle RTX jig and have never ventured heavier than that. Seems i am missing out. Thinking i should make a purchase on some 3/4oz or an 1oz. Where do i start....

A lot of time I want to go after a reaction bite, so I’ll start with 1oz a lot. It can be a fast and efficient way to fish. 3/4 I like a bit better if there is wood present. 1.5 oz in the real thick stuff.

[Choporoz]

Spent nearly 12 hours yesterday trying to put this thread to good use.  Bass were all on bottom between 12 and 15 feet in thick stuff.  Never got jigs working comfortably.  But T-rig trick worms behind 3/16 tungsten bullet worked best for both getting to bottom and then working back to the boat.  Key was boat position...made challenging by the wind.  Keeping retrieve as straight as possible made working it much easier....just a little drift and the line wraps and pulls more weeds into the retrieved lure.

[Catt]

@Choporoz exactly the reason I keep a Texas Rig & Jig-n-Craw tied on 24/7/365!

[Fishingintheweeds]

On 7/19/2018 at 7:25 PM, Bankbeater said:

Depends on how deep I want to go into the vegetation.  1/8 ounce for skirting across the top, 3/8 ounce for going down a couple of feet, and 1+ ounces if I want to go all the way to the bottom. 

 

Are you fishing from shore this way with the heavier weights? I've got some of my own deals that are pretty painstaking but work in the days they should (I think). Just looking to see what other people's experiences are like who don't fish very vertical because it's nearly impossible from a lot of banks (some spots, sure, but not most). 

 

What are you doing with your heavier stuff and how far are you casting?

[Bankbeater]

6 hours ago, Fishingintheweeds said:

Are you fishing from shore this way with the heavier weights? I've got some of my own deals that are pretty painstaking but work in the days they should (I think). Just looking to see what other people's experiences are like who don't fish very vertical because it's nearly impossible from a lot of banks (some spots, sure, but not most). 

 

What are you doing with your heavier stuff and how far are you casting?

When I fish from shore I start out with a t-rig with a 1/4 ounce weight.  I make short casts maybe 30 or 40 feet along the bank, and straight out.  I'll fish a 3/8 or 1/8 jig from the shore depending on how much wind there is, and how much vegetation I have to pull through.

[Fishingintheweeds]

22 hours ago, Bankbeater said:

When I fish from shore I start out with a t-rig with a 1/4 ounce weight.  I make short casts maybe 30 or 40 feet along the bank, and straight out.  I'll fish a 3/8 or 1/8 jig from the shore depending on how much wind there is, and how much vegetation I have to pull through.

So, you're not really throwing bombs either. Ha, one cast takes long enough as it is. I'm interested in throwing something heavier in the really, really thick stuff, it's just the angles and exit plan..I mean, just thinking of where I was on the river today, for instance, say I throw a 1/2 or 3/4 oz and get something on the end of that cast, through cover, pads and grass. I'm not sure how that one turns out and if I could get them in from there, I'm not sure if I could take the pain of fishing that way. Seems like a fun thing to take on but also a little forced...

 

Instead, I hit the holes in the pads and the inside edges, transitions in the vegetation and near any wood that was piled up. Casts were probably also less than 40 feet and the two I caught were probably less than 20. I used a 3/8 oz, weedless arkie head with a craw on it. Managed two in my lunch break. 

 

Seems like the smart way to go about this from the bank. But who knows, the bait monkey may shake me and make me buy some big jigs and then I'll have no choice but to throw them. 

[Catt]

21 hours ago, Fishingintheweeds said:

Instead, I hit the holes in the pads and the inside edges, transitions in the vegetation and near any wood that was pulled up.

 

This is why you fish the structure not the grass!

 

Those little holes, sparse areas creating inside edges, points, etc are caused by bottom changes. Changes in depth and/or bottom composition.

 

[Fishingintheweeds]

Yes, sir! The more I focus on "grass" fishing, the more I specifically look at the surface to tell me what's going on below. In my mind, that is actually what I'm casting to.

[Catt]

2 hours ago, Fishingintheweeds said:

Yes, sir! The more I focus on "grass" fishing, the more I specifically look at the surface to tell me what's going on below. In my mind, that is actually what I'm casting to.

 

Exactly but don't overlook the thicker areas either, they're gonna use the opening, edges & sparse areas to ambush but they're hiding out a little deeper in the grass.

 

Take a point formed by grass many anglers hit the end & sides. I'll work up the point like I would one without grass!

[Fishingintheweeds]

8 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

Exactly but don't overlook the thicker areas either, they're gonna use the opening, edges & sparse areas to ambush but they're hiding out a little deeper in the grass.

 

Take a point formed by grass many anglers hit the end & sides. I'll work up the point like I would one without grass!

They just happened to be on the inside edges this time. In the spring, mostly thick pads, they have bit farther out...once July rolls around, I get the pike on the inside edges and a little farther out.

 

But yes, grass specifically, is why I've been picking your brain about the grass jigs. I didn't MEAN to get them out of the thick grass last week but there was grass below that I hadn't seen at first. So, I decided to stay. Ha, the chatterbait did it, right in the middle of it too, but I I figured there might be something a little more suitable. The grass jigs, even the big ones still do ok coming through from the bank. Some of the others though, a couple of different "swim jigs" that I tried, not so much. 

 

Grass will probably be what I look to fish and improve on for the rest of this year. 

[Catt]

@Fishingintheweeds Fishing grass from the bank can create its own set of problems. Sometimes ya gotta pitch or cast more horizontal than I would prefer but necessary to reach productive water.

[MichaelCopeland]

2 minutes ago, Catt said:

@Fishingintheweeds Fishing grass from the bank can create its own set of problems. Sometimes ya gotta pitch or cast more horizontal than I would prefer but necessary to reach productive water.

Amen to that! Fortunately a good swim jig can come through it with minimal problems. For the water I'm fishing now, I don't really seem to have very productive colors in my swim jigs. The water is much clearer than I'm really equipped for jigwise. I ordered some Shot Callers yesterday from @Siebert Outdoors that I believe will change all that. Can't wait to get em in and give em a try. ?

[Fishingintheweeds]

It does. But it's also helped me improve even more working a jig through tough stuff effectively and practicing not getting hung up. Between the jigs, plain arkie heads and a kinda Neko rig deal I threw together before I knew it had a name, fishing like this lately has also brought me back to crawdad imitations, which I'd never really had a good sense for how to use. In fact, even though I know most fish in most places eat a lot of them, I'd all but stopped using them the last couple of years. 

Just now, MichaelCopeland said:

Amen to that! Fortunately a good swim jig can come through it with minimal problems. For the water I'm fishing now, I don't really seem to have very productive colors in my swim jigs. The water is much clearer than I'm really equipped for jigwise. I ordered some Shot Callers yesterday from @Siebert Outdoors that I believe will change all that. Can't wait to get em in and give em a try. ?

I think the shot callers will be good. Until I had mine, I threw an old one that I couldn't tell you where it came from for a million dollars, but the shot caller looks good. I have some of the grass n swim jigs that I just got from them...I'm ready to give those a look soon. For now, I've had the plain arkie head jig heads from them doing good with a craw on.

 

But yeah, comparing all of the jig types that I have, if anybody wonders if certain types really are better in the conditions that they're "made" for, the answer is yes. And the grass jigs come through the grass that most of the others really don't well, or can't without dragging it all in with it. 

[MichaelCopeland]

12 minutes ago, Fishingintheweeds said:

It does. But it's also helped me improve even more working a jig through tough stuff effectively and practicing not getting hung up. Between the jigs, plain arkie heads and a kinda Neko rig deal I threw together before I knew it had a name, fishing like this lately has also brought me back to crawdad imitations, which I'd never really had a good sense for how to use. In fact, even though I know most fish in most places eat a lot of them, I'd all but stopped using them the last couple of years. 

I think the shot callers will be good. Until I had mine, I threw an old one that I couldn't tell you where it came from for a million dollars, but the shot caller looks good. I have some of the grass n swim jigs that I just got from them...I'm ready to give those a look soon. For now, I've had the plain arkie head jig heads from them doing good with a craw on.

 

But yeah, comparing all of the jig types that I have, if anybody wonders if certain types really are better in the conditions that they're "made" for, the answer is yes. And the grass jigs come through the grass that most of the others really don't well, or can't without dragging it all in with it. 

Pulling in grass, weeds etc. would be the minimal problems I was referring to. I believe all types of jigs will bring that stuff in with them, but swim jigs and grass jigs bring in the very least amount. In my experiences anyways. ?

[Fishingintheweeds]

I don't want to put anybody out there but there is one brand of swim jig that I have, and they're very pretty. I really them...But the head has so many sharp corners on it, they hardly come through at all. It isa almost like throwing a giant treble hook. I threw a 3/8 ball head out and it came through easier than this particular brand of swim bait.  

 

I guess my last statement about type and more this about shape, and not just name, is for anybody who may not know or is wondering. I used to not know the difference and wonder if it as really that big of a deal also. Well, it makes a difference. I hope that can be helpful for someone to know.