Bass Fishing After Grass/vegetation Spraying

[LApanic]

If you haven't heard already, about two months ago the TVA sprayed the vegetation/grasses pretty heavily (from what I hear) on the majority of Lake Gunstersville 

 

I live and fish a with a club in South Alabama and have a 2 day club tournament at G'ville the last weekend of September and am worried about the spraying and the scattering or affect the spraying did to the large population of big bass.

 

When the tourney was announced in January, I had a pretty good idea of how and where to locate the bass, obviously grass, but am clueless now.

 

Any info, tips, do's, don't, etc on how any form of vegetation spraying will bass as far as location and feeding would be GREATLY APPRECIATED.  As you may know this is a heavy grass lake, which I love fishing grass lakes, but understand it was chocking a lot of the lake up especially creeks but just wish they would have started spraying in October 

 

Thanks Guys/Gals

[Slade House]

You should be ok, the week or 2 after the treatment the shad will retreat to deeper water into baitballs, so instead of targeting grass mats, maybe target drop offs, rocky points?   when it happened where i fish i notice that the week or two after i caught bass deeper, then 2 weeks later i caught them in 2-4 feet of water on the edges of grass lines that had grown back.  the grass should grow back quickly in time for the shad migration up the creeks.  

[blackmax135]

I actually had this kinda of thing happen to me also at my local lake. (small lake)  There is grass that goes almost all the way around the lake and they spray it every year and it creates a nasty slime that actually smells like sewage. Its almost impossible to catch a bass on the grass line then.  It is hard to catch fish out there anyways because of the limit of structure.  But you can easily catch bass on the grass.  They put on a public fishing tournament every year and this year DNR decided to come out and spray in the middle of the tournament.  I was ticked cause the bass were in the grass and i got a limit and was trying to get a good kicker.  But they said i had to go some were else.  I really didn't know what to say and i was very un called for in my opinon. But i do agree with them keeping the grass from tacking over the lake 

[ww2farmer]

Boat docks will be your friend.

[SirSnookalot]

We get sprayed here quite a bit both in community ponds as well as county canals, I do feel the bite does slow down for about a week.

I don't fish tournaments myself but each contestant has to deal with the same issue, so the playing field is level for all.

[gulfcaptain]

Slide out deeper and look for submerged grass beds that they haven't sprayed #1 or been affected.  Most times when they treat grass, they treat what they can see.  Next, look for structure/bottom changes close by where the fish or bait can retreat to.  If you have fished there in the spring the same places should hold fish when the grass isn't available....bridges, rip rap, docks, and brushpiles.  Look for other cover that the fish will shift to when they don't have the grass option. 

[Mike L]

As Gulfcaptain says, submerged grass will be key IMHO.

 

As they move when the sprayed area starts to die and the oxygen levels start to decline, the closest area to where they were is where they'll stop and move out for other cover elsewhere.

 

 

 

Mike

[LApanic]

Thanks guys for all the info, I feel much better now 

 

And think deeper, submerged grass and docks will be key, but from this FB post from G'ville bass guide, Ill get to throw my beloved Spro Frog! 

 

"Pulled off two trips yesterday with great success. 1st up was the Eastern Kentucky boys who wanted to learn new water and technique so we went swimjiggin with 4x4 Bass Jigs with NetBait Little Spankys both in white fished 6ft deep water with scatter grass, we caught several keepers 6 bass in total. We did sling a frog shortly but it just wasn't the right kind of water for the ol Bronzeye..

2nd was with two serious fishermen Trevor and Chris they came in from Dayton TN area to learn the grass. We started off flipping a 4x4 grass jig with very little success so we packed up and made the run up river to some froggin water. We pulled up to the mat and it was really talking , Trevor lost one about 10 feet from the boat that just pulled off and it was a real good one can't say how big since we didn't land it but it was a big un after fishing this mat for 3 hours the power poles where down most of the time while the guys was SPRO U.S.A froggin with a total of 12 blow ups landing 6 losing 3 on the way to the boat it was freaking awesome, Not gonna talk about the big one Chris lost I promised him I wouldn't . We headed back down lake to try our luck on the late bite around scattered grass, all n all the lake is heating up with the frog bite and I Couldn't be happier.

Capt. Jim Leary 
www.bassguides.fish
256-698-6593