What's Your Cover?

[Mike L]

2 hours ago, Catt said:

 

 I run into every kind of vegetation both emergent & submergent. Trees, laydowns, stumps, brush, submerged standing timber.

 

I like fishing Hydrilla 

 

 

Anything 15' +/- 3' ?

Ditto

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[keagbassr]

Milfoil, coontail,lilypads,chestnut pads, a few laydowns and in a hot dry summer some nice cheese mats.

[casts_by_fly]

3 hours ago, Darth-Baiter said:

I should probably start learning some aquatic plants stuff.

 

I think I know what Hydrilla is from my aquarium days.  but some of the others....????

 

Here's a starter.  Its for north NJ but it will get you started.

 

https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/32418/PDF/1/

 

And another with better pictures, but focused on invasives:

 

https://www.nj.gov/dep/wms/Doyle -InvasiveAquaticPlants_ChrisD_05.02.2017.pdf

[J._Bricker]

Tulles, Brazilian Waterweed (Hydrilla), and Hyacinth-Uruguain Primrose-Pennywort

[scaleface]

I wish there  was regular vegetation here to fish, instead tons of Chara algae. I catch a lot of fish in it , its a challenge .Most folks avoid it, I learned to fish it .Plenty of wood, standing timber, brush piles , lay downs . I fish points a lot and also flats where they drop off . Not   many humps to target .

[Swamp Girl]

For LM, I fish on the edges of wild rice reeds, laydowns, and lily pads. They all hold fish, but I like the lily pads the best because a tree might hold one or two bass, but the lily pads hold dozens of bass. It seems like here's a bass every yard or so. They're hard to catch with my frog, but they're eager to strike.

 

When I fished smallmouth, it was rocks and laydowns, but mostly bowling ball-sized rocks.

[Catt]

4 hours ago, Mobasser said:

the simple t rig plastic worm has been the most productive cast to all these areas.

 

Texas Rig & Jig-n-Craw ?

 

Now I will throw whatever they're biting on!

 

My most productive lure so far this year is a 1/4 oz White Beetle Spin.

[KSanford33]

My favorites are docks and bridge abutments.

 

 

Edit: I didn't see where he said cover/structure. I thought it was only structure.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

1 minute ago, KSanford33 said:

Not to be pedantic, but we're confusing cover and structure. 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Cover is brushpiles, laydowns, standing timber, grass, stumps, etc.

 

Structure is ledges, bluff walls, lake points, secondary points, creek channels, etc.

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, Catt said:

1/4 oz White Beetle Spin.

 

Old school!

 

1 hour ago, KSanford33 said:

My favorites are docks and bridge abutments.

 

 

Edit: I didn't see where he said cover/structure. I thought it was only structure.

 

Hey, you used the word, "pedantic," so I smiled when I read your original post. As a nerd, albeit a fairly rare woods-and-water-loving nerd, I love the rare words. 

[N Florida Mike]

On my home lake, it’s mostly eel grass. It grows to about 5 feet deep and no deeper.( My lake is only 7 feet deep max, so we have eel grass all over. )

There are also some docks and laydowns that produce at times…

On most of the other places I fish, it’s maiden cane , pads, docks, and cypress trees …I love hydrilla too but it seems like it’s either completely taken over lakes, or it’s been killed off …

 

 

 

[KSanford33]

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

Hey, you used the word, "pedantic," so I smiled when I read your original post. As a nerd, albeit a fairly rare woods-and-water-loving nerd, I love the rare words. 

Thank you! I’m very big on ‘words have meanings’. There’s a difference between tired and exhausted. 
 

 That’s why I like the fact that people here delineate (another rare word!) between structure and cover. 
 

But I do enjoy using big words. They make me sound more photosynthesis. ?

[PhishLI]

Not yet, but soon enough.

 

[Mobasser]

3 hours ago, Catt said:

 

Texas Rig & Jig-n-Craw ?

 

Now I will throw whatever they're biting on!

 

My most productive lure so far this year is a 1/4 oz White Beetle Spin.

Catt, I'm a fan of the Beetle Spin also. It's a good smaller spinner for early in the season here too. Plus, as you know, it was invented by a good Missouri fisherman. Mr. Virgil Ward, another of my heroes.

[Log Catcher]

The lakes I fish it is mostly stumps, stick ups, lay downs, and rock banks. The lakes around here don't get any grass or weeds. I know of two lakes The dept. of fish and wildlife owns 100 yards of bank all the way around so people can't put boat docks on them.

[Jar11591]

My main lake has pretty much everything for cover. Lots of lay downs, lily pads, hydrilla, milfoil, pondweed, elodea, and boat docks. 
For deep structure, my most productive spot is off a slow tapering point that gradually slopes to about 9’, then sharply drops off to 20’. I catch my biggest bass right on the sharp drop off in 11-15’ of water, which is right where the large bed of milfoil ends. 

[Way north bass guy]

Right around my house, most of the lakes don’t have a ton of weed growth, except for pads in the shallower bays, and cabbage beds in 3 to about 12’ of water. There are usually bass around them though. Some lakes have quite a few laydowns, sunken logs and most have quite a few docks. Everything else comes off of some form of rocks. If I head an hour or two south of me then I can find lakes that are chock full of various types of vegetation, and pretty thick too. 

[padon]

mainly grass. milfoil. although when the fish get shallow in spring its wood.late spring through fall our lakes have grass out to 15 to 18 feet. there are always fish in the grass. in midsummer through mid fall there are also fish on deep rock piles or brush piles. now when the rock piles lie right outside the weed lines that can be a gold mine. as far as structure there are some humps, deep flats with steep drop offs channel swings etc.

[BustedSwimbait]

Submerged grass, docks, lily pads, and the occasional large chunk rock. Usually equipped with a chatter/spinnerbait, wobble head creature, drop shot, and always some sort of swimbait.

[papajoe222]

I fish three different lakes, each with its own form of cover. One has an abundance of dead falls and milfoil early, but by May, the weeds have been killed off. For structure there are numerous drop offs and a few flats close to deep water.  Another has milfoil and hydrilla and the shore is lined with docks. There are only three main lake points of which two have a steep drop on one side. The last has 6-8in. lillypads that exted from 15ft. to 20 yards fro the shoreline encircling the entire lake. There it mixes with hydrilla out to around 10ft. of water depth.  There is only one point on this lake and it extends out to 45ft. of water.

On the first lake, I target the weeds and the flats and after the kill off, I target the deep structure as the dead falls get pounded by just about everybody. The second lake is all about the weeds and docks. The deep weed line doesn't see much pressure and there are enough bottom changes that it isn't a straight line for more than 20yards or so.  The walleye anglers and meat fishermen focus on the other cover, flats and points.  The last one sees very little fishing pressure and I do well punching the pads for the bigger fish and work that point heavily after the spawn for numbers.

[Bluebasser86]

I fish more rock than anything else, along with a fair amount of water willows and laydowns. Use to have several lakes with decent grass but the state has taken to poisoning the grass, which has really messed up the fishing and brought on lovely toxic algae blooms instead of healthy vegetation. 

[T-Billy]

All of it. Rock, wood, weeds, docks... It's seasonal.

 

[scaleface]

16 hours ago, Catt said:

My most productive lure so far this year is a 1/4 oz White Beetle Spin

I have several photos in the latest catch pics thread of nice bass caught on Beetle spins. Both largemouth and smallmouth.

[Catt]

3 minutes ago, scaleface said:

nice bass caught on Beetle spins.

 

I'm fishing brackish tidal waters off the Sabine river. From January through March these bass are feeding on grass shrimp that both the tide & strong winds are moving them out of the marsh. The 1/4 oz Bettle Spin matches the size of the shrimp.

[Junk Fisherman]

Lake Michigan around Chicago- Huge boulders, busted up concrete, steel breakwalls and retaining walls,  a little vegetation