What is your preferred method for attacking grass (texas rig, punch rig, tokyo, jika, chicken, ect.)  

 

Feel free to add anything special you may do that helps you get strikes.

 

For light to moderate submerged vegetation, I love a lipless crank. I allow it to just catch the top of the weeds, rip it free and hang on. For the outside weedline, I prefer a stand-up jig and a Reaper, but that style plastic is getting hard to find, so a boot tail has all but replaced them for me.

For the really thick stuff, I punch it. The waters I target don't get the heavy matts, but emergent vegetation is common at depths up to 6ft. or so.  If I can get a 1/2oz punch rig through it, that's what I'll use, but later in the summer, it often takes a 3/4oz., or 1oz.  My favorite plastic on the business end is a craw tube, but I've used beaver style ones with some success. I'll add a little attractant, or a piece of Alka-Seltzer into the tube when the bite is tough. I feel it helps get their attention.

A lot of guys like using a hollow body frog, or toad over the matted stuff, but I like something like the big bps Stik-O, it's like 7in. You can work it on top the weeds, and let it fall into any pockets. It's heavy enough to throw on tackle that can get a bass out of the thick stuff.

We get good patches of lily-pads here with the occasional hole - so...

 

Power/Bubba Shot (drop-shot on steroids)

 

3/4-1oz weight 8"-12" below either

3/0 offset with 6"-7" ribbon-tail worm

OR

5/0 EWG with 7" Missile D'Stroyer, 4" Havoc Pit Boss, or other thick-bodied plastic

2 hours ago, dgkasper58 said:

What is your preferred method for attacking grass (texas rig, punch rig, tokyo, jika, chicken, ect.)  

 

Feel free to add anything special you may do that helps you get strikes.

 

I copied your picture/chart for later. If you don’t mind. Very  Informative 

Pegged T-rig, usually a Pit Boss with 4/0 straight shank and a 1/2oz tungsten, 7' 11" Okuma TCS "Matt Daddy", Okuma Cerros 7.3:1, and 50lb Seaguar Flippin braid.

Depends on the type(s) of grass, the density, and time of year.  A few common situations:

 

1. Any short-range target-based flipping situation to specific targets (technically, I pitch rather than "flip") -- holes in slop, edges of arrowheads, mixed weeds and wood -- a texas rigged worm, creature, or craw will do the job: A great all-arounder, any time of year.  I like lizards and worms if the cover is light to moderately-thick, or a compact creature like a Beaver, Berkley Pit-Boss, Missile D-Bomb, Biospawn Vilecraw, Gambler burner craw, or similar on a pegged t-rig if it's pretty thick. A wacky rig is a good option for pitching to targets when the cover is pretty light, especially early in the season. 

 

2. Shallow (under 5 feet) flats with scattered, submerged weeds are a good situation for a "mojo" or split shot rig -- a finesse version of the carolina rig with a light (1/8oz) weight ahead of a bobber stop set 18" in front of a worm or creature. This is a horizontal finesse presentation: cast and drag with spinning gear to cover an area.  Great in spring around spawning flats where new vegetation is starting to come up, and also effective in summer where there is shallow vegetation below the surface. Having the weight a foot or more ahead gives the bait a weightless look, but at depth. Rather than peg the weight, I like to let it slide freely above the stop (e.g., a "slip-shot" rig). This permits the line to be pulled through the weight when the fish strikes, and I feel it improves strike detection...which is important, because this presentation is vulnerable to gut-hooking.

 

A mojo-style rig can be problematic if weeds are too thick, where separated weight and bait can get tangled in vegetation in two different spots at the same time.  If mixed subsurface vegetation is a little thick for a slip-shot, A 4" paddletail swimbait rigged on a belly-weighted swimbait hook can do the job nicely, as long as bass are willing to chase down something moving.

 

3. Cabbage beds on flats or drop-offs, as in the picture above, get a texas rig or jigworm.  This is more of a summer pattern.  Pure cabbage is brittle enough to use an open hook jigworm presentation (think Ned rig, but with a worm of any size) where you get strikes from ripping out of the weeds when the hook catches. I use this when I can get away with it.  But these days, cabbage in many places is mixed with invasives that are harder to rip out with an open hook, so I use the the Owner ultrahead finesse ball heads which permit weedless rigging. Another option for cabbage beds is a weighted wacky rig --cast, let fall, twich it up, let fall, etc.  A couple lakes I fish have these big 8'-15' deep cabbage flats where just casting out a weighted wacky worm and letting it fall vertically between the cabbage stalks is more productive than anything, and some days almost feels like cheating.

 

4. Lily pads have a couple options: I'll flip a t-rigged creature or worm into open areas, or run a t-rigged plastic across the top.  cast, drag slowly from pad to pad, let it fall into water in gaps between pads.  Any plastic body can be fished as topwater in this manner, from a craw to a stickworm. Actually, stickworms like a senko are very effective as topwaters.  But my recent favorite is the Zoom Ultravibe Speed Worm, which seems made for this sort of thing: a light bullet weight pegged in front of the worm, texas rigged. The weight is light enough to drag on top of pads, but will pull the worm down into openings as you drag it into a gap,  and the tail waggles like crazy whether dragged on top or falling through the water column.

 

 

 

 

All ya need to know  ?

 

 

1/2 oz to 3/4 oz jig with a chigger craw or rage craw on the back.

19 hours ago, MN Fisher said:

We get good patches of lily-pads here with the occasional hole - so...

 

Power/Bubba Shot (drop-shot on steroids)

 

3/4-1oz weight 8"-12" below either

3/0 offset with 6"-7" ribbon-tail worm

OR

5/0 EWG with 7" Missile D'Stroyer, 4" Havoc Pit Boss, or other thick-bodied plastic

I am going to be trying this this year as I have a pretty silty bottom and have witnessed my baits disappear all to often.  Tokyo rig pulls up too many weeds for my liking and I still have the ol texas rig and punch rig ready to go.  My question for you would be do you find that you fish pretty close range or can I work the Bubba through an entire patch?

 

3 minutes ago, dgkasper58 said:

I am going to be trying this this year as I have a pretty silty bottom and have witnessed my baits disappear all to often.  Tokyo rig pulls up too many weeds for my liking and I still have the ol texas rig and punch rig ready to go.  My question for you would be do you find that you fish pretty close range or can I work the Bubba through an entire patch?

I do close range - 15' or less pitching. Course I have a canoe, so I bring up the TM and paddle my way through the patch.

 

Of course the one I mainly target is not a small 'patch'. Blue line shows the approximate boundaries, yellow line is the measurement - over 400 yards long, 30-60 yards deep...yes, all lily pads.

3 hours ago, MN Fisher said:

I do close range - 15' or less pitching. Course I have a canoe, so I bring up the TM and paddle my way through the patch.

 

Of course the one I mainly target is not a small 'patch'. Blue line shows the approximate boundaries, yellow line is the measurement - over 400 yards long, 30-60 yards deep...yes, all lily pads.

could you cast it in the patch all the way to shore and work it back or is that out of the question for me?

 

Some areas are THICK others are a bit more sparce.

 

 

5 minutes ago, dgkasper58 said:

could you cast it in the patch all the way to shore and work it back or is that out of the question for me?

 

Some areas are THICK others are a bit more sparce.

 

 

I could - but I like working power-shots closer in with pitching technique rather than a full-on cast.

I'll use a jig, t-rig, split shot rig, or a weightless rig.  I just keep changing until the bass tell me what they want.