This little 3 acre quarry is just a few doors down from me - nobody fishes it but me and I’ve caught several over 7lbs in it - and never usually get skunked. I’ve been so fortunate

I fish with my kayak and all the fish seem to be tight to the rock walls that surround it

However - for the 1st time in the 8 yrs - it has been overrun with “duck weed” - looks like alfalfa sprouts 🌱 with a hanging root system

Ive caught a few nice fish with a frog ( which isn’t a confidence bait…yet ) but they don’t always want a frog - and anything else I try - like a Texas rig- just catches all the weeds.

For those with much more experience than I -other than a hollow body frog - WHAT ELSE CAN I THROW ?? I feel like I’ve lost my favorite fishing spot

I would really appreciate your advice 🙏🏻

How deep is it?

I would punch something heavy through it to the bottom. A big soft plastic of some kind with a heavy weight to get through the mat of duckweed.

45 minutes ago, gim said:

How deep is it?

Thanks Gim - I may need to try punching.

About 15’ in the deepest center - but I usually only find them on the exterior walls in about 6-7’

I'd throw a fluke with a weighted hook.

That is a tough situation. Are swim jigs out of the question? Some with the wedge shaped heads that can slide through? A free rig might work but I’d worry the plastic would get hung up.

I second the punch option as viable for getting through.

I was just fishing duckweed this morning. If it is only duckweed on the surface, then ignore it and fish what you want. Duckweed floats so once the lure gets below the surface you can still work it. Some lures get gummed up like a buzzbait or spinnerbait when the stems get wrapped up but you can usually pop through it. The best duckweed is after it loses its stringiness and is just floating grains that looks like oatmeal. If it still has the strings, then you’ll have to clean off whatever lure you have. Soft plastics will slide through easily enough so either pitching and dragging or swimming something with a Texas rig. Weightless fluke. If it is clear enough under it then you’ll can throw a lipless, vibrating jig or other moving baits, you just have to let them fall a sec, give it a pop, and work the back.

Where it gets tricky is that duckweed floats and then congregates where there are other weeds. Duckweed blows around in the wind and collects anywhere that there is another weed on the surface. So you think you’re throwing into a floating mat, you end up fouling the bait immediately and beyond repair for that cast. So you’ll have to feel your way through that.

Heavier weights and lures with fewer appendages help minimize clumping.

I love Duckweed and I love froggin. On days when they don't want to break the surface, I've used a Snagproof ZooWake with a bullet sinker. Where you have just one layer of weed a squarebill will work. Do you get weeds on the baits? Yes, but it doesn't matter.

When the wind piles it up on itself it is too thick to get through unless you punch it.

Don't give up on this honey hole. The big bass are still there you just gotta figure out how to catch em!

Check out the Heddon Moss Boss. This is an old school lure, that's a hard plastic spoon with a single sharp exposed hook. You would think that this lure would be counter intuitive for fishing the dense cover depicted in that picture you showed. But, the lure was designed to be fished in that kind stuff. It will cast an extremely long distance. Once it lands, keep your rod tip raised and steadily retrieve keeping the lure right on top of the cover. DO NOT STOP because this lure will sink. The single exposed hook does not hang up surprisingly.

Texas rig an unweighted Fluke and drag it across the surface, pausing at the gaps.

Texas rigged weightless plastic. Something heavy enough to cast.

Atleast ya have duckweed! I’m used to if a pond or lake looks like that it’s floating filamentous scum. And it’s a nightmare to fish through. Even frogs catch it. I still fish it but man it’s not overly productive or quickly atleast.

I’d frog it, run a top water toad over it or a mag speed worm weightless on the top. And probably Texas rig or jig under it.

2 hours ago, BassinLou said:

Check out the Heddon Moss Boss. This is an old school lure, that's a hard plastic spoon with a single sharp exposed hook. You would think that this lure would be counter intuitive for fishing the dense cover depicted in that picture you showed. But, the lure was designed to be fished in that kind stuff. It will cast an extremely long distance. Once it lands, keep your rod tip raised and steadily retrieve keeping the lure right on top of the cover. DO NOT STOP because this lure will sink. The single exposed hook does not hang up surprisingly.

The moss boss is an oldie but goodie. I have a couple in the boat as well as some similar topwater spoons. The reason the moss boss is good at not hanging up despite the single exposed hook is aerodynamics. When you throw it on a high overhead cast, it almost always falls with the wide end of the teardrop body first and the skirt like a parachute up high. As long as you’re snug line when it hits the water it stays on top.

A popping steady retrieve like an Alabama shake is how we’ve always fished them and they call fish up through the mats (grass mats too) if they are willing to break the surface.

Weightless Magnum UV Speed Worm across the top.

A pegged 3/16 to cover the mid range.

Punch with a Rage Craw.

Mike

Throw a crankbait that the lure company markets as going through grass well. I'm sure it will work...

J/K so there's definitely a limited amount of things you can do in that situation. My 3 favorites are:

1. Frog...but you already seem to have figured that one out.

2. Yum Dinger w/ a 3/8oz pegged bullet weight. Yes you can throw a flipping and punching rig w/ a creature bait but this one also works and a stick bait does about as good as you are going to get going through that stuff. You can adjust the weight accordingly and basically want the lightest one that will get through that stuff without any issues. You also don't need to pay for a senko here since you've got a weight on so the dinger is my preferred lure in this situation.

3. Bubba Shot...and a good reason to have a heavier spinning rod in your arsenal. I usually go with 20-30lb braid here to a heavier leader line but if there's a lot of grass under that then you might just go with a low vis green braid and skip the leader. Again about a 3/8oz weight (I usually like the tear drop weights here) and then I usually go with a 6/0 gamakatsu g-finesse hybrid worm hook. For the lure a 6.5" trick worm will do but the t-mac from netbait is another good option. For colors I usually like redbug or junebug if the visibility is lower since all that grass is going to blend in w/ a green colored lure.

For #2 and #3 I usually don't retrieve them much just target a spot and then move it around a little and wait a bit...then try another spot until you find a good one and fish that until they stop biting.

5 hours ago, Lottabass said:

I love Duckweed and I love froggin. On days when they don't want to break the surface, I've used a Snagproof ZooWake with a bullet sinker. Where you have just one layer of weed a squarebill will work. Do you get weeds on the baits? Yes, but it doesn't matter.

When the wind piles it up on itself it is too thick to get through unless you punch it.

Don't give up on this honey hole. The big bass are still there you just gotta figure out how to catch em!

^Al^ posts pics of his weedy honey hole and the big bass he pulls from it, often festooned with weeds. Listen to Al.

I've been fishing the weeds this summer and for whatever reason, there are days the bass respond to a weighted, rapidly falling soft plastic and days they ONLY hit an unweighted soft plastic. I've just started using the Yamamoto Nukibug and their poop bait. I have some Deps poop baits on their way. These three baits are all chunky baits that let you cast without weights. So, as you punch like @gim suggested, you might want to have some unweighted, heavy soft plastics to chuck too.

I'm also have good luck with Deps Sakamatashad, which are thick, heavy flukes. I use 5/0 to 7/0 hooks and I cast them right into heavy weeds. They're almost like fishing live bait in that you cast them and let them sloooowwwwwly sink. They mimic dying shad and your seven-pounders might love to hit the eight-inchers that I sometimes toss (I use the six and seven-inchers too.). I just reel a little to stay in contact with my lure and when the line tightens because a bass has it, I reel until I feel the fish and set the hook.

3 hours ago, scaleface said:

Texas rigged weightless plastic. Something heavy enough to cast.

@scaleface said what I said, but without all my jibber-jabber. So did Tackleholic.

6-8” swimbait on a beast hook.