My main water I fish when I’m not in the boat and bank fishing is exactly this situation. I throw a weightless texposed Fat Ika. It’s heavy enough to cast it far into the deeper regions of the body of water, but it doesn’t bring up grassy green muck. Drop shots do not work this time of year because the fish aren’t in the shallows. Unless you’ve had a warming trend.

A tiny child rig has also worked pretty well too. You’ll have to clean it off sometimes but it works when used with a big TRD.

I fish a pond very similar to this and I generally use a spinnerbait, weightless plastics, and a 1/16oz texas rigged trick worm or Ned rig with an ewg hook. Works pretty well. Never have any luck with top water though. 

Weightless Fluke or Senko ?

17 hours ago, Catt said:

Weightless Fluke or Senko ?

That was simple...

On 1/16/2021 at 12:30 AM, ironbjorn said:

I do catch fish there but never from trying the bottom, always something that swims. I caught a 6lber out of here last summer here in the north. It's a quality pond that can give you some crazy numbers.

 

On 1/16/2021 at 12:30 AM, ironbjorn said:

The float and fly is an option, but again no need as the bass are aggressive and do bite anything that moves or slow sinks.

 

I don't see the problem.  Throw a bait that doesn't hit the bottom.  If all this is true, I'd be throwing a topwater all day.  

Ya, everyone has a favorite way to fish but avoid the temptation to force feed a bait or technique when there are obvious better choices for the circumstances. 

Tokyo rig

On 1/15/2021 at 11:29 PM, schplurg said:

If you're not afraid of being laughed at you could try a bobber I suppose.

 

 

Just tell 'em it's a BFS float and fly JDM combo...

On 1/16/2021 at 3:45 PM, A-Jay said:

One of the few lakes where I actually target green bass locally, is very similar to what you've described above.  This place is a very old mostly shallow natural lake, with a ton of both live & dead vegetation just about every where, including the bottom.  Fishing's pretty good but it ALL happens in 3-7 ft of clear water.  Topwater was an easy choice;  buzz baits, frogs, swimming toads and the like worked.  Spinnerbait's in the more open areas as well as a small swimbait rigged weedless. 

This lake is where I always take my wife, who is a Spinning gear only gal. 

So most of what I mentioned above she didn't what to throw. 

But rig her up a weightless, Texas Rigged stick bait and she did very well, especially when it was calm.  Windy days proved more of a challenge.

Eventually I got her to fish a light (1/4 oz) swim jig; usually with a either a grub or a craw type trailer.  Was a light wire hook model as she uses 20lb braid & a 10 lb mono leader.

This worked well but still wasn't weedless enough to offer total fishing effectiveness. 

   I started playing around with a 'light punch rig' that she could fish like a swim jig but would have next level weedless effectiveness.   After a little back & forth with weight type & size - we settled on either a 3/16 or 1/4 oz LEAD bullet weight.  The rig needed to 'sit on top' of the weed on the bottom rather than plunging through them.  When it did that, she could fish it with a stop & go presentation and would get way more bites.  But if the weight was too heavy or dense (tungsten), the rig would disappear through the 12 inches of soft weeds and rarely got bites that way. 

 You really want the bait to swim on the move & glide to the bottom on the 'fall'. 

    That whole story started about 10 years ago and that little A-Jay rig (as she calls it) has been killing decent green bass on that lake ever since. 

     

https://youtu.be/gmTNmxOg8t4

 

https://youtu.be/r3vHcCGTNTQ?t=387

 

Hope that helps 

A-Jay

 

 

Bringing this back up in case some never saw this original concept. This is a great rig to fish in slop, but also works great in weeds and in sunken timber. It’s turned into one of my favorite rigs. You can’t buy it- you have to order the components and make them. But it’s simple to put together and very versatile. To me, it’s a Texas rig jig, but I call it an A-Jay Special. There’s God knows how many styles of jigs available out there, and untold numbers of styles of Texas rigs, but I’ve never seen anything quite like this. 
 

You can swim it like a swim jig, retrieve with a stop-and-go presentation, or drag it slowly like a standard Texas rig.  If you’re looking for something different to try that no other anglers are casting, give it a try. 

On 1/16/2021 at 3:45 PM, A-Jay said:

On 1/16/2021 at 3:45 PM, A-Jay said:

On 1/16/2021 at 3:45 PM, A-Jay said:

Weightless stuff like a fluke, Trick Worm and Senko. My buddy uses nothing but a weightless Trick Worm when we fish together. He catches fish.

What about trying a free rig?

 

edit: woah, didn’t realize this was a revived 4 year old thread!

Survey says!!!!!! Neko rig.

^  Naa....drop-shot.

Old, but, I'll throw out my 2 cents. First, weightless fluke.

 

Second, a light caroline rig using a 1/8oz or 3/16oz bullet weight and a floating worm.

Tokyo Rig is made for this...

14 hours ago, woolleyfooley said:

What about trying a free rig?

 

edit: woah, didn’t realize this was a revived 4 year old thread!

My go-to lately for spots like this. Thr weight plunges down into the slop but the plastic stays above and is visible to the fish. A Tokyo rig will work but if there’s too much slop it will pull the bait in. 

17 hours ago, woolleyfooley said:

What about trying a free rig?

 

edit: woah, didn’t realize this was a revived 4 year old thread!

Doh!!!

 

18 hours ago, woolleyfooley said:

What about trying a free rig?

 

edit: woah, didn’t realize this was a revived 4 year old thread!

Yeah, I revived it in case anyone missed it and wanted to try an A-Jay Special. 

5 hours ago, 10,000 lakes Bassin said:

My go-to lately for spots like this. Thr weight plunges down into the slop but the plastic stays above and is visible to the fish. A Tokyo rig will work but if there’s too much slop it will pull the bait in. 

I generally used a 3-4" dropper and never had a Tokyo sink that far.

 

I can't even see it happening with a 2" dropper.

1 hour ago, RRocket said:

I generally used a 3-4" dropper and never had a Tokyo sink that far.

 

I can't even see it happening with a 2" dropper.

My Tokyo rigs normally have around a 3” dropper. I’ve found multiple mucky areas that will completely swallow the whole rig. In spots like I think a power shot/ flip shot would be the way to go if you want that style of presentation. 

@ironbjorn, what'd you ever figure out that works for your muck bottom pond?

On 1/16/2021 at 12:29 PM, throttleplate said:

hey wheres the love for the tokyo rig?

Not my cup of tea. The wire drop isn’t long enough to have the bait clear the muck. Drop shot with leader to clear the muck.