Hi i am new to this fourm,

I have a place on a 80 acre lake in northern Michigan there are a good amount of large bass in the lake,I do OK but not as good as I should. There are weeds beyond belife Pads,Pond weed,Hydralia,Chara(alge) cat taids and more.I use a loth of tube jigs Texas rigged & 7 inch sickel tails Texas riged as well as shallow running crank baits.I have a lot of trouble getting through that heavey cover.any recomendations?

Welcome to the forum.

Thank you My name is paul I have been fising bass since I was 4 years old in Michigan

Paul,

There are a lot of ways to fish grass and pads.

You can throw over them with an assortment of baits, such as a buzzbait, spinnerbait, swimbait, frog, rat, trick worm, finesse worm with our without a light weight sinker; a Senko pulled over the top; a creature bait or a lizzard pulled over the top; and a Horny Toad pulled between the top of the water and the top of the weeds.

You can throw lipless crankbaits through the weeds if you can find a clear spot and the hooks do not get tangled.  Same is true for a crankbait.  Just give 'em a try but try not to lose them.

Pitching and flipping a jig and pig or a 10 inch worm or a creature bait with its apendages removed on a heavy sinker can work.  You can always throw an ounce weighted 10 inch neon blue plastic  worm to have it fall through and punch through the grass and weeds and then hop it along. Use a pegged bullet weight. Use braid line, like 60+ test.

Or you can use a tube as long as you have a pegged bullet weight and Tex-pose the hook into the tube's skin. Fish it on 60+ pound braid and hope and jiggle it all around.  Just make sure the hook is the right size for the tube.  And you may have to go with a 1/2 ounce or heavier bullet weight to get it through the weeds and grass.

What about fishing a "drop shot" set-up allowing the bottom weight to get into the pad's V shape roots and then jiggling the worm to make it shimmy?  You will need a small weedless hook (1/0) or even a smaller hook like a #1 fished weedless (or as best you can make it weedless) and fish it almost straight up and down. Be ready to lose some rigs, too.  Braid line is best.

If possible, a crankbait fished parallel to the weed line and also if there are any areas where you have two types of weeds meeting each other can be good; a piece of wood or a rock; a channel; or a hole; or a point; or some irregularity in the grass line where they can stage to ambush a baitfish are always good selections.

You can throw almost anything along the weed line.

Points coming out from the shore are good if you remember that the grass gets less and less as you move into deeper water.

The fish may not be in the thick grass nor in the sparse grass but inbetween.

I love to throw a frog out and fish it for a while in and above the pads.  A pink or white trick worm can work wonders, too.  Trick worms are fun to fish and you can see the fish inhale them.

So you have many selections and presentations to select among plus the ones the guys tell you.

Welcome to the forum. Keep asking those questions and posting your results and pics.  

i would reccommend frogs, they are fun to use, catch big fish, and the fish just explode on them

Bottom contact  

Catt, please expand on "bottom contact."

Thanks,

Thanks Sam another one on my harddrive but I've got lots of room left. ;^)

Hi welcome to the list.

Bigger bass found in heavy vegation will always be bottom related  

Welcome aboard!

8-)

Hey, welcome.  I'm pretty new here too.  Nice to see another Michigan fisherman aboard.   8-)

I'd try rigging a worm or senko weedless and weightless.  You could also use a weedless frog for some top water action.  Good luck!

Thanks for all the help.Alot of what you say I do, but lipless caranks only in the early spring before the weeds,the lake is 80 feet deep on the shelf, some 12 feet deep there are 6 foot long weeds and thick,I have tried to run heavy weight with like you have said but I simply cannot do it with ount pulling up a gob of weeds. dropping stright down sounds intresting to me,I want to try it but do you think in that thich it will work out?Please explain in more detail.

I use Ragetail frogs, Cavitron buzzbaits, chaterfrogs, swim senkos and a few differnt types of spinnerbaits in heavy cover.

to the forum

Thanks again I will post a few picks after the weekend ,I pull big ones all the time just want to get more!!!!