Surfacing bass in clear water

[TexasXFishing]

Hi everyone, so lately at my home lake in Colorado i have been fishing an area in the evening where the bass are surfacing very actively.  It's in an area where there are a lot of weed and there is a thick plants right in way you need to cast. This seems to be a more common theme at this in recent years (surfacing fish with no caught fish) and i'm just curious if anyone of you could explain this/ give me some advice to catch them. I have used almost every technique i know of that can be used around  weds  aka top water, flukes, and soft plastics, chatterbaits, spinnerbaits as(There is an abundance of yellow perch, some bluegil, freshly stocked trout + bass, and supposivly shad)

[J Francho]

Hollow body frogs or get in there, and punch those weeds with a heavy jig or punch rig.

[Scott F]

How certain are you that these fish are actually bass? All the fish you listed will come to the surface to feed on bugs. Except for the bass, none of those fish are likely to be caught on the lures you tried. 

[Ktho]

Same thing is happening at a local lake I fish at. Bass are violently busting on bait on shallow weed flats. I'd try and find out what they're busting on and try and match that. Small superfluke jrs and drop shot clone fry in baby bass are what's working for me since they're mainly eating young bass since theres no proper bait species in the lake.

[Clinton john]

Ribbett  frog, if it is bass they will hit it.

[TexasXFishing]

4 hours ago, Scott F said:

How certain are you that these fish are actually bass? All the fish you listed will come to the surface to feed on bugs. Except for the bass, none of those fish are likely to be caught on the lures you tried. 

89% sure it is bass, 1. We have been catching a couple dinks 2. The ones that have been completely surfacing are 3-4lb largies and some nice 2-3 lb smallies. Although we do see some carp and trout surface at times

4 hours ago, J Francho said:

Hollow body frogs or get in there, and punch those weeds with a heavy jig or punch rig.

They just swipe are frogs a couple of time and never commit. What kind of jig would you recommend?

[BuzzHudson19c]

3 hours ago, A5BLASTER said:

Ribbett  frog, if it is bass they will hit it.

 

Agreed. Drag some kind of toad across it.

[Clinton john]

If they don't take the ribbet fully trya diffrent color, and slow the rretrieve down some, maybe try a baby ribbet.

[Sam]

Have you considered throwing a wacky rigged 5 or 6-inch Senko?

 

You can drag it on top of the grass and pads, moving it so it floats and acts like a butterfly.

 

Let it sit on top of a pad as your retrieve it back to you.

 

You also wrote you threw plastics. Were they unweighted and you moved them like a snake in the water?

 

The frog suggestion is excellent, too. What about a toad? Ever throw a toad?

 

Experiment. The fun of bass fishing.

[J Francho]

11 hours ago, TexasXFishing said:

What kind of jig would you recommend?

 

Siebert Bullet Jig: http://www.siebertoutdoors.com/Bullet-Jig-420.htm

With a matching Rage Tail Chunck trailer: http://www.siebertoutdoors.com/Rage-Chunk-411.htm

 

Just an FYI, I had a ton of surfacing fish last night.  They were walleye going nuts on in shore baitfish.  The bass I was catching were holding very tight to heavy cover, despite all the activity.  Something to chew on.

[scaleface]

 Often surfacing bass are hard to catch and even harder to resist . If I cant get them to hit I try to ignore them and concentrate on nearby cover or structure . In your case weeds . I would double down on weightless texas rigged plastics .

[J Francho]

5 minutes ago, scaleface said:

I would double down on weightless texas rigged plastics .

 

Weightless, in my case last night wouldn't cut it.  One and half ounce jika punch rigs, tossed 2-3' into these weeds.  They weren't huge, but one of my favorite ways to fish.  Hand to hand combat, in the kayak!

 

 

[earthworm77]

They are on top, stick to the theme of top water baits or stuff that sinks really slowly like unweighted soft plastics.

[TOXIC]

I encounter this all the time when I go to Wisconsin.  My go-to bait is a Yamamoto D-Shad (fluke style bait).  It never fails to produce.  I keep it very erratic and high in the water column.  If the water is more open, I will throw a spook.  

[TexasXFishing]

8 hours ago, Sam said:

Have you considered throwing a wacky rigged 5 or 6-inch Senko?

 

You can drag it on top of the grass and pads, moving it so it floats and acts like a butterfly.

 

Let it sit on top of a pad as your retrieve it back to you.

 

You also wrote you threw plastics. Were they unweighted and you moved them like a snake in the water?

 

The frog suggestion is excellent, too. What about a toad? Ever throw a toad?

 

Experiment. The fun of bass fishing.

I've thrown pleanty of frogs and they will either swipe or miss it, but i've also tried wacky rigging a senko/ weightless but i gotta try that technique it sounds juicy 

3 hours ago, TOXIC said:

I encounter this all the time when I go to Wisconsin.  My go-to bait is a Yamamoto D-Shad (fluke style bait).  It never fails to produce.  I keep it very erratic and high in the water column.  If the water is more open, I will throw a spook.  

I've tried a fluke a couple of times but never got a bite, would you recommend it weighted?

[TOXIC]

For me, it is just the opposite of weighting, I work them on top with an erratic fast walk the dog type retrieve.  I can actually chase the school and throw into the active water and get them to bite.  Once the school goes down it's over until they push bait back to the surface again.  On a D-Shad, I will change colors if I am not getting bit and they do not look like your regular fluke style bait, no fork on the tail but I have been known to cut the center out of the tail to make a fork.  The D-Shad is made out of the same material as a senko and has a totally different fall if you let it drop.  It has that senko shimmy.  I have also drug them like a tube drift fishing crystal clear water on lake St Clair and they produced when nothing else would.  I drag them weightless up there.  As you can tell, I fish them a lot.  

 

 

[J Francho]

^^^That fast retrieve was shown to me by a friend many years ago.  Good tool to have in your kit!

[Sam]

15 hours ago, TexasXFishing said:

I've thrown pleanty of frogs and they will either swipe or miss it, but i've also tried wacky rigging a senko/ weightless but i gotta try that technique it sounds juicy 

I've tried a fluke a couple of times but never got a bite, would you recommend it weighted?

 

Yes, depending which level of water column you want to attack.

 

I use a 1/8 ounce tungsten bullet weight when throwing flukes to get it down to the 3 to 5 foot range.

 

Heavier weights if I want to hit the bottom.

 

No weight when I fish it closer to the surface.

 

Personal preference.