Suggestions on hydrilla/pads choked lake

[p-funk]

 I fish a 75acre lake that is covered with lily pads and hydrilla in the upper half. The hyrdilla comes up and touches the top of the water in some spots but mainly is anywhere from 6" to 24" under the water surface and it covers the WHOLE bottom. I'm curious as to how to fish the thick weeds. It's pretty much impossible to penetrate the weeds and fish effectively I think. At the same time, there is really no "edge" to the weeds to fish because they cover the whole upper end of the lake where the fishing is best. Will a bass bust through these weeds to hit a lure being dragged across the top of the weeds like a worm/jig/etc? The stuff is so thick, I don't see how fish move in them. I'm just trying to get a better understading of how fish relate to these weeds and how to fish them and what is actually below the surface as to what I'm seeing.

Here are some pics of the upper end of the lake.   You can see the weeds pushing through the top of the water in some of the pics and in all places where you don't see it above the surface it is below in various depths.

 

   

 

 

The last pic doesn't really show what I was hoping it would show because of the weather conditions.  The lily pads stretch back to the tree line in the background which is about 250-300yds.  

Here are a few fish I've caught in the last month out of here.

3.5lber - 18.5" caught tonight

   

4.75lbs  - 19.5" caught Sunday

   

6.5lbs - 23.75" caught 7-19-05

   

Along with these have been quite a few 2-2.5lbers as well and losing one I'm confident saying was at least 10lbs due to knot failure.   Almost all of them have been caught on topwater lures of some type.  I'm just not sure what to fish these conditions with lurewise other than topwater, but would love input on what to use and how bass may be relating to the hydrilla to help out on days where topwater is very slow.  Thanks

[nwgabassmaster]

The first thing that you need to know is that while the top 6-8 inches of the weeds are tough to get through, it is just a canopy, and under that, it opens up, and the bass have little canals through it, which they can travel.

If you are catching bass like that on a topwater, why switch to something else?  

If you are wanting to punch through the weeds, use a T-rig with a weight no smaller than 1/2 oz., and possibly up to 1 oz.  That will get through the weeds.  If you have the chance, fish a trick worm, in a bright color, white, orange, pink, etc., and fish any holes that might in the hydrilla.  Twitch it over the grass, and when it gets to the hole, let it sink, and then, bring it out.

For the lily pads, I would try a top water frog, or give the Sizmic Toad a try.  You can fish these in all water depths.  If not that, try a regular buzzbait, or perhaps a Pop-R.

[p-funk]

Thanks for the reply and suggestion.  My main reason on asking is to find something else more effective to use when the topwater bite isn't working well and also to get a better understanding of the weeds and how to fish them.  Thanks again

[Muddpuppy]

Sticking with top water I would try buzzbaits and jiterbugs where I could.  I also like toads, frogs, or a rat, weightless worms (snaked across the surface and then let sink in pockets and holes.  You could also try creature baits like bushhogs, kreatures, ikas ect.  Fish them in pockets weightless letting them sink and jigging them a little when the reach the bottom.  You could try using weight to punch through the weeds, especially where the hydrilla and pads meet since that will most likely indicate a structure change.  Try working a kreature bait as a top water lure rigged weedless.  Pull it where it just bubbles along on the surface, it should skim over alot of the weeds.  Tubes might work in the pads.  

[senko_77]

try the doug hannon baby snakes.  they are incredible for situations like these

[jaylord]

The way I would fish this stuff is with a frog.

Take your frog and put a split ring on it. This will make it walk like a Zara Spook. Fish a white frog

and fish this stuff with braid 30#. Take a black

Sharpie run it up your line 5ft. Then put some small

Cs on the bottom of your frog.And walk it like a Spook.

Then I whould fish a Sweet Beaver T-rig on a 4/0

EWG Gamakatsu Superline hook. With 20# Big Game line.

I fish in the California Delta my biggest fish so far is

7lb 11oz. I hope this will help.

[fishinTexas]

I have that same hat.  ;D ;D Gotta love the John Deere mesh caps.

There is a resevoir where I fish that is similiar as far as hydrilla is concerned. We throw buzz baits, and reel like mad when we get on top of the hydrilla. This works great, we catch fish almost anytime of day doing this.

Do a search on ebay for "hydrilla gorilla". It is a buzz bait that is altered for hydrilla. I haven't ordered one yet but am going to next week.

[Muddpuppy]

Big Sow also makes snakes, but they do not show them on their web site yet.

 We use flukes alot in the winter sometimes adding maybe 1/16 or 1/32 weight on the hook when fishing the in the tops of submerged weeds and hydrilla, so they might be worth a try.   You can try fishing them unweighted also.  They also work good on a C-rig.  I usually try to present lures in a vertical manner then to try to work them through the weeds when they are real thick. I usually cast onto the pads or the bank and drag or hop rather my bait back across them, take advantage of any openings and pull them in try to splash and wiggle around a little.  When you find a good pocket let them slide off of lilly pads and fall under their own weight w/ or without weight on a slack line until they reach the bottom.  If no strikes then use the line to pulley them up and down off of the pads then find anouther hole, or a c- rig and just twitching the bait and not moveing the weight much.  I would try fishing any change in the grass, like where 2 types meet there is normally a change in depth, bottom construction, like clay or sand.  Throw around any sticks that you may see sticking up.   One thing also that sometimes works for me is throwing a buzzbait or something that makes alot of noise then going right back with plastic.  The largest Ika that GY makes is supposed to work good in weeds without weight. It is supposed to be heavy enough to get down into them and not just lay on top and still relatively weedless.   I haven't tried it yet, but intend to.

[p-funk]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.  Got out tonight for a few hours with a buddy.  Extremely slow start to the evening.  Water temp was up near 89 degrees.  Was throwing a lot of topwater in shallow weedy/lily pad areas without much luck.  My buddy finally picked up 3 on a black and white torpedo.  Finally I switched to a firetiger pattern pop-r.  Caught one a 1.75lbs and one right at 2lbs right away.  Then picked up another small one.  Then moved up the lake to fish real quick since it was becoming dark and you have to be off the lake 1/2 hour after dark.  Threw out and got a good hit from the bass.  Didn't think it was that good of a fish till it jumped on me.  Had to pull it through a big mess of weeds and she put up a great fight.  She finally gave up once the weight of the weeds was too much for her.  We had to pull weeds off the line and fish to find where she was to finally net her.  

She was 23.5" and as mentioned before 22" is considered a trophy in VA.  Finally got to weigh her and she weighed in at 7lbs 1oz.  Took some pics with her, had my buddy verify the measuremnt and let her go.  This is my second citation (trophy fish) here in VA in the last month.  Needless to say I am very pumped.  

 

 

[New Bass Man]

Way to go pfunk!  Nice fish!  Hearty congratulations!

[jivey]

beauty!

[p-funk]

Thanks guys!  ;D

[jaylord]

Good looking fish. Fish the frog.

[Michael H]

nice fish

[fishwhore]

FAN-FREAKIN-TASTIC fish. Man I'd love to work some frogs and flukes through those pads with you. Great job on the citations.

[bassackwards]

what a nice pond to be fishing... with all those fish.

u might want to invest in a 7'6" or so flippin rod and a low speed (5.2) reel just for that situation and getting through the hydrilla

[Matt Fly]

You have a great looking place to fish. You already know there are good keepers. One of the guys said go with a 1oz weight. I love matted grass. I use at least 1oz or 1 1/2oz. To be successful, peg your sinker with a tooth pick or get screw locked weights, this will keep the weight from sliding up and down and allow for penatration. I pitch, toss, throw my weight up into the air 10-20ft, this method will allow you to penetrate grass that is thick due to the water level dropping later in the summer that will cause grass to appear unpenetratable. The holes or pocket you can see, use a jig, jig, jig (grass and a jig are made for each other), or 10" worm, drop it down till it hits bottom, lift it up 6-10" shake it three times and let it rest on bottom for a few seconds, dupilcate once more and move on. Watch for the hit to be on the initail fall, watch your line for a slight movement and set that hook. Master the grass and you will catch trophy fish on a consistant basis. Jigs are good year around, but now until spawn is when I really go hog wild with jigs. In Texas we usually have a crawdad hatch in june. The jig/pig is the best duplicate to the crawdad I know. The jig bite gets better as cooler weather arrives, Bass get more protein out of crawfish, thus they feed hard on crawdads to fatten up for winter. PS. Use braided line in thick grass or 25#mono or better.

Denny Brauer is the Jig master.  

[bassackwards]

you dont seem to have much trouble with bass, lookin at those pics...  sheesh..   : lol

[bassaddict62]

I used to fish a lake just about that size, and about as weedy. I know it's an old school lure, but the Johnson Silver Minnow was the most productive. Nothing goes across (or through/under if you want to) those bigger lily-pads I see in the pic better. Dress it with a short plastic twister or shad style tail and it will produce, guaranteed. BTW, that 23 incher is sweet!