Soft Bottom Baits

[BrackishBassin]

4 hours ago, snake95 said:

I'd say WRB's full response on this thread is a piece of Bassresource gold.  I find that great stuff like this you can come back to again and again.

 

The common thread to the responses is plastics because as WRB said, you can rig them weedless. If you follow his posts, you'll know Tom is a veteran hawg hunter.  I'm coming at your questions as a rookie bankbeater that approached this same question only about two years ago, and the short answer for me has been to follow Tom's advice - plastics presentations where you can bury the hook so it is weedless, or use a weedless hook (e.g. weedless wacky).  There is a reason why half the lures in a tackle shop in bass country are plastics. I'd say the answers you are getting are more about dealing with weeds than about being plastic.  A T-rigged craw is a different  animal than a mojo-rigged (but weedless) worm. If you aren't fishing weedless, you need to be fishing close to the surface with a topwater or shallow runner, because snags are always a problem fishing from the bank.

 

Plastics are a diverse lot.  In some areas, you might have sufficiently sparse weed cover that you can fish something that is not strictly weedless with confidence, and that's where I've found baits with a single hook and narrow profile like jigheads with paddletails can come through with limited weed accumulation.   A crankbait or anything with trebles that gets into the weeds will be gunked up in no time.

 

I assume you have some relatively open water in places in the pond - I do in my soft-bottom ponds. Those are the pond areas I'm inclined to chance a Ned Rig or something that isn't weedless.  

 

I copied WRB's response to a Google Doc so I can refer to it as needed. Definitely informative. But I've been taking notes from all of the responses I've gotten in this thread. Everyone involved has been really helpful.

 

I do know that the different types of plastic presentations are fished differently, but for some reason I don't tend to think of them as different lure choices. Guess that's something I'll have to change in my head and see if that helps. 

 

If there's open soft bottom, I've yet to find it in my pond. I'm sure there's some on the lake, just haven't found it yet. The trail around the lake is 7 miles long, so I've got a lot of bank to beat before I can say, with confidence, where it is. I do know of a submerged forest, but it's 3.5 miles from the parking area. I know I'll make it around there at some point, just need to find the time. There's also a dam at one end that's got rip rap on it. That's the other spot on my list to try out once I've got the grassy areas nailed down.

[wdp]

9 hours ago, BrackishBassin said:

 

So, plastic, plastic, and plastics?

Well, when you said grass in the lake, the attached pic is what I imagined. That's a place I used to fish A LOT!!! Full of grass and lily pads, all matted on top. But after reading some of the posts in your thread more closely, sounds like most of the grass in your lake is on the bottom. 

 

Looks like you're getting a bunch of good advice either way. So good luck in the spring when it warms up. ?

[BrackishBassin]

1 hour ago, wdp said:

Well, when you said grass in the lake, the attached pic is what I imagined. That's a place I used to fish A LOT!!! Full of grass and lily pads, all matted on top. But after reading some of the posts in your thread more closely, sounds like most of the grass in your lake is on the bottom. 

 

Looks like you're getting a bunch of good advice either way. So good luck in the spring when it warms up. ?

 

Gotcha. The lake I'm talking about can be seen over my shoulder in my profile picture. Very little vegetation on top, but the bottom is thick.

[Jaderose]

I'm surprised that no one mentioned a lipless crank.  (At least what I saw).  A Treble hooked lure in the weeds?  *GASP*  Absolutely.  If you have any kind of area between the water surface and the grass below, chuck a trap out there and burn across the top of that grass.  Let it even flutter down into it and RIP it out of there.  This is NOT a finesse technique...lol...but man does it catch some hogs

[snake95]

18 minutes ago, Jaderose said:

If you have any kind of area between the water surface and the grass below, chuck a trap out there and burn across the top of that grass.

Ha - fair enough - good point and agreed @Jaderose.   I also have had success in ponds burning those traps along above the bottom vegetation, and that's a good thought for the OP too.  As you put it perfectly, it helps to have a little bit of clearance up top when you are in a pond fishing from shore.  The narrow profile of the trap body helps too, compared to a squarebill.

[fishwizzard]

On 12/18/2016 at 11:24 AM, roadwarrior said:

Okay.  Try a Rage Tail Menace rigged with a bullet weight weedless. Swim it just off the bottom and at various depths.  Pop the bait when you hit anything. The bait comes through grass very well.

 

 

OP, I bet I fish some of the same waters you do, and this will work very well, maybe tying with flukes as my most productive LBM lure of last season.  I like to rig them on an 3/0 Owner straight shank with a 1/16oz steel weight.  The hook seems big and is murder on the plastics but I have never experienced such a high hookup rate.  I use a steel bullet weight as I want it to be large enough to be a nose cone/bumper for the plastic, which helps prolong it's life.  Using a Zoom Ultra Speed Craw makes for a smaller (and cheaper) variant of this technique.  

 

I also like the aforementioned flukes and for heavier tackle, paddle-tailed swimbaits rigged weedless on a weighted swimbait hook. Like a Fat Impact 3.8" on say a 1/8-1/4oz hook.  They cast far, get down quickly (and look good doing so), and can be slow-rolled along the bottom or burned shallow.  

 

 

[wdp]

1 hour ago, Jaderose said:

I'm surprised that no one mentioned a lipless crank.  (At least what I saw).  A Treble hooked lure in the weeds?  *GASP*  Absolutely.  If you have any kind of area between the water surface and the grass below, chuck a trap out there and burn across the top of that grass.  Let it even flutter down into it and RIP it out of there.  This is NOT a finesse technique...lol...but man does it catch some hogs

Big +1 on this. Redeye Shad can be money with this senario. 

[N Florida Mike]

I've done a lifetime of pond fishing in shallow,weedy lakes.When I go,I always carry these baits:

•Zoom salty super flukes

•G Yamamoto senkos 4-5 inch

•Zoom trick worms

•zoom baby brush hogs

•Zoom z- hogs

•Zoom super speed craw.

• 7 1/2 and 10 inch culprit worms

These are all good.I use watermelon seed and watermelon red primarily in clear to moderately stained water.Darker water I use a lot of red shad,june bug,black grape and black.All t- rigged on a 3/0 wide angle hook,or 2/0 with the worm.The 4 inch senko I like 1/0.I use little to no weight,unless I'm fishing a deeper lake.

 

[BrackishBassin]

Thanks everyone! I've definitely got some information to sift through and figure out a plan for the spring. Going to be hard to narrow it down to three lures/techniques with all the good suggestions, but I'll do my best. 

 

If I manage to get out this winter, I've decided to fish jigs exclusively to try and develop a better feel for them. Just going to have to leave the plastics at home so I'm not tempted to rig one up after an hour without a bite. They're definitely my confidence bait, but like I've said, I'd really like to develop some other techniques to fall back on.

[WRB]

On December 18, 2016 at 1:03 PM, BrackishBassin said:

 

Hey, you ever tried the FG knot? I use that as my leader knots. Learned it for saltwater and just continued using it when I went to fresh.

FG knot is excellent if you can tie it correctly.

fishing jigs in cold water from shore in a small lake with soft (mucky) bottom will be a challenge. If you insist on doing this then use a 1/4 oz jig with a 2" to 2 1/2" trailer in the deepest area you know of.

Tom

PS; thanks to everyone for the positive feedback, it's appreciated!

[primetime]

Rage Rig with a flat bait like the Rage Bug or beaver can work well..I also like to use light shaky heads that wont sink to far, or a split shot to kick up the mud with a floating worm behind it...Trick worm behind a split shot or a grub almost always gets bit.

 

if Shallow just go weightless or light 1/16-1/8 weighted hook so bait falls flat if that makes sense.

[Jagg]

Lot of grass and soft bottom? Tube, grub and craw. Jighead/open hook, light t-rig, swim jig. Also, floating Rapala minnow, Norman Thin N, other floating/diving cranks.

[ErikmonBillsfon]

I have lots of mud or leafy bottom ponds in CT and I understand how soft bottom can restrict using a jig or bottom bouncing lure. Some of my ponds have thick slime or mud that will stick to jigs and shakey heads. I also encounter a thick layer of hydrilla on the bottom. For these shallow water situations I like to keep it moving over the weeds or slime. I like a Rapala xrap or flat rap that suspends and will stay clear of the sludge. I will use weightless flukes or senko style lures but I find moving kietech swing impact fats in 3-5 feet of water can come through the sticky stuff. This year I did really well on Texas rigged strike king rage bugs on the smallest size I can get away with. Other than that in the weedy conditions I will go on top with a livetarget mouse or frog, popper, spook. This year I will commit myself to get good at jig fishing the few places I go that have hard bottom, whether it be Sandy or rocky and throw alot more bottom bouncing lures. It's a lot harder to feel and be an angler fishing the bottom structure than simple cast and reel retrieves but I feel like it will make us a better all all round fisherman.