After work today I pulled off on the side of the road where I have seen cars stopped from time to time with people fishing a drainage pond.  I had my rod & reel and my shorefishing bag in the back of the truck so I wanted to take a look at this thing.  It is maybe a 2 acre pond and it has a ton of hydrilla in it.  At the north and south ends the hydrilla was thick and formed matts on top of the water, but throughout the pond it comes up from the bottom.  I threw all kinds of plastics, senkos, floaters, lizards, a buzz frog and I only landed one.  But as I am walking around the shore I keep seeing these bass right next to the shoreline in about 3 feet, they are sitting right under the hyrilla matts on the shoreline.  I saw about 7 or 8 fish real close like this that were approximately 20 inchers.  I tried flipping the baits a few feet over them but I couldn't get any to commit.  It was about noon so I am hoping to return for the morning bite soon.

So anyways my question is what to throw when fishing this thick hydrilla?  Does it force you to fish topwater?  or is there a bait/technique the would allow me to go deep?  It was pretty frustrating seeing these bass that could rival my PB just sitting there watching me...

I tried to take a video of the pond for you guys, but it is poor quality.  You can still kinda see how the hydrilla engulfs the water.  When I zoom in on the water at the very end it is because just a few feet in front of me were 2 of those large bass I was talking about.  You can't see for the glare, but my costas revealed em.  8-)

This summer, I had the same problem. I went to Dick's, bought a package of 4.5" Shadolicious swim baits (Strike King) and some weighted swim bait hooks. Rig them as instructed and they are 99% weedless. Experiment with the retrieve. I killed them in weedy ponds with this set up.

Good luck,

bassnajr

I agree with Bassnajr, small paddle tailed swimbaits work great in thick weeds like that.

No, you aren't only limited to soft plastics on the surface, you could also try a very heavy jig to punch down through it. Make sure you have the equipment (stiff rod and braided line) if you want to try that.

A jig is going to be very hard to fish a choked up pond from the shore. I would stick to the other references instead. A jig is best fished vertical from a boat in heavy hydrilla. Good luck.

Why don't you rig up some plastic with a pegged oz on a t-rig?

Weightless t-rigged *** ripple tailed worms work great for me in these situations. I use an old fashioned s worm hook, instead of an EWG to keep the weeds off it.  The hook stays right onto the body of the worm and doesn't stick out.8-)

Weightless t-rigged *** ripple tailed worms work great for me in these situations. I use an old fashioned s worm hook, instead of an EWG to keep the weeds off it. The hook stays right onto the body of the worm and doesn't stick out.8-)

Does that actually make it more weedless? I would think the opposite due to more keel in the hook is exposed. If it is more weedless I'll give-up using EWG hooks.

Take a 10+ ribbontail worm on a big hook weightless. Put the worm on like a jig trailer giving it a big head then pull up the head of the worm over the knot, very weedless

Yea it works for me. The worm can go right over the tops and through a good part of the middle of the weeds, The predominate weed here is coon tail, but I think it is close enough to hydrilla to make a comparison.

I use slider and fineses jigs if they are hugging the bottom. In areas where they are thick and the water is over 6 ft. I have had a lot of success witht eh Weeless t rig i mentioned.

Next year I am going to try your suggested burying the hook head , that seems like it will work THANKS MUCH!

Here is something else that works with 6 inch Mann, Jelly Worms and Octupus hooks. I take the hook and go through the head, like you would do with a normal trig. The Octupus hook , being so small comes all the way through, I slide it down to mid worm than I embed the hook and also the hook eye into the worm t rig style and gentley tug the mono till the worm is sttraight, you can get that sucka all through all kinds of stuff!

you know that is a good looking pond.... and a variety of lures would work..... I remember once in this situation my Dad swum a worm weightless on top thru the moss slowly and caught a 8.8 ounce hawg!!!!!!

A topwater snake lure, like an Anaconda would work great in the thick parts...... now I'm not a frog fan but a Ribbit or Horny toad should illicit big strikes!!!!!!!!

Where the moss is not thick on top, get your spinning reel with a very small split-shot or bullet weight and try it texas rigged........

I'd try a blue fleck powerworm, trick worm, or even a craw-worm...

I fished in these situations many of times in the summer when the moss is REAL thick....... topwater chuggers do the trick, but even more effective is the BUZZ-Bait.......

It's so funny---------- I'll work a worm so slow, or a spinnerbait...... and get frustrated and reel it in real fast to cast again....... and bang right at the bank WHAM one strikes it and scares me half to death.....

A lot of these bass just can't RESIST that fleeing motion........

It's so true a baitfish or lure can be moving normally and a fish doesn't pay it much attention, but moved faster to resemble a fleeing baitfish, it triggers a response in the fish where it just can't resist to chase down your lure........

Good luck....