Anyone have any go to baits that are effective for heavy grass/weeds? Know there are big fish just tough to find through thick vegetation. Any help will be great!

Have a pond just like that! Weightless ribbon tails and flukes! Can't go wrong with a topwater frog

Im in the same boat. Opened up a pond thats been closed by a beaver for 20 years and its very thick vegitation. Any help?

Pitching a heavy jig might work. You need to get your bait down to the bass. The other option is to bring them up to you, with a frog or other topwater bait. And don't be afraid to cast a frog right on to the bank....then slowly work it out into the water and toward your boat.

Frog, fluke, or a light jig for working the top of the grass.  If you're fishing from a boat you can try punching with a tube or senko.

A hollow belly frog like the Booyah Pad Crasher would be a great option. You can also use a texas rigged soft plastic with a heavy weight to punch through to get to the bass.  

i fish a pond like this often.  much of it is 3-4' with grass and algae.  weightless soft plastics and occasionally top water during spring and fall.  

 

fish early in the morning and late in the evening. 

senko

I fish a pond exactly like that. I use hollow body frogs and some type of wacky rig. I let it fall in between some clear pockets and they hammer it.

3/4 to 1oz tungsten weight or punch jig, a beaver/creature bait, bobber stopper, 30-50lb braid.  Pitch in grass at will.  The frog works too, but when the grass is thick and the fish aren't wanting to come up, dropping this rig in their face will produce some nice fish that others aren't targeting especially on a pond.

i have the same pond and find it's hard to get bass in deep weeds to surface during a sunny day (unless of course it's windy/rainy/cloudy; then throw everything ya got at them). i use a light as a punch rig as i can get away with (3/4oz most of time; 1oz in the heavier milfoil). gotta use a pegged weight b/c a jig's weed guard get's hung up with too many weeds. dusk/dawn/night fishing far out produces by a long shot at my pond (so much so that i now only fish that pond from 7pm-12 am)

they destroy a buzzbait during these times.  slow dragging a weightless senko almost always produces fish but it's more quantity than quality. if i want the big girls i gotta go down and get them with a punch rig.

the shallower you are the easier it is to get the bass to surface. so a senko, frog etc works much better in 5ft of water (doesn't matter if there are 3 ft of weeds or 5ft of weeds that break the surfce.  whereas 10ft depth with 9 ft of weeds requires the punch rig 90% of the time.

Edited June 27, 201411 yr by ClackerBuzz

Yeah, sunny days do better for me.  The ponds I fish are public parks, the fish get hammered in the evenings and mornings by other anglers, middle of the day when it's bright, sunny, and nice and hot I may be the only person fishing.  Think this helps me as well since they aren't getting as much pressure around that time of day too