For over five years, my local club has been treating the lake for weeds. Fishing has been tough as there is little cover and the fish would constantly move, so it was difficult to pattern them.  This year, because of lack of funding, they haven't treated the lake and the weeds are coming back.  For this guy, at least, this is a bonus as I love to fish that form of cover over all others. 

What is your favorite type of cover to target, weeds, deadfalls, rocks, docks, or something else?

 

Vegetation by far, in particular Hydrilla & Spatterdock

In the absence of vegetation: Wood then Rock.

 

Roger

Really any kind of vegetation, with hydrilla and lily pads being 1 and 2. 
 

 

 

 

Mike

In order of preference?

Hydrilla

Lily Pads

Docks

Rocks

 

Most of the shoreline is developed so deadfalls are few and far between - those million-dollar home-owners want their lake front to look 'pretty'.

Florida's Harris Chain is a classic example of what can happen when aquatic weed control gets out of control.  In the late nineties, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection declared hydrilla an exotic species to be eradicated by all means necessary.  Literally tons of herbicide was sprayed on the Chain over a two year period.  Our lakes were turned into lifeless pools.  Hydrilla died along with fields of pads and native aquatic plants creating an environmental disaster that took our lakes twenty years to recover from.  For some time, the only catchable bass were in the back of canals where the herbicide did not reach.  Deformed alligators and turtles began appearing.  Our dwindling game fish numbers were blamed on a mysterious bass virus.  

 

Eventually, our lakes recovered from the man made disaster.  A serious and lengthy drought cleaned the dead weeds from the shallows.  The returning rains flushed out the chain, the water cleared and the game fish returned.  Of course, clear water allowed hydrilla to regrow.  Thankfully, for the moment at least, it seems Florida is coming to grips with allowing some hydrilla to grow.  

 

Politically, water weeds are troublesome.   It costs money to manage them correctly.  Lake home owners don't want them.  Boaters don't like cleaning them off their props.  No one wants a lake covered with topped out weeds. Lake managers have the difficult task of managing the lakes for multiple uses.   What is required is a dedicated fund to manage the lakes correctly, not a few pennies from fishing license sales.  With all of today's financial challenges, I don't see this happening.     There is no easy solution to this issue. 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Captain Phil said:

Florida's Harris Chain is a classic example of what can happen when aquatic weed control gets out of control.  In the late nineties, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection declared hydrilla an exotic species to be eradicated by all means necessary.  Literally tons of herbicide was sprayed on the Chain over a two year period.  Our lakes were turned into lifeless pools.  Hydrilla died along with fields of pads and native aquatic plants creating an environmental disaster that took our lakes twenty years to recover from.  For some time, the only catchable bass were in the back of canals where the herbicide did not reach.  Deformed alligators and turtles began appearing.  Our dwindling game fish numbers were blamed on a mysterious bass virus.  

 

Eventually, our lakes recovered from the man made disaster.  A serious and lengthy drought cleaned the dead weeds from the shallows.  The returning rains flushed out the chain, the water cleared and the game fish returned.  Of course, clear water allowed hydrilla to regrow.  Thankfully, for the moment at least, it seems Florida is coming to grips with allowing some hydrilla to grow.  

 

Politically, water weeds are troublesome.   It costs money to manage them correctly.  Lake home owners don't want them.  Boaters don't like cleaning them off their props.  No one wants a lake covered with topped out weeds. Lake managers have the difficult task of managing the lakes for multiple uses.   What is required is a dedicated fund to manage the lakes correctly, not a few pennies from fishing license sales.  With all of today's financial challenges, I don't see this happening.     There is no easy solution to this issue. 

 

 

 

Well Said!

 

 

 

 

Mike

I prefer a nice defined line of emergent vegetation to target while cruising along.  My second choice would be a long line of big docks, especially the ones that hold 4+ boat hoists.  It is about that time in my neck of the woods to start flippin the docks.

If I have my choice I would fish in vegetation. Rocks tend to eat my jigs and t-rigged plastics. 

Floating vegetation.  Throw a frog

Docks, stump beds, water willow/reeds are my favorites.  hydrilla and milfoil I can deal with you just have go as weedless as you can.. 

I have a love/hate with weeds. There is a fine line between not enough and too many. Our subdivision pond is like a bowl with almost no natural structure. When some weeds grow along the bank the fishing picks up tremendously. The bass finally have something to relate to. The weeds never get out of control that I have seen there, but the homeowners along the water don't want a single leaf of vegetation so the subdivision usually treats to control them. ?

 

On the other hand, my wife's family property in north MO has two ponds, a 7 acre and a 2 acre. They are on private land, rarely fished and so of course it is amazing fishing; HOWEVER the weeds are borderline out of control on both. About 12 years ago my brother in law thought he would take control of the matter in the big pond and treated it with some herbicide (that was supposedly recommended by a conservation agent). There was shortly thereafter a huge fish kill and it took quite a few years of transplanting bass from the other pond to restore the fishing. (Thankfully it's back to being gangbusters, see my post in recent fishing trips).

 

Of the types of weeds, I love fishing lily pads. 

   Number 1: Big rocks

   Number 2: Riprap

   Number 3: Gravel

 

     ?    jj

  

1 Beaver houses . They seem to always harbor a bass or more .

 

In natural lakes, largemouth bass gravitate to weedy cover. 

In artificial lakes (reservoirs / impoundments) that may lack veggies,

they'll gravitate to wood (docks/stumps~) and rock (riprap/boulders~).

With respect to smallmouth bass, it's just the opposite; hard cover first & soft cover last.

 

Roger

 

Weeds; milfoil, coontail etc. Then pads.

 I love targeting isolated emergent vegetation like water willow...its crazy how a 5lb fish will hide behind a single strand of water willow or a single reed as if it is completely hidden.  Normally I can pitch to them or swim a spinnernbait or squarebill past em.  

Show me some rocks and I'll find you some bass.

I love rocks.  Sure you get a few snags, but the feel of grinding, wiggling and bouncing over those puppies is fun. 

I like blowdowns, old flooded fencerows with visible treetops, stumps,and weeds. I've learned to fish weeds out of necessity, because of milfoil.

Water Lilies

Duckweed

Reeds/bulrushes

Deep Cabbage