Shad in emergent grass - what’s your approach?

[you]

Started fishing along a maidencane grass line this morning. I reached an area where small bass were feeding on schooling shad (2-3”). They were blowing up all around the edges and middle of the grass beds, so I started targeting areas with active fish by twitching small, weightless soft plastics (mostly a gambler shakey shad) along the edges. This produced two bites and one fish (pictured, see grass in the background) before the action tapered off. Felt like I should have done better.

 

How would y’all approach this? The thick grass and small forage both limit options from a “match the hatch" perspective. I’ve had similar difficulties fishing schooling/spawning shad before. Feels like it should be easy, but you can’t get their attention.

 

[Darth-Baiter]

Frog?

[TnRiver46]

Fluke 

[Fishlegs]

I've had success with trick worms, and brush hogs in/around emergent grass.

[Pat Brown]

Floating worm/ frog in the heavy stuff maybe swim jig or spinnerbait or buzzbait on the edges where it's sparse. Popper in the big holes.

[you]

Thanks for the tips, y'all. Got to improve my topwater skills for moments like this

[bp_fowler]

Weeds have been popping up more and more as the summer goes along.  I don’t have a frog set up, so I’ve used the following as kinda a 1-2 punch.  

Swim Jig has been good in the weeds for me this summer. Experiment with different weights as some will come through the veggies better than others.  

If the swim jig is a no go my plan b is weightless Texas rig, usually a Senko but you can us whatever worm you have the most confidence in.

 

 

[Bankbeater]

I'd try a Rapala floating minnow around the outside of the grass.  If that didn't work I would start fishing with a fluke.