Predicament

[Preytorien]

I've got access to a nice very small lake to fish. The fish quality is good and it's a nice convenient location. The recent explosion of weeds, it looks like Coontail, all around the rim of the pond has caused it to be very difficult to fish. The weeds extend out about 15-20ft all around the rim of the lake. It's not boat-accessible, so I'm strictly limited to the bank. I cast out a good distance, then retrieve back into the nastiest mess of weeds I've ever encountered. I've given it a good shot the past week, three times and I've found these things to be true....

 

1. Despite the idea of being good frogging conditions, I've thrown one for three nights and never had even a swirl. I'm not sure if they're not interested, or the weeds are too thick for them to detect a frog. I'm not sure. I thought for sure it'd be a frogging paradise, but it's not so. Even soft plastics on top of the weeds hasn't produced.

 

2. Cranks and jigs are hopeless here. Every cast comes back almost immediately with a giant salad attached to the lure

 

3.  Using plastics to get under the weeds requires some decent amount of weight, which again, causes the lure to immediately come back with weeds balled up

 

So I'm at a loss. Coontail is VERY dense, so even the tiniest exposure of a hook or eyelet gets awful snags.

 

What would you guys suggest? Is this pond kind of just "done" until they spray or treat it?

 

Thanks

[Master Bait'r]

When you say no boat access is that because of the coontails or is it actually restricted water?  

 

 

I fish a few places like that in my kayak and suffer through brutal portages because the open water fishing in the middle is incredible.  If you're allowed to finagle a yak or float tube in there, I would say absolutely do it.  Sometimes spots like that are just not bank friendly enough to be worth it unless you can.  Heck I know of one place a guy made a homemade raft and just left it there tied to a tree for when he feels like fishing there.

 

 

 

Also if you're feeling ambitious, you could start throwing an anchor out there and pulling it back in just to clear a slot in the weeds to see what sets up shop in it afterwards.  It's going to be hard but it's another option.  

[kcdinkerz]

Waders lol

[kcdinkerz]

And life vest

[frogflogger]

BOZ zz walker

[Senko lover]

I've run into a similar, although not perhaps as bad, situation at a new pond I've started fishing. 

 

My top picks: 

 

-Weightless senkos

-Flukes 

-Trick worms

-Swimming T-Rigged baits with a 1/4 oz weight. My favorite is a Cut'R worm. 

 

Good luck dude. 

[BASSPATROL247]

Could be a spring/fall pond.. i fish a few that get so choked with vegitation you could drive a truck across them lol!

And thats the only time its fishable but there is some big fish in them, nobody fishes them, i assume people round here think theyre like that yr round but i dont relly care i just know when i go theres a 99% chance its all mine

[RoLo]

Coontail is a first-rate plant for largemouth bass.

To me it sounds like "Punch Rig" heaven

 

Roger

[CeeJay]

Waders lol

 

Seriously I'd wade right in if it's safe enough. 

 

One of my favorite little lakes back in the day was exactly as described.  It wasn't always that way but later on it became so bad I'd have to make a long cast to the middle of the lake, and then literally fling the lure back to me when it came within 15 feet of the shore. 

 

Another option, which I'm sure most would laugh at, is to get a long 20 foot pole/rod (with or without line guides and reel) and probe the outer edges of the weeds from shore.  When a bass strikes, the length of the pole will give you a vertical advantage when battling the fish in, as opposed to having to mostly bring the fish (or lure) straight through the weeds with a shorter conventional rod.

But wading might be your best option.

 

Good luck.  I know how frustrating it is.

[jbmaine]

Like others have said, waders, with a float tube if it's too deep for just waders.

                                                                            Jim

[LuckyGia]

Float tube ? Anything to get off that bank