In lakes with good amounts of both types of weeds, do you find bass preferring one over the other? I know this will vary lake to lake but do you see any pattern. Milfoil grows deeper but the pads provide good shade and room to move around underneath.

Weed cut milfoil mats produce a lot of fish for me, whether punching, fishing the edges or sometimes on top with a frog.  My lake has both, a ton of pads and milfoil combined in the same areas. It's hard for me to distinguish which truly holds more fish.  The biggest fish have come from areas where weed edges are very thick right next to deepest waters of the lake. Usually within the first 3-4 feet of that weedline is where the bigger fish hang.  Smaller fish seem to be tucked closer to shore or in shallower areas.  Not sure that really answers you but an observation from my home lake. 

I'd try to find spots where the two plant species merge together,

especially since lily pads are a surface plant and milfoil is a submergent plant.

If that weren't possible, I would give the nod to 'milfoil', because it grows in deeper water

than waterlilies, and healthy stands of milfoil offer excellent shade on their own.

 

Roger

I've caught a lot more bass in pads than mill foil but that's because I fish pads alot more...

I'm a milfoil fan - might even be a Groupie . . . .

 

Really get excited when it's in isolated patches, adjacent to or on a deep edge.

 

And when it's mixed with some cabbage weed could be a Honey Hole . . . . .

 

 

 

A-Jay

I'm a milfoil fan - might even be a Groupie . . . .

Really get excited when it's in isolated patches, adjacent to or on a deep edge.

And when it's mixed with some cabbage weed could be a Honey Hole . . . . .

 

A-Jay

 

Lush patches of milfoil blended with clumps of cabbage overlooking a steep drop-off!

Now that's REAL reason for excitement. 

 

Roger

I've been fishing a small shallow lake with huge milfoil flats and a rim of lily pads around the bank. The outside weedline is not very defined and I haven't found any steep drops. I'm thinking I gotta just pick away but of course would like to narrow it down if possible.lol

I've been fishing a small shallow lake with huge milfoil flats and a rim of lily pads around the bank. The outside weedline is not very defined and I haven't found any steep drops. I'm thinking I gotta just pick away but of course would like to narrow it down if possible.lol

 

I know what you're dealing with, we have a lot of those salad saucers here in Florida.

In a fish factory like you've described, bass seem to do perfectly well without any drop-offs.

In the absence of sharp sloping terrain, there is another strong approach to siting.

Begin by determining the approximate depth of the outer weed-line.

Then using your GPS chart, visually circumnavigate the lake while looking only at that one depth line.

Create a waypoint wherever that contour line forms an inside pocket (indent pointed shoreward).

The sharper and tighter the corner in the outer weed-line, the more powerful the site,

but even subtle pockets cause bass to aggregate.  

 

Roger

Great idea. Thanks Roger

I've been fishing a small shallow lake with huge milfoil flats and a rim of lily pads around the bank. The outside weedline is not very defined and I haven't found any steep drops. I'm thinking I gotta just pick away but of course would like to narrow it down if possible.lol

 

Perhaps using your sounder you could locate hard bottom areas inside, outside and even with in the aquatic growth ?

 

At times, that's a magnet - especially if the majority of the lakes bottom composition is mush.

 

Just a thought.

 

A-Jay

Seems that the bigger fish come from grouped pads on my home lakes, but milfoil certainly holds larger quantities of fish it seems. I absolutely love punching mats, no matter which kind they are, because it's a big fish paradise.

Funny, I'm seeing the same thing. Tons of cookie cutter 1.5 lbers in the milfoil and a occasional 3+ in the pads. I know there are good numbers of better fish there because I caught them shallow right before the spawn.

On the two lakes I frequent there is a good mix of both. The one produces more numbers in the millfoil, but more big fish from the pads and the area in close proximity.  The other lake gives up very few from the pads and they're mostly dinks.  I think it has a lot to do with the forage base. The first one as a broad base of minnows, crawfish, bluegill and bullheads. The second has an abundance of minnows, no crawfish and a smaller population of gills.