how to fish HEAVY vegetation from shore?

[MasterBasser]

Hey all.  Most of my local ponds are completely full of vegetation this time of year.  It's not grass, it sort of looks mossy or like christmas tree branches, I don't know what it is called.  All I know is it grabs onto everything except frogs.  The problem is, that I try and try and can't get frog bites going.  My senko stays on the top and if I use a bullet weight it grabs the weeds.  

 

I've seen punching but I don't know if I can use that from the shore or if it works in this nasty plant?  Most guys use it from boats or into lilly pad type cover.  

 

Is there a way to effectively fish this stuff from the shore?

 

I'm near Harrisburg, PA.  If anyone is near me and would want to head out and show me some tips I'd greatly appreciate it.  I've been trying to fish the franklintown game lands and the large pond along old york rd.   The large pond is suppose to have pickerel in it but again it is totally full of the plants.  

[SJS]

Have you been to Lake Pinchot?  When I lived up there they used to have canoes for rent and it used to hold good bass.

[YoTone]

what do you mean cant get frog bites going?

have you tried different types of frogs with varying types of retrieves?

 

[camman]

I've done well punching from the shore on the CA Delta.  Just need to get a little arc on your cast and I use a 1.5oz weight

[Big Bait Fishing]

80 lb. braid ...

[CTBassin860]

Pitching beaver baits!

[MasterBasser]

14 hours ago, YoTone said:

what do you mean cant get frog bites going?

have you tried different types of frogs with varying types of retrieves?

 

I've tried using several types of frogs, booya green, black and red strip, buzz toad, lunker hunt.  The areas that seem like they would be prime frog ponds, no bites at all.  We have been having relatively hot weather here the last month or so and I just started fishing again.  

 

I think I am retreiving them correctly.  I try to "pop" them once or twice, some times a more steady twitch retrieve.  I've also used buzz baits in more open ponds with no luck.  

 

I'll give pitching another try, I have a few types of crawl baits.  Maybe that will be the ticket.  

 

Oh I've been trying pinchot, not on a boat though.  It's me and the kids normally and I find fishing the shore to be a nitemare, it's too over grown most places. 

[deep]

1 hour ago, MasterBasser said:

I've tried using several types of frogs, booya green, black and red strip, buzz toad, lunker hunt.  The areas that seem like they would be prime frog ponds, no bites at all.  We have been having relatively hot weather here the last month or so and I just started fishing again.  

 

I think I am retreiving them correctly.  I try to "pop" them once or twice, some times a more steady twitch retrieve.  I've also used buzz baits in more open ponds with no luck.  

 

Maybe they don't want to come up and get your frog?

Try punching.

 

Some lakes are just not topwater lakes (as far as my skills go anyway).

[fishballer06]

Being from PA as well, I'm going to say the "christmas tree" weeds are hydrilla. Bass love these type of weeds. A 1/2 - 3/4oz. texas rig will probably get down through this stuff. Poke and probe around into the weeds with that. It's painfully slow, but if you drop a texas rigged craw or curly tail worm on a bass's head, they'll more often than not bite it out of reaction. 

 

Other methods are obviously a hollow body frog like mentioned above. You can also try using a buzzing toad style bait like a Horny Toad (again, rigged texas style) and swim it across the surface. Another bait worth trying is a weightless Fluke rigged texas style. Twitch it along the surface. If there are holes in the weeds, kill it and let it sink down in those holes. The bass will come up and eat it.

 

[MasterBasser]

Yes Hydrilla looks like it.  I'll give the crawls a shot.  Thanks everyone.  I have not experimented with flukes, I have some but never fished.  I'll throw them on too.