Well after being in a slum for about a month, getting skunked EVERY DAY,to day I caught 2 lm not monsters but both were 1 1/2 lbs or more.

So lemme tell my situation:

The main canal I fished was clogged with that cotton stuff that floats around and comes off of trees, well now that fall is coming and the baitfish are coming back in, so I tried the canal, I smacked a senko on top of the mats that the cotton crap makes, about 3-4ft off shore, well when i was floping on the mats, a bass exploded looking like a man grabing it from the water through the mats.

Well when i accidentally droped my senko after taking off the fish into the water not even 2 inches off shore, !SPLASH! a bass exploded the second it hit the water, but missed..... so I continued smacking the senko on the mats, like 1 ft off shore, and most of the time they missed, but it was really cool because the water was really shallow and I could see the wake of the bass coming from shore towards my bait.

So two questions:

1. Anyone else smack a weedless lure on top of mats? Never heard of it and wondering if I was first!

2. Why are bass right next to the shore, almost on it! Are they waiting for mabey mice or frogs to fall in?

Sounds just like me...I wasn't catching anything for almost 4 weeks till this past last weekend.

You are also right,just about every fish i caught was in less than a foot of water holding in the tightest possible places.I had to break out the spinning rig to skip under that stuff.

try a hollow body frog like a spro or spro jr

Try a rage tail toad or shad. They work great for me on grass mats!!!

MOst of the places I fish have grass mats and are about 2-6' deep and that is where I get most of my fish!!

-Nitroman

I've never heard of any fish holding in such a tight place! i also tried a stanly ribbit frog but they didn't like it, next time i run to wally world ill pick a hollow bodied frog and some rage tail.

Probly a floating worm would also work, as i was fishing the super tight pockets i noticed bass biting at shad or flys all around me.

Nothing more exciting than a topwater bite explosion!

You can drag pretty much anything across pads/weed and get hit.  They are swinging at the action, not the actual lure.   They are driven much more by the fact that there is a critter scrambling than what color or shape the critter is.  Free food is free food.

Unfortunately Andrew, the act of fishing on top of vegetation is one of the oldest, most common presentations out there.  No Nobel this time around bud but keep pluggin'!!   ;D