Moving baits for shallow water with grass?

[Pogues2300]

6th sense axle swim jig is what I use for a scenario like that. Has proven to be pretty weedless for me. 

[Bankbeater]

I would work a weightless worm across the surface, or maybe a 1/8 oz. jig.  The small jig will pull free of the vegetation pretty easy.  Maybe a popping frog if you can get it to stop moving over the holes.  I'd also cast a wake bait if you have some straight shots.  Don't worry about being seen, and having to make long casts.  Those thick weeds will hide you.

[CDMTJager]

I  fish 90% from shore. I fish three different lakes 90% of the time. By May 7th I am fishing in heavy weeds and emerging lily pads for 90% of my fishing. So its weedless or waist 75% of my casts when my luer comes back encapsulated in a baseball sized clump of weeds.

80% of the lake I can reach with a cast is less than 12 feet deep. So I am fishing shallow heavy weeds and pads. These three lakes have zero hard bottom.

Use to fish frogs and T-rigged worms and creature baits from now till deer season ends my bass fishing.

But this year I discovered weedless rigged 5" & 5.25" soft plastic flukes rigged with both weightless and weighted hooks. I have been absolutely murdering the bass NONSTOP with weedless flukes since mid April. I toss them in open areas and lanes between emerging pads and weed patches or along edges of patches of weeds and pads next to open water work them like a jerkbait and hold on tight. 

 

These three lakes are relatively shallow, very heavily weeded and with massive lily pad cover and do not lend themselves well to be fished by larger bass boats. Thankfully most sore fisherman fishing these lakes have no idea how to fish heavy weeds well so there are VERY good populations of 2.5-4.5lb bass in them very accessible from shore and wading. I just do not see a better method to fish my lakes than a weedless soft plastic fluke because it allows you to cover a lot of water quickly and thoroughly. Once I catch a bass I slow down and pick the area apart. I have had MANY 10+ bass mornings and evenings with 20+ bass not that uncommon.

 

I can not suggest you give a weedless soft plastic fluke a try strongly enough.

One other luer I would suggest that I am trying for the first time next time out is a T-Rigged floating and sinking speed worm with a 1/16 bullet weight. Watch a few YT videos on how to work a speed worm in very heavy cover. I think a speed worm will be very successful in my weed choked shallow lakes and should work well in yours also.

[The Budget Angler]

21 hours ago, Bankbeater said:

Don't worry about being seen, and having to make long casts.  Those thick weeds will hide you.

I really wish this was true, but the weeds, water depth, and shoreline is just right for me to actively watch fish spook.  I have seen some easy 4s cruising and then spooking as soon as they see me cast.

16 hours ago, CDMTJager said:

I discovered weedless rigged 5" & 5.25" soft plastic flukes rigged with both weightless and weighted hooks

I'm hearing this advice from a lot of people.  What colors would you suggest for clear water?

On 6/26/2024 at 1:45 PM, Choporoz said:

Rage Bug

I like putting the smaller rage bugs on a ned rig, it absolutely kills the bass (crappie and big sunfish too).

[Choporoz]

23 minutes ago, TheLastBestFish said:

I like putting the smaller rage bugs on a ned rig, it absolutely kills the bass (crappie and big sunfish too).

I accidentally bought some mid-size Rage Bugs.  Hate 'em....  (and I think theres even a smaller one). 

    I need to get them out of the boat.  Never hooked a bass larger than 14 in with them.... every time I grab one by accident, I curse myself for forgetting to toss them out.  4" and Magnum are all I will ever throw 

[The Budget Angler]

8 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

Never hooked a bass larger than 14 in with them.... every time I grab one by accident, I curse myself for forgetting to toss them out

That's interesting.  I got mine in a kit at Walmart (Rage ned bug or something like that).  I was out a few weeks ago and caught several in the 2 lb range on them.  Do you suggest the full-sized ones as a good creature bait?  I've only ever used bandito bugs and I hate them (fishing them weightless feels gummy and they slip off the hook constantly).

[Choporoz]

@TheLastBestFish, I'm not the one to ask if you want a fair analysis.   I have gotten to the point where I would probably be OK with tossing the 50 pounds of plastics I carry around and only kept Rage Bugs and Magnum Rage Bugs.  I would bet that 3/4 of the fish I have caught the past few years were on them.  Every fish in my winning bag last weekend was on one or the other.... and with few exceptions, I think nearly all my fish over four lbs in the last two years. (Spinnerbait, chatterbait (with Rage Bug trailer), jerkbait, deep crank and spoons were some exceptions.)  I catch fish on other plastics, but Rage Bug is where my confidence lies.

[The Budget Angler]

@ChoporozInteresting, I never thought of using them as trailers.  I seriously want to up my creature bait game but I also don't want to waste money so I'll have to give them a try.  Weighted or unweighted?  Also, what rod are you typically using?

[Choporoz]

5 hours ago, TheLastBestFish said:

@ChoporozInteresting, I never thought of using them as trailers.  I seriously want to up my creature bait game but I also don't want to waste money so I'll have to give them a try.  Weighted or unweighted?  Also, what rod are you typically using?

Rarely weightless; only when I want to work it over emergent grass or pads like a toad.  1/16 tungsten can be very effective in many situations, but I use all the way up to 3/4... so a variety of rods depending on weight, depth, cover, wind, etc.

[CDMTJager]

On 6/27/2024 at 2:53 PM, TheLastBestFish said:

On 6/26/2024 at 10:49 PM, CDMTJager said:

I discovered weedless rigged 5" & 5.25" soft plastic flukes rigged with both weightless and weighted hooks

I'm hearing this advice from a lot of people.  What colors would you suggest for clear water?

I will only recommend to you what colors have worked very well for me.

My normal water clarity in the three lakes nearest my home I fish in is between 2 to slightly more than three feet.

Under more sunny than cloudy conditions with good to optimal water clarity and minimal wind and waves these two colors (they are 95% the same) tied for best results:

#1 Bass Pro Shops 5" Shadee Shad in White ice

#1A Zoom 5.25" Super Fluke in White Ice

 

Under more cloudy than sunny days but still good water clarity or if the bass are on feeding on bluegills or other darker colored baitfish:

#2 Zoom 5.25" Watermelon Red Flake or #2A watermelon red flake pearl I had great success with watermelon red flake pearl but I saw the bluegills were on their beds and I keep two Spike-It color markers on me when I fish and put some orange on the underside of the fluke to try to make it look more like a bluegill.

 

I haven't yet had to fish flukes in muddy-up or dirty water yet.

 

Tied for third best again was a Zoom 5.25" Super Fluke in Albino. I haven't fished Albino as much as the first three colors to make a final determination BUT Albino did as well FOR me in all light and water clarity conditions, just not as good YET as in the brightest and less bright conditions as the other colors I listed. 

I haven't experimented with any other fluke colors long enough yet to have enough confidence to recommend you spend your money on them.

These four colors have caught me enough bass that I would both recommend them and have high confidence when fishing them. Especially White Ice and Watermelon Red Flake Pearl, but my gut tells me watermelon red flake would likely work almost as well as watermelon red flake pearl.

 

One thing I did I can recommend you consider doing is look up the DNR info about the lakes you fish see if they list the types of the 3 or 4 most common forage fish in those lakes bass east most often then do a google search for color pictures of those forage fish and use their colors to help you pic two or three different fluke colors. In other words 'Match The hatch" in YOUR lake or lakeS

 

But in my strong opinion do NOT get to hung up on buying to many different color flukes I have only 8 different colored flukes at present and in truth they are just color variants of four different base colors and I have no plans on trying any new fluke colors.

 

I do not know what hook you are planning on using but I had great hookup and landing percentages once I switched (based on some great advice from members here) from a 3/0 to using a 4/0 Gamakatsu Twist Lock Superline hook and a 4/0 Owner Screw Lock Light hook. I use 20lb Sufix 832 braid and use a size #1 or #0 swivel to 16-18" of 12-15lb Yo-Zuri copolymer. I use a 7'3" MHFA spinning set up with a size 4k reel. I can make 40-45 yard casts 90%+ of the time 50 yards when I have the wind in my favor.

 

Please bare in mind this is my first time ever fishing soft plastic flukes so both my experience and advice is limited. I have no choice but to rig them as weedless as can be done because I am fishing them in medium, heavy, to very heavy weeds and lily pads as that is what cover dominates the lakes nearest my home from May till October.

 

One thing of great importance. You must be on your A game paying attention to detect bites as OVER 70% of my bites happen during my pauses when the fluke is falling and slack forms in your line that is why I use braid as braid telegraphs bites to my hands, hands to my brain better and faster than any mono possibly could. It will take TIME to master deciphering when you fluke contacts and is stopped by a weed or lily pad stem and a bass is lightly biting your fluke. Hard bites anyone can detect, its the lite bites when the bass just sucks up your fluke on a slackline are the bites that you will have the most difficulty detecting and accurately interpreting as a bite not a weed. 

 

I work them as a soft plastic jerkbait but I do vary my retrieve a lot using all kinds of different combinations of long and short pauses between jerks long and short jerks and even just a fast retrieve occasionally. Also have caught A LOT of bass early morning and last 2-2.5 hours of light keeping and eye out for minnows either a few or a school of them breaking the water surface as they try to obviously escape a predator or predators and cast past that disturbance and work my fluke through that area. More often than not it takes 3-5 casts through such an area to end up with a fish on, so don't make just one cast and then cast somewhere else. Same applies when I can actually see a bass beake the surface in pursuit of bait fish.

Few days ago saw something obviously hurding baitfish against some cattails into a small pocket between two small cattail points cast past the comotion worked my fluke through that area and ended up landing and releasing a 30-33" northern pike. I also keep a frog setup handy as if I see bass repeatedly and obviously feeding on the surface I will cast past the area of disturbed water and walk my popping frog dead through that area with frequent pauses. Caught quite a few bass this year already doing that.

 

I will say I am doing far better catching bass on weedless flukes from shore than I ever dreamed or hoped I would. But I am also blessed with lakes near my home with good numbers of quality bass in the 2-4.5lb class.Best of luck to you. Hope this was helpful.

 

[scaleface]

Sometimes you gotta do the best you can . Yesterday I was throwing spinnerbaits around " for no better words" gorilla snot  . It was a pain but I caught fish. Accurate casting is the ticket and poor cast result in big glob of stuff that will need to be picked off. I did a lot of lure cleaning but caught several nice fish.

[CDMTJager]

6 hours ago, scaleface said:

Sometimes you gotta do the best you can . Yesterday I was throwing spinnerbaits around " for no better words" gorilla snot  . It was a pain but I caught fish. Accurate casting is the ticket and poor cast result in big glob of stuff that will need to be picked off. I did a lot of lure cleaning but caught several nice fish.

This is the same for my lakes I do 90%+ of my bass fishing in from late March till late April. I can fish spinnerbaits and chatterbaits and shallow diving cranks from march1st till about mid to late April. Then its adios to the cranks and must carefully select areas for spinnerbaits and chatters. By about may 15th its ba-by to anything that dives with treble hooks. By June 1st it is VERY limited use of spinnerbaits, chatter baits and buzzbaits unless I want 70% of my casts to bring in baseball sized clump of weeds or lilly pads and stems.

There are in fact enough open areas in the lakes I fish 90% of the time to effectively fish spinnerbaits and chatterbaits, but after 5 years of beating the snot out of these areas at all times of the day and night using all manor of spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, topwater baits eben weedless soft plastics and getting consistently poor results, I simply do not fish them anymore. No I have no explanation for this because 5-6 years ago these areas while never were as good as my most productive areas still produced enough bass to be worth fishing, especially evening into the 1st 3-4 hours after sunset. But for reasons unknown to me these areas simply no longer produce bass for me.

The vast majority of remaining areas of my favorite bass lakes nearest my home are so heavily weeded and covered in lily pads it either weedless soft plastics, frogs or buzzbaits. To be absolutely honest I could fish 3/8oz spinnerbaits and 1/4oz chatterbaits if I as you said if I use very accurate casts I can make it work often enough to catch bass. But now since discovering weedless flukes worked as a jerkbait I catch more bass with less hassle and can fish anywhere I want.

 

Now if my lakes I fish most were known for regularly producing bass over 5lbs and 6lb bass were a very real possibility on anything approaching a regular basis, I would be willing to spend more time dealing with weeds and spinnerbaits and chatterbaits because in MY opinion and experiences spinnerbaits catch bigger bass on average than weedless flukes do.

 

But I will be very interested to see what the next few months hold for me. As I am going to give a weighted and weightless T-rigged Zoom ultravibe speed worms a try worked as a soft plastic buzzbait, jerk bait, sinking and floating worm in the same areas I am currently doing amazingly well throwing a weightless Zoom super fluke. And will also give my flukes a try using weighted screw lock hooks to go after less active bass deeper in the weeds. 

 

Yes that is correct I haven't yet fished a weighted fluke at all.

[Drawdown]

I like fishing a Baby Brush Hog with a 1/16oz bullet weight. Enough to sink menacingly in openings, but not too heavy to where it snags more grass/muck than is inevitable.

[GReb]

Frog

Buzzbait

Swim jig

Chatterbait

Fluke

Swim worm

Texas rig curly tail

Texas rig senko

Squarebill where you can

[KP Duty]

-Sluggo or fluke

-Speed or OG paddle worm 

-Slider worm if they need more coaxing

-Horny toad in morning/evening/clouds 

[FishTax]

I'd go weightless toad. Vary the retrieve. Burn it, twitch it, walk it, twerk it. Etc. 😎

 

Also like a light swim jig. 1/4 or less. Very minimal trailer, like a pintail plastic or scrap senko. 

 

Weightless plastic gives a ton of options here. Others have covered this well. Flukes can be jerkbaits, swim worms can do anything, weedless swimbait is very versatile. 

 

Lots of choices. Find the intersection of what you like throwing and what the fish will eat and that's a great day!