Help fishing lily pads.

[bassboy1]

Round here, we don't have any vegetation in our lakes, much less lily pad.  But, I am probably gonna be fishing a pond next week in NC, where the only visible cover is lily pads (Shore fishing, no sonar).  What on earth should I throw in that mess?  Thanks yall.

[BoroBass]

A frog would probably be perfect

[scott k]

I've always thrown a Moss Boss into that stuff and that works real well, but just tonight I picked up a Scum Frog due to recommendations from people here. I'm going to give that a try tomorrow.

[Ky_Lake_Dude]

Early, a frog type bait or buzzbait will probably work. Once it starts warming up a little bit a senko could be the ticket around sparse pads.

[RoLo]

Working lily pads from shore can be tough on lures but it sure is a blast.

If the surface is flat, I'd probably work the top with a Gambler cane toad (+ PowerPro).

If the surface is roily, I'd try a zoom super fluke and work it about 2 ft deep.

Lily pads rarely grow much deeper than 4 ft, so any bass hugging bottom would be met halfway.

Good luck

Roger

[Sam]

Throw a scum frog, Horney Toad, Zoom Texas-Rigged worm or another weedless topwater and watch for the lilly pads to move behind the bait as the bass follow it.

Throw out your biat (worm, frog, etc.) and hop it from pad to pad, letting it sit for a while on a pad.

I had a bass come totally out of the water on the Nottoway River and come down on the Zoom finesse worm sitting on a pad. I don't know who was more surprised.  Me, the guy fishing with me or the bass when I set the hook.

A trick worm can do wonders on pads as can other worms but a trick worm floats and that may be helpful.

Another suggestion is to use a "heavy" bullet weight and peg it just above your straight shank worm hook.

Rig the worm weedless using either a 2/0 Gamakatsu Worm Hook with the Wire Guard or just weedless, and throw it into the pads, jiggling it among the pads.  Throw-fall-jiggle-wait-jiggle-wait-jiggle-retrieve and do it again, jiggling the bait different number of times on each cast.

The either cast it out or pitch and flip it to some interestng looking spots.

Dont' forget your creature baits and brush hogs, too.

Remember, the pads have some TOUGH stems so be ready to lose a number of hooks and baits so stock your arsonel accordingly.

You may want to throw 17 or 20 pound extra tough test or braid line.  Braid works really well as it will let you cut through the pads to land the fish.  Since this is a pond you may want to throw no more than 30 pound braid and stay away from the high test braids.

If you are using spinning gear, have one or two spools ready to replace your original spool as you lose line. This is part of pad fishing so don't get upset when you get snagged. Remember, if you make too much noise getting your line out of the pads you will spook the fish.

If you use braid you may want to use your baitcaster.

Have strong rod, like a medium heavy or heavy.  And set the hook hard.

Watch your drag as you want to balance it to keep the fish from running deep into the pads but at the same time not breaking your line or reel.

And don't lift the fish out of the water with your rod.  If the fish is loaded with vegatation it will weigh much more than its 2 or 3 pounds so be ready to bring the fish to you via using your hand to lift the fish out of the water.

Let us know how you do.

Good luck.

[Matt Fly]

If the top of the water column isn't producing, you might try a 1/4-1/2 white jig.   Swim the jig through the pads, this has been a good producer of better bass this year.

   The lighter weight helps the jigs roll off the pads easier.    65 lb briad is reommended.

Matt

[jc2bg]

Bassboy. A lot of the central Ohio lakes have pads. In some cases, pads are the best cover available, so we've learned a few tricks to working them. Sadly, most of my experience and success in pad fishing has come when fishing the outer edge of the pads...from a boat. But one tactic that we use around here might work for you, if you're brave enough. This tactic is bouncing a shallow-running crankbait through the pads. That's right: a crankbait. If you use your rod tip to steer your bait, you'll get hung up surprisingly little, and if your hooks are sharp and your line is strong, you can pull off of 95% of the hangups. Depends on your area or what your fish like to see, but we use mostly little cranks such as a Heddon Tiny Tad. The smallest Bass Magnet was another one we used a few years back. These baits run shallow because they're not big, but their lip is fairly good-sized relative to their [short] body, so the hooks are fairly well protected. Braided line is good for this action, as it's strong and low-stretch. Line has to be matched to the bait you're throwing, though, so you can cast it well. As the bait veers crazily off one pad stem after another, the bass can't stand it. Reaction strike city. -- JC

[Avalonjohn44]

Buzzbait, A spinnerbait right under the surface and skimmed just under the edges of the pads, a Salad Spoon, Sluggo, Weightless trickworm, or a spro bronze eye frog.

[Guest avid]

Remember, the pads have some TOUGH stems so be ready to lose a number of hooks and baits so stock your arsonel accordingly

tis true.  So from shore I would definitly use t rigged plastics and hollow body frogs.

A real fun thing when it works is to trig a weightless lizard or hollow body frog and pitch or swim it on top of one the pads.  Just let it sit there.  And sit there.  Then let it sit some more.  Then plop it into the water.

KA_BOOM.  when it works it's one of the coolest ways to catch em.

[bassboy1]

Remember, the pads have some TOUGH stems so be ready to lose a number of hooks and baits so stock your arsonel accordingly

tis true.  So from shore I would definitly use t rigged plastics and hollow body frogs.

A real fun thing when it works is to trig a weightless lizard or hollow body frog and pitch or swim it on top of one the pads.  Just let it sit there.  And sit there.  Then let it sit some more.  Then plop it into the water.

KA_BOOM.  when it works it's one of the coolest ways to catch em.

Three weeks ago, I was a small pond, that has a LOT of dead vegetation.  Their were some openings in it, but other than that, it was THICK.  I was using a weightless 6 inch finesse worm, and it would sit on top of the vegetation unless I pulled it through, so I would let it sit, and kinda jerk it over the edge into an opening and they were killing it.  11 keepers in 4 days, when I averaged about 30 minutes a day.  Not bad.

[ILFishing]

HI my name is steven and this lake that i fish all the time is covered with lilly pads i use a Power bait realistic bull frog i get alot of fish off it  if  you can you should pick them up they will be wourth it  ;D

[bassboy1]

For the report.  

This lake has been changed from no tackle limits, other than certain live baits, which they didn't want infestating their water, to a lake that only allows single hook artificials.  This is because the stream that feeds it, is a wild trout stream.  In NC, you can only catch wild trout on single hook artificials.  So I was limited on the baits to throw.

I fished that lake three times last week.

First time was from about 5 pm to dark.  I started fishing a friends homemade senko, and caught one just over a pound within ten casts.  My sister, who had one of the cameras, was walking on the other side of the lake, and my dad, who had the other, ran back into town to get something.  So I just threw him back.  Then, when dad got back, he pointed into the water at a bass in the chop between two patches of pads.  I casted about 6 feet off his head.  He swam over as fast as he could, and snatched up that lure.  brought him in, and he was a whopping 2 and a half pounds, which is, sadly, my personal best.  Dad had forgotten his camera, so I held the fish in the water, so he sprinted around the lake to get my sister.  Just as she was coming around the corner, I lost my guard, and the bass made a strong jerk, and got away, and I dang near followed him in.  I cannot say how dissapointed I was at losing him within seconds of a camera.  

Talking to everyone there, I was the only one who had caught anything, much less a 2 and a half pounder.  Even the live bait folks (the single hook rule is so new, that few knew about it, and the rangers were just informing of the rule, and not ticketing it, or counting against one in any way)

The next day, we were there about the same time, and I skunked.

A few days later, we went there in the morning, and again, I skunked.  On that day though, I was talking to a ranger, and commented on my 2 and a half pounder, and she was suprised, saying that this has never been stocked.  I knew they hadn't stocked it with trout, as they wouldn't ruin a wild trout fishery with hatchery trout, so I thought maybe she thought I had meant trout (Hadn't said what species - just 2 1/2 pounder)  So I said, no it was a largemouth.  She said they hadn't stocked it with anything.  The only one stocked on this section of the Blue Ridge Parkway, was Price lake.  These bass were descendants of whatever Moses Cone put in there in the mid eighteen hundreds.  That really suprises me, as I cannot catch fish stocked yesterday, much less fish that have been from a bloodline going back a 100 years, which must be a genetically super fish, to live that long through the lakes ups and downs.

[G3-Basser]

Well, most of these strategies have been mentioned before, but b/c I'm such a lillypad lover, I had to post.

The thick stuff:  topwater frogs, either hollow or the "horny toad" varieties, pitch a jig or tube to open pockets or rig a huge 10-12 in worm texas rig with a 1/8 weight.  Run the worm across the top of the pads and then drop it into holes or off the edges.  Hits will come on the fall.

Thinner stuff:  Swim a jig b/c it doesn't get snagged on the stalks, run a spinner bait through or use a senko or soft jerkbait to fish below the surface.

I rarely get skunked if I have a patch of lillypads to throw at.

Good luck,

J

[Floridabassking352]

Buzzbait, Popper early and late. Soft plastic worm and frog when it gets hot.