1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

So often over looked.

But can usually be at least part of the answer. Any water that supports "volumes" of healthy plus sized bass will have the food to feed them.  Find that.

A-Jay

 

Primarily its bluegills and perch, some small shad/alewife, some golden shiner.  They are pretty dispersed.  I've not found a school of shad roving the water like you see at other lakes around here.  Same for the golden shiners.  But you're right about there being a solid forage base to support the bass.  My best last year was over 4 and I catch a bunch in the 3-4 bucket there every year.  There are multiple 6's caught in the few tournaments on the lake, which for NJ is starting into big bass territory.  The biologist reports back it all up.

 

48 minutes ago, BustedSwimbait said:

In the early morning/late evening times I'd probably be throwing a wake bait or buzz bait. Any other time, would be a swimbait of some sort.

 

A buzzbait is my usual summer evening lure and it works when they are looking up.

Another vote for Cut-R.  I would try weightless or t-rig with 1/16 tungsten worm weight.  Also try Rage Bug horizontal rigged same way.  D-Shad and Senko both also.  All rigged on Owner Twistlock 3/0 lightwire

buzzbait all day

5 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

To the holes?

 

Holes! Ya don't need need no stinking holes!

 

2 ways you can fish thick grass, on top or on the bottom. 

 

1/2-3/4 oz T-rig or jig & go! 

I'd fish a 1/4 ounce jig and craw.  Work it across the top of the vegetation like you would if it were sitting on the bottom with short hops.

8 hours ago, Catt said:

 

Holes! Ya don't need need no stinking holes!

 

2 ways you can fish thick grass, on top or on the bottom. 

 

1/2-3/4 oz T-rig or jig & go! 

 

so 3/4 oz Texas rig, piece of plastic, cast it out 30 yards and drag it back through the grass?

2 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

 

so 3/4 oz Texas rig, piece of plastic, cast it out 30 yards and drag it back through the grass?

 

Flipping-n-pitching ?

On 4/26/2023 at 10:30 PM, casts_by_fly said:

The depth is 4’ for 90% of it.

 

Just now, Catt said:

 

Flipping-n-pitching ?

ah. Gotcha. I thought you were suggesting dragging it back like a Carolina rig. I’m all for flipping and pitching. Love it on some of the lakes here where the grass is clustered in areas.  I’m talking about a quarter mile by quarter mile area- far more than anyone could cover in any reasonable time. 

4 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

 I’m talking about a quarter mile by quarter mile area- far more than anyone could cover in any reasonable time. 

 

I fish Toledo Bend which has thousands of acres of grass. Cover what you can today, then do it again tomorrow in different areas. 

8 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

ah. Gotcha. I thought you were suggesting dragging it back like a Carolina rig. I’m all for flipping and pitching. Love it on some of the lakes here where the grass is clustered in areas.  I’m talking about a quarter mile by quarter mile area- far more than anyone could cover in any reasonable time. 

Pick your spots. 

Look for different types of grasses all mixed in. 

If you can, hit areas of the cleanest water you can see. 
 

Look for and saturate all likely spots like from the outside border in, concentrating on the transition from a few yards out to thin areas to where it thickens up. 
 

Any obvious open holes regardless of its size surrounded by heavier matted stuff. 

 

Any heavy bug concentrated areas. 

 

Watch for birds either diving or resting on top. 
 

The thing about bass fishing as opposed to some other species, you have to think constantly about the whole picture and adjust accordingly. 
 

 

 

Mike

I fish many lakes that are similar in terms of grass, although they are much deeper and have more variety. But when there's grass everywhere and you can't fun a lure horizontally, I've yet to find a reliable method to find fish and get a lure in front of them efficiently. 

 

The only options I've found are fishing whatever you can think of above them if there's enough open water. This works, but often they aren't willing to come up to hit something, especially in summer. This could be anything: swim jig, wakebait, prop bait, popper, weedless swimbait. IMO it doesn't much matter: if they aren't feeding up then you are out of luck. 

 

The only other option I have found is to punch or drop baits down to the bottom. My only rule of thumb here is to drop something relatively large/weedless, like a bigger fluke, 6 inch worm, bigger creature bait. My theory being that the weeds make it harder for the fish to see something falling in the water. So you are less likely to get seen on the fall and want something larger on bottom to get attention among all of the weeds. 

 

Neither of the above methods are efficient and I feel like I'm fishing randomly a lot of the time. So I avoid these lakes, which is too bad as they have large fish. 

 

Obviously look for baitfish, but most of these lakes, when I fish them, the grass makes it hard to see anything in the water. 

@Catt has given some great advice. There are some baits that will come through the grass to an extent and allow you to cover some water, but being able to cover water further down the water column is nearly impossible with a ton of grass. You don't need to use a punch weight if the grass isn't super thick, but find a weight that will allow you to get a bait down through the grass efficiently. Cover water by continuing to move and make quick efficient pitches. They don't always have to go to holes. Not sure how thick the grass is there or what kind it is, but I know up here there are days you'll catch them out of the holes and other days they'll be sitting seemingly right in the middle of the clumps. If you can get out earlier in the year before the grass comes up too far a lot of times you can find irregularities that are under the grass that the fish are hanging around. If you don't know they're there it can seem very random because you seldom hit the same spot. 

21 hours ago, WIGuide said:

@Catt has given some great advice. There are some baits that will come through the grass to an extent and allow you to cover some water, but being able to cover water further down the water column is nearly impossible with a ton of grass. You don't need to use a punch weight if the grass isn't super thick, but find a weight that will allow you to get a bait down through the grass efficiently. Cover water by continuing to move and make quick efficient pitches. They don't always have to go to holes. Not sure how thick the grass is there or what kind it is, but I know up here there are days you'll catch them out of the holes and other days they'll be sitting seemingly right in the middle of the clumps. If you can get out earlier in the year before the grass comes up too far a lot of times you can find irregularities that are under the grass that the fish are hanging around. If you don't know they're there it can seem very random because you seldom hit the same spot. 

It’s a mix of milfoil and pondweed all interspersed.

 

I’ve scanned and mapped the full lake without grass so have a pretty good knowledge of any divots, channels, etc on the bottom. There isn’t much. I do focus on those areas.

On 4/29/2023 at 10:41 AM, casts_by_fly said:

It’s a mix of milfoil and pondweed all interspersed.

 

I’ve scanned and mapped the full lake without grass so have a pretty good knowledge of any divots, channels, etc on the bottom. There isn’t much. I do focus on those areas.

In that case, I'd put my head down and try to make as many pitches as possible over the course of the day.