Dead lilly pads?

[bmadd]

I've got a question for you guys who fish in places with lots of lilly pad fields. Do the dead lilly pad stems hold fish early in the year? I'm fishing a tournament at a small lake with very little structure and cover besides the lilly pads that grow in the backs of some of the coves. This time of year they are all dead and it is mainly just stems under the water. Will they hold fish? Or will I be wasting my time.

[little_stephen]

Yes Sir!

Especially if ur fishing a lake with little else for cover.    My favorite lake only has lily pads for cover....... thats it.

If you can focus on a place where the pads have some sort of secondary structure ur golden.

I landed my biggest bass so far off an emerging pad field really early in the spring with a jig by crawling it through the stem systems.     But my best spot where I got the fish from had a row of small posts that ran through the pad field.... they hold a pipeline of some sort in place..... that was where I got the most bites from.

But if you can find a spot where the pads create a wierd structural formation, or where theres an isolated pad stem system close to a larger one..... things like that youll find the fish!

Some bass spawn in the pad systems, so if its gunna be spawn focus on holes in the stems.    Prespawn ive had luck landing fish cruising looking for food along drop offs so I target spots where the pads drop off quickly into deep water.

Alot of it has to do with knowing where the pads are in the summer for me.     But the short answer,  YES fish those things if thats the only cover the bass have!

General rules to remember (as far as Ive learned)

Lily Pads tend to grow in water as deep as 10feet. Not much more.....

Pads like to grow in muddy or silty bottom composition (Bass dont like to spawn there)- so try spots where bottom comp changes and stops the pads when theyre grown

If im wrong here, im sure someone will strighten me out. but those are the rules i fish by!   And all ive done for the last two years straight is fish lily pad fields from shore! (Cant even get to open water in the summer)

Good luck! and let me know how it turns out!

[Dan:]

I was under the impression that dead pads reduce the levels of dissolved oxygen?

[bassnleo]

To echo what was already said, yes, dead pad stems will hold fish early in the year.

We have a local lake that is full of pad stems after ice out. The are also in the backs and sides of coves. Pad stems rock there.

The key is to find the stems in water that is warmer than the main lake temps.

Slow roll a spinnerbait, shallow running crank, chatterbait.

[little_stephen]

i think they do!?

But none of what science says seems to effect the bass in Sippo Lake,      the only structure in that entire lake is the MASSIVE amount of lily pads.     The fishing pier & boat house which get HAMMERED!     the pipeline and its little wooden posts.     the cement overflow dam choked back in the padfields down lake where i fish.   and the sandbars that you cant get to unless u rent a canoe, and manage to escape the rangers watchful eye and get out on the sandbars on foot in ankle deep water (mind you theyre tiny little sandbars)

So they spawn in the pad stems.    Its the only place for them to spawn!

[RoLo]

That's a good question, and the answer has recently inspired reconsideration.

It's common knowledge that decaying vegetation consumes oxygen and emits carbon dioxide.

On the other hand however, decaying vegetation also produces heat.

Cool water has a higher saturation point for dissolved oxygen than warm water,

therefore "heat" may be a more legitimate concern during the early spring.

All the above is personal hypothesis, but this much I can state without reservation,

Lois and I have boated several sloppy-fat bass from rusty-brown pads in early spring.

Roger

[Dan:]

That's a good question, and the answer has recently inspired reconsideration.

It's common knowledge that decaying vegetation consumes oxygen and emits carbon dioxide.

On the other hand however, decaying vegetation also produces heat.

Cool water has a higher saturation point for dissolved oxygen than warm water,

therefore "heat" may be a more legitimate concern during the early spring.

All the above is personal hypothesis, but this much I can state without reservation,

Lois and I have boated several sloppy-fat bass from rusty-brown pad drifts in early spring.

Roger

That actually makes perfect sense.

[bmadd]

That was what was causing the confusion in my head. I'll give it a try and report back. Hopefully the heat will be worth more than the depleted oxygen to the fat green fish I'll be after.

[Catt]

Water lilies are rooted on the bottom which quickly tells us the bottom composition is more solid than the surrounding area.

Bass prefer a solid bottom when looking for an area to build their nest.

Find a lily field and you've found a potential spawning area

[Fishing Rhino]

I'm going to throw one monkeywrench into the oxygen saturation equation.

I understand that dying/decaying vegetation consumes oxygen, lowering the oxygen levels somewhat in their vicinity.

But, take this into consideration.  Vegetation such as lily pads are usually dying off in cooler water than was present when they were at their peak.  Probably several degrees cooler.

Since this cooler water can hold more oxygen, it occurs to me there is somewhat of an offset.  Is it possible that oxygen levels in the water around the dying vegetation is actually higher than it is in the midst of summer?

On the seesaw of oxygen levels when you calculate how much oxygen is taken for the decomposition of vegetation on one side with increase capacity of cooler water to hold oxygen, which side wins?

Or is it like many other things in nature a delicate balancing act where one thing takes away, but something else provides an offset to keep things in balance in order to sustain life.

Right now, around here, there are no leaves, and the grass is brown, yet I know of no one suffering from oxygen depletion.  Winds sweeping the face of the earth keep the distribution of atmospheric gas levels in balance.

I'm wondering if this is a case of overthinking.

Do fish seek higher oxygen levels, or warmer temps.  Everything else being equal, the two are not compatible, since higher oxygen levels occur in cooler water.

I'm not disagreeing with any of the previous assertions.  These are questions buzzing through my mind as I try to sort out the overall equation.

[Catt]

I'll add one more monkey wrench to the mix; when the lily first dies off and the actual pad (the big round part) is decaying this is when the most oxygen is being depleted. Once it pad is gone and there is nothing left but the stem (trunk) the oxygen depletion is over and then I'll target the lily field again.

[fishfordollars]

Reguardless if it is the bottom composition, water temperature, are just the cover provided, they certainly hold fish this time of year. I don't pass up an area when i come across it.

They will define a drop to. Certainly a great chance that the bottom falls away when they abruptly quit growing.

[brushhoggin]

pad fields dominate the river system i fish and i LOVE IT. i've caught fish in all stages of a pad fields life, and it could be that running river water is constantly replenishing the oxygen so my opinion may not count here. but i'm with rhino in that there is an offset, and nature compensates. overthinking is def occuring.

[RoLo]

I'm not so sure that anyone "over-thought" the matter of dead pads,

which seems more like a kneejerk reaction supported by under-thinking.

As I mentioned above, the thinking on this matter has recently turned the corner,

and I believe rightly so. Dead or alive, pads offer several advantages to game fish:

(1) They continue to harbor forage fish (look for them, and you will see them)

(2) They still offer broad overhead cover

(3) In the case of water lilies, a bottom of firm sand is virtually guaranteed.

In truth, that's how I normally find bottoms of firm sand, because those that support

vegetation are almost invariably blanketed in a thin layer of black humus.

Last but not least, Lois & I have boated many bass from a backdrop of rusty-brown pads,

which is proof enough for me.

In the broadest sense, pads not only applies to Waterlilies, but also to Spatterdock,

American Lotus and to a lesser extent Watershield. Oxygen loss in winter caused by

vegetable decay is a very slooow process. In fact, the loss of dissolved oxygen over several days

can be quickly reversed by a fresh breeze or moderate rainfall.

As I pointed out above, oxygen deprivation is basically a summertime issue,

when the saturation point of dissolved oxygen is sharply reduced.

Paradoxically, summertime is also when the greenery is at its peak growth, when

carbon dioxide is most efficiently removed from water and oxygen is most efficiently released.

In lakes where water temperatures exceed 90 degs F., low levels of dissolved oxygen

drive largemouth bass into shallow water where the plant life is heaviest and healthiest.

Bass that remain in deeper water become casualties of the summer kill.

Roger