Lily Pads

[Mudrider34]

What's the most effective way to fish lily pads? I've tried Texas and Carolina rigs but seem to get hung up a lot and not much action on a frog. All advice appreciated!

[RanndomUndead]

What's the most effective way to fish lily pads? I've tried Texas and Carolina rigs but seem to get hung up a lot and not much action on a frog. All advice appreciated!

i have the best luck when i cast low to the water with a weightless texas rig. Keeps slack to a minimum and the bait wont travel in a ) motion through the water when it starts. Also, braid seems to help it slide through aswell

[flyfisher]

Weightless fluke

[Mudrider34]

Thanks for the advise!

[Steve513]

What I use for fishing pads depends on factors such as water temp, weather conditions, etc. Some of my go to baits for summer pad fishing include; pearl weightless super fluke, booyah pad crasher jr. for the early morning bite. Make sure you are pausing the frog in between twitches, the pause length can make all the difference. Depending on the thickness of the cover a spinner bait can work as well. Hope this helps.  

[AQUA VELVA]

Pad fishing can be frustrating. The lake I live on has plenty of nice looking pad fields but guess what, Iv'e never caught a bass out of them all the years Iv'e lived here. I go to other lakes and catch bass in the pads any time of the day. When I do catch them, I seem to have pretty good results with Scumfrog type baits without the tails, some with the double hook, some with a single. Some of the more realistic frog lures also produce well. I just crawl them over the pads and pause in the openings and on the edge just before open water.Good luck!

[SFL BassHunter]

I've been using 50lb braid, and stick-os. Works well for me. It also depends on the pads. The pads at my local park are weak and if I get hung up usually I can rip free of them or rip them right out of the water so I don't mind putting a small sinker on a texas rig. The ones in the glades are extremely different breed of pads lol. Those are the ones I need the 50lb braid for. 

[hawgenvy]

This is what I do in heavy pads: I'll pitch a tungsten weighted T-rigged creature like a brush hog or otter thing or lizard into any little hole between pads, let it sink down to the bottom, pause, shake it once or twice, and if no bite I pull it straight out and and pitch it into the next opening. Keep going until you nail something big and mean. Use heavy braid (50 lb or 65) and a flipping rod; and when you're bit, pull the fish up and out as fast as you can or you'll lose her in the lily stems. An advantage of the pads is the fish can't see you as easily so you can usually get close enough to flip the pads like this.

 

Also, burn a Horny Toad or a slick swimbait like EZ Swimmer across the pads, but let the bait drop for a few seconds into some holes between pads. Some of the tube scents like Mega Strike seem to lube the baits so they slide better across the pads. Again, use heavy equipment and pull out the fish fast and hard -- those pad stems are tough.

 

I'm no expert, but have fished a lot of close pads and have had some success with the above. Good luck.

[Mudrider34]

Great advise guys! I don't have a heavy flipping rod so this gives me an excuse to buy a new rod and reel set up hehe

[Catch and Grease]

Great advise guys! I don't have a heavy flipping rod so this gives me an excuse to buy a new rod and reel set up hehe

I catch a lot of fish around here pitching jigs and lighter Texas rigs in pads with a MH/F. Just be careful and don't fish the pads you can walk on lol!

[hawgenvy]

I fully agree with Catch and Grease. Everything depends on how crowded are the pads. If sparse enough, almost any good bait/line/rod can achieve success. But when the pad leaf surface coverage approaches 40 or 50 percent it becomes difficult to pull a subsurface bait horizontally, because your line will overlie some intervening pads, and so as you reel, that line will tend to elevate your bait to the surface to snag a leaf, usually where it joins its stem. And furthermore, in bad pad cover, any hooked bass worth its salt will find a deep stem to wrap around in a half second, which is about how long you've got to pull his nose to the air, and you've got to keep it there -- or you'll quickly find yourself battling a bouquet of lilies rather than a fat fish.

[RoLo]

any hooked bass worth its salt will find a deep stem to wrap around in a half second, which is about how long you've got to pull his nose to the air,

and you've got to keep it there -- or you'll quickly find yourself battling a bouquet of lilies rather than a fat fish.

 

Very well put, and unfortunately, true.

 

Roger

[Sam]

Mudrider, fishing in Georgia's lily pads should not be that different from other eastern lily pads so he advice above should apply to Lake Blackshere.

 

When fishing lily pads you have to think about the two levels they present to us as fishermen.

 

TOP OF LILY PADS

Frogs, toads, weightless Senkos Texas and wacky rigged, spinnerbaits if possible, unweighted Zoom trick worms in pink or white, and wake baits if there is room to move them around.

Fish individual pads out in front of the main pads as they hold fish. Be aggressive and throw a Cavitron, frog or toad, Chatterbait plus any Rage Tails you want past them or to them and let the bait drop.

Throw a lipless crankbait with the rear hook removed to sparse areas of the pads.

Always fish any pads sitting alone or areas between pad areas. Throw your Senkos and weightless plastics in these open areas.

When throwing plastics be sure to pull the plastic on top of a pad and let it sit there for thirty seconds before continuing to move it.

 

UNDER TOPS OF LILY PADS

Punch through them with a plastic like a brush hog or Rage Tail crawfish.

Note all the baits the pros will use to punch through the pads. John Crews is making some good money on his baits that can be punched through the pads.

Texas rigged plastics so that they don't get snagged such as Senkos, Zoom trick worms, YUM Dingers, and any other plastics you want to throw.

Use a tungsten weight if possible to reduce the bulk of your weight.

Use a braid with or without a leader.

 

Experiment. The bass will tell you what they want to eat and in what color and where.

 

Fishing lily pads can be fun but very frustrating.

 

So go out there and frustrate yourself.

[RoLo]

Good stuff Sam 

 

I'd only add a couple of my favorites for "Tops of Pads":

> Soft Swimbait w/ small bullet sinker on nose (to deflect weeds)

> Johnson weedless spoon & grub trailer

 

Roger

[Mudrider34]

Definitely a lot of good information thanks guys!

[hawgenvy]

Bad @ss pads that hold bad @ss bass.

 

[mplspug]

Flukes!

I know this is an older post, but my 2 cents.

I used a unweighted Bitter's Bait Skip Shad for this fish.  I use them for not only retrieving across the surface, but for flipping when there are a lot of lily pads, but not much slop/matted weeds on top.  I dropped the skip shad in a pocket right next to shore and watched the action, the way it sinks with the nose slightly down and how it convincingly bounces of the stems like a meandering feeding baitfish makes it my go to lure in pads,  when I can use it.  As I said, when I can means when I don't have to punch through floating vegetation. 

When I run it across the surface, I start out with a fast retrieve.  I find the slower you run it, the more likely it will catch in the notch of a pad.  You normally will get the lure back, but usually it takes turning it into a projectile.  Retrieving it fast, the bait normally bounces off the pads and naturally follows a path that  keeps it in the seams and pockets between pads, keeping it on the surface of the water, as opposed to traversing over the leaves. 

If that doesn't work I slow it down, sometimes switching to a scum frog.