Baits/Tactics For The Thick Slop

[BassFishingMachine]

Everyone I talk to, or atleast majority of the people, will frown on cover like this. They'll say to me "theres just so much weeds and muck I couldn't even fish it", or "theres too much crap on the water". I don't understand these people!! There are tons of ways to fish that stuff, and it truly is one of my favorite types of cover to fish. I can pull some quality fish out of that thick stuff. For anyone who looks at this muck and weeds as something to stay away from, read these tips and try and give fishing that cover another shot, I guarantee you'll probably start to love that slop just as much as I do.

1. Get yourself a medium or medium heavy 6'6 rod, and a hollow weedless frog, I recommend a Original Scumfrog, but a bronzeye will do. Cast out the frog directly on top of the thick stuff, and just twitch it along, let it stop every 3-5 secs, and give it a good 4-8sec pause. Then just keep twitchin it along and repeat. You catch quality fish like this, big bass love breaking through that slop for a frog, and the hit is just incredible to watch. When the fish hits, it is important to let him have a hold of it for a few secs (4-6secs), feel the fish, than set the hook, if you set the hook immediately, 95% of the time your going to lose the fish.

2. Try a jig, specificly with a cone style head, a "flipping jig" basiclly, designed to come through weeds. I don't trim the weedguard on jigs  that I use for flipping the muck, but I guess what ever floats your boat. Rig the jig with a good chunk, I recommend a Paca Chunk, or Yum Chunk, and flip/pitch or cast it right into that thick muck, keep tension on the jig, and just feel it, alot of times the bass will just suck it up immediately when it hits the water or while its sitting there on the initial fall. Try working the jig along the bottom, and just kinda hop it or crawl it along, with constant pauses. Sometimes the muck is too heavy to work the jig back to yourself, if this is the case don't cancel out using the jig completely, just keep throwing it at key structure in the mids of that muck, like pads, sticks etc. I recommend a Terminator Pro's Top Secret jig, or a Booyah jig. This is another tactic that works great in that muck, and catches quality fish.

3. Some say they do this with a small bullet weight, but I prefer weightless. Weedless rig a creature bait, or ribbontail worm, which ever softbait you prefer, I prefer the creature, you can use a bullet weight or weightless, like I said I like it weightless. For the creature bait I recommend a Yum Wooly Hawgtail. Now cast the bait on top of the thick muck, and just kinda twitch it along with pauses like you would the hollow frog. They'll blow up on it like crazy, the advantage to using a soft plastic over a frog, is you can let it slowly fall into any open pockets you come upon while bringing it over the muck. But sometimes the fish seem to prefer the frog over this technique. But its definetly a tactic I use in the thick stuff.

4. Flipping/pitching/casting a soft plastic. You fish this pretty much exactly like you would #2, which is a jig. Peg a bullet weight onto a creature bait or a ribbon tail worm, I prefer the creature, I'd recommend Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver (perfect profile for slipping through weeds), Zoom baby brush hog, or Yamamoto Kreature.  Now when you have it weedless rigged and pegged, cast, flip or pitch it out onto that thick slop. And fish it the exact same way as was #2. Just with long pauses, hops and crawls. Trust me, when a big bass sitting under that slop watches a nice juicy creature fall right through the top of that crap, hes going to suck it up, you can bet on that.

5. This technique I only use when the muck Isn't extremely thick, I use it when its scattered, such as a small patch of muck there, a small patch of muck there, little patch of pads there, basiclly water is covered 75% with muck, and there still open holes in alot of areas. The technique is a soft plastic frog. Weedless rig it with a appropriate size hook (most commonly 4/0 -5/0), cast it out there and bring it in with a steady retrieve. The feet should start kicking like crazy, the advantage to using this frog over a hollow frog is it mainly has more action than a hollow frog, although it doesn't come through the weeds as well as the hollow frog, so I'd stick with the hollow if the muck is just everywhere. But when you have a few open holes, enough to let that soft plastic frog kick its feet, you'll get some monster strikes steadily retrieving that frog along the top. I recommend a Stanley Ribbit, but you can use which ever soft plastic frog you like. When the fish hits, it is important to let him have a hold of it for a few secs (4-6secs), feel the fish, than set the hook, if you set the hook immediately, 95% of the time your going to lose the fish.

And thats about all the tactics I use when I come across the thick stuff. I just thought I'd share them with you all, alot of you probably know them already or use them yourselfs, but you don't know how many people I come across who look at the muck as unfishable, or just not worth the time. Trust me, you catch some monsters out of that thick crap, its the perfect cover, and the perfect shade. It is definetly worth the time to fish. If your one of the people who dislikes the muck, seriously, try these tactics and you'll soon see that muck is your best friend  . You can also use these same tactics on areas of thick lillypads.

[Catt]

Bass-N-Grass; Excellent post Dude  

Here's one of my favorite techniques to attack Hydrilla

Lure: Oldham's Lures Trailer Hitch Jig, 5/8 oz Black/Blue, Gene Larew Salty Hawg Craws in 6 with 2 ½ cut off the tail

After making a pitch I will strip about 3 or 4 arms lengths of line letting the jig fall near straight down. Then I will shake the jig to make sure it has not stop on the grass stems. With the jig now resting on the bottom, pause several seconds, the shake the jig once or twice with pauses between each. If no strike is detected simply reel up & pitch again moving locations about 5-10 ft from the previous. Once you get bite quickly kick or toss a buoy marker over board, fish in grass flats tend to stack up so when you catch one there is usually more. Circle the buoy in increasing diameters & depths working the jig slowly (I once caught nine 6 lb + bass in an area the size of your living room). You may work 70 yards or 700 yards to locate the fish but when you do hang on cause you might get your arm broke!

[Bankbeater]

Thanks for the tips!!

[BassFishingMachine]

Bass-N-Grass; Excellent post Dude

Here's one of my favorite techniques to attack Hydrilla

Lure: Oldham's Lures Trailer Hitch Jig, 5/8 oz Black/Blue, Gene Larew Salty Hawg Craws in 6 with 2 ½ cut off the tail

After making a pitch I will strip about 3 or 4 arms lengths of line letting the jig fall near straight down. Then I will shake the jig to make sure it has not stop on the grass stems. With the jig now resting on the bottom, pause several seconds, the shake the jig once or twice with pauses between each. If no strike is detected simply reel up & pitch again moving locations about 5-10 ft from the previous. Once you get bite quickly kick or toss a buoy marker over board, fish in grass flats tend to stack up so when you catch one there is usually more. Circle the buoy in increasing diameters & depths working the jig slowly (I once caught nine 6 lb + bass in an area the size of your living room). You may work 70 yards or 700 yards to locate the fish but when you do hang on cause you might get your arm broke!

Nice, I never knew they schooled up alot of the times while in the grass, will have to look into that more. Thanks for the info!, always good to receive some more tactics to add to the arsenal .

[scott k]

Excellent post! Thank you.

I also like to pitch into the thick mat using heavy bullet weights (1 to 1.5 ounce) with T-rigged plastic craws, preferably Powerbait Chigger Craw.  That has become my favorite way to fish.