Fish Location in Northern, Weedy Lakes - Depth

[Bass_Fischer]

Greetings northern natural lakes bass chasers, a question..  Depending on your information source, fish location in milfoil/coontail lakes is either first (and often only) about the outside edge OR it's about figuring out the depth that the fish are holding in that day.  These seem to be contradictory ideas, although I guess I assume that different populations might be on the weedline while others are stacked up in some *magic* depth.  Does anyone have an opinion on what is the better use of one's search time - going straight to the weedline or searching for that depth-of-the-day?

[MN Fisher]

Third option - what depth IN the weeds. Remember that bass are ambush predators, so in most instances they'll find someplace to hide while waiting for a meal to come by. Whether that's behind a rock, close up under a lily-pad, or buried in the hydrilla/milfoil waiting to pop-out at a passing sunfish/perch/baby bass/whatever.

 

Fishing the weedline finds the ones that are at the edges, but the prey also try to hide in the weeds to keep from being eaten. So you have to find where the baitfish are...that'll more likely be where the bass are.

[Scott F]

For me, a lot depends on how thick the weeds are and how close they come to the surface. One of my most consistent areas I catch largemouth on is an enormous weedy flat that ranges from 3 to 6 feet deep where the weeds don’t come all the way to the surface. There really isn’t any weed line. We fan cast over the entire area with spinner baits, lipless cranks or swim jigs. The fish are usually scattered. Where the weeds are thick and come to the surface, I fish the weed edge first. Finding what depth they might be holding for me is the more difficult part so I do that if the first two options aren’t working. 

[Bankbeater]

I start off fishing over the tops

of the weeds. If I’m not getting any takers I’ll start moving toward other cover or structure. 

[papajoe222]

In my neck of the woods, there are two general summer patterns; Weeds and off shore structure. If l’m tatgeting the weeds, i start on the outside edge closest to deep water and work my way in, punching if need be. There is also an inside weed line l’ll hit before heading out. 

[Bass_Fischer]

@papajoe..  When you say offshore structure, do you mean past the outer weed edge?  If so, how far out/deep do you go in our northern natural lakes?  I've read and watched a bit on the Buck Perry structure fishing philosophy but the times that I've ventured out past the weeds I've generally gotten skunked, which quickly gets me back to believing that up north they (largies) are generally only catchable in or around cover.  If you've had success out beyond the weeds I'd be very interested to learn about your technique, especially location.