Lilly pads

[Yankee_lake]

What do you reccomend to fish through lilly pads... even when a t-rig a senko or yum i still get caught up and real in weeds... its pretty annoying, what do u reccomend using.. any lures good?

[Muddpuppy]

If they are thick with large holes or pockets I like unweighted texas rigged soft plastics frogs, worms, bushhogs lizards. Throw them up onto the pads and hop them into the water. Let them sink, then twitch or swim them back onto the next pads. I keep working them across the pads just like I do in water. The worms I fish with more of a snake like retrieve. I like to use buzz baits jitterbugs, and hula poppers when they are sparse or around the edges.

After finally finding some kreatures and some decent tube baits I am looking forward to useing them too! Jigs should work well, it just isn't one of my best baits.

Last week I was pulling some of the Horny Toads over stuff that I never would have believed that they would not have gotten covered up in crap.  They just skimmed right over the top of it.  Then when you got to a hole, pause and they would slowly sink.  Didn't catch anything off them or anything else but I was still amazed.  

[basskid1]

Alot of times you can throw a spinner bait in the pads and shouldnt have much trouble getting it through and you can try a grass frog its made by stike king ive caught alot on scum frogs out of lilly pads.

[GobbleDog]

I bet you're using mono and a short light rod. The heavier the rod, the easier it is to work bait through cover. And with braided, nothing stops it.

I use 10 lb Power Pro and a medium-action 7.5' rod. With that I cast Trick Worms and Flukes into the thickest of  Florida cover (including VERY thick lilly pads) and pop-it through just fine.

[BassKinG]

In weeds I prefer a scum frog always had luck with them and they are easy to fish.

[BD]

Frog.

[piranha]

Since we are on the topic, last night I was fishing the pads and hooked three bass that got hung up. I wasn't able to get them out, even after trying different angles, letting them swim out on their own, etc. I ended up having to break the line and retie. I was fishing from the shore so I didn't have a ton of options. Also, I use mono line and was fishing senko worms. Are the bass burying themselves in the roots of the pads? Is there an option besides swiching to braided line and yanking them out with a fury to prevent them from getting stuck? Thanks for your help.

[roadwarrior]

You need a heavy power rod and braided line. Fishing lilly pads, thick grass and timber requires the ability to move a fish and horse it out. You will lose some fish by pulling the hook out of their mouth, but you have to get them out of all that stuff.

[Yankee_lake]

i actually caught one and hook it real fast and reeled in fast and it was above the lilly pads so didnt get caught up... But d**n did it bring it alot of weeds... How is somebody going to say a spinner bait, i didnt one cast with something similar and i had to cut the line and retrieve it...  I was using a t-rig weightless and obvisously weedless and it was still getting stuck, HOWWWWWWWWWWWWWw

but it was still fun of course

[Muddpuppy]

I keep my rod tip high, use heavy line and try to steer them around the pads the best I can on soft plastics. On the creatures if I can get it to fall into a pocket were it can drop a little I like to let the line slide on the edge of the lily pads a little like drop shotting, wiggling the bait up and down to get it to hop around on the bottom. Chances are I will fight it back out. I like the ribbon tail and floating worms and lizards and I do keep them moveing on the top. I have put a small clear bead on the line, and that may have made a little difference. They also make some bullet shaped hard foam floats that hopefuly helps them to slide through the weeds. I haven't used them enough to really form an opinion on them yet. Don't get me wrong I probably resemble a kelp farmer durring harvest more than a bass fisherman most of the time. But I do enjoy to catch fish out of the stuff/at least most days. I've read on here the tubes work really well, in the pads. A friend of mine just bought a new boat and hates this kind of fishing, so I haven't done near as much as I normally do, since he wants to take his boat.

This is one of those tips that you pick up places and I'm not sure if I even have it right.  You can stick a toothpick through the head of the worm and the eye of the hook and it is supposed to keep the worm from slideing back down the hook.  It can also be glued and some of the keeper hooks work pretty good, even though I think that a knot picks up a lot of weeds.