Had a tough tournament yesterday and was wanting to get some opinions on the situation.  We fished a tidal river in SC.  It is loaded with hydrilla.  The bass were chasing shad and busting on the surface all day.  It was like the fish were so keyed in on the shad, they would not even look at what you were throwing at them.  I fished with shakey head, floating worm, fluke, crank bait, pointer, wackey worm, texas rig, carolina rig, pop r, and a torpedo.   I had no takers.  What would you have done?  Did I not throw the right bait or were they just to keyed in on shad?

When fishing a body of water that has a lot of hydrilla on it, it can be very difficult to fish. I fish the Potomac which also has a lot of hydrilla on it and matted grass. I like to fish deeper, when the bass seem like they are chasing shad. The smaller bass are more then likely the one's that are chasing the shad while the larger bass are down below waiting on the easy meal that will come floating down. I think I would have tried throwing a jerkbait. They have worked great for me in the same situation.. But if the hydrilla will make it hard. Try throwing a swimbait weedless. Another thing that I have found to work terriffic if you can't get a bite on the bass that are chasing the shad then go to topwater. I like to get as far back into the grass as possible and start chucking a frog. I like the ribbit frogs, and *** frogs and rage tail frogs. But I just puchased the manns frog that is identical to the spro frog so I want to see how that will work. Another thing you may want to throw is a baby brush hog. They work great.

Good Luck to you!!!