What Are some good lures in thick lilly pad in about 1 to 5 feet of water I use flukes but may line gets hung in the split part of the pads any tips

Getting in the "split" is a fact of life when fishing pads. Some lures come thru better than others. The first thing I do is flip, flip, flip. Then I will flip some more. I do throw frogs and such every now and then, but my passion around pads is flippin'. One thing I do use 100% of the time in pads is Stealth braid. It acts as weedeater string when under tension. You can also get your bait back if it is stuck in the "split".

Simple... 30# braid with 1/2+ ounce jig topped off with a trailer

FLIP FLIP FLIP(...pitch...) FLIP FLIP FLIP

I love how a Yum Dinger will slide through them, and in the summer a frog is hard to beat.  Those are my two favorites.

hey BB hunter,

"Simple... 30# braid with 1/2+ ounce jig topped off with a trailer

FLIP FLIP FLIP(...pitch...) FLIP FLIP FLIP"

How many bronzebacks do you get doing that?

Any lure that the cover will allow use of will work. Weedless topwaters, a variety of soft plastics, such as jerkbaits, Senkos, creatures and the like. Spinnerbaits and/or crankbaits and topwaters at the edges if you can get away with using them. Let those plastics drop into holes and at the edges.

I often start with topwaters to locate fish that either boil or show movement under the water, then follow up with a plastic.

I'd advise braid because of its strength and incredible abrasion resistance to vegetation.

Swimming jigs are great! I also like to rear weight senkos with a good size nail and drop it through the holes,it's awesome

Try a deps basirisky frog for a different approach from the bouncing walking typical frogs.

are these the big, thick lily pads that raise out of the water about a foot, or are they the small lily pads that lay flat on the waters surface?

the first kind is difficult to fish, and i dont fish it much, but i fish the second kind all the time, and i just fish a trick stick in all the little holes and pockets and edges of the lily pads. fish hit it crawling on top too.

Slick your plastics up good with scent oil (or make your own with mineral oil, garlic powder, anise, whatever). They tend to slide down through the pads a little better.

KVD throws a spinnerbait in the pads.... 8-)

Swimming jigs are great! I also like to rear weight senkos with a good size nail and drop it through the holes,it's awesome

Try a deps basirisky frog for a different approach from the bouncing walking typical frogs.

how the heck do you do that? because it sounds like it could work great in a weedy area ive tried to fish.

I drag a plastic frog, lizard, or senko in lillies.  Also 30# braid.

Frogs, blades, and plastics. If you will fish a heavier blade down in the column and slow it down will turn the pad and it is not a problem to get it by the split. If you get the line in the pad slit just work the blade slowly up toward the pad and it usually will turn in the water.

hey BB hunter,

"Simple... 30# braid with 1/2+ ounce jig topped off with a trailer

FLIP FLIP FLIP(...pitch...) FLIP FLIP FLIP"

How many bronzebacks do you get doing that?

Hey now, there are some really good Largemouth lakes out here in WA .  and don't get me wrong, i do have a H rod in my rod locker for a reason haha

But Smallies woop largemouths anyways      ;D  8-)  :  

Theres two tactics I use when fishing the thick pads.

#1. Flipping/pitching, I prefer to peg my weights in this condition because I want to be sure the bait slid through all them thick pads and got to the bottom. For the baits in general, I like either jigs, creaturebaits, or tubes. All of these baits work for me in the pads. As for fishing them, I try and cast them where they almost land on a pad, this makes it so the water disturbance is little to none, can't get more "stealth like" then that. After the bait falls, I'll pay close attention to it, being as this is when most strikes occur. If I feel any unnatural tap, or "weird feeling" or feeling of something alive, I'll set the hook. Other wise, I'll keep the bait paused for a good 4-6secs, and then start to give it a small hop, pause a few secs, and another hop, maybe a short crawl, and another pause. Sooner or later you'll get bit.

#2. Frogs, typically when the pads are thick theres not really much to swim through, as your bait is pretty much gliding over the top of pads. This is why I don't throw a soft plastic frog in this condition, although If you can find a floating version of a soft plastic frog, its worth a shot. Back to my point, the bait I choose is a hollow frog. I like the original scum frog or bobbys perfect frog. Work the bait real slow. I like to try to tease the bass, I'll bring the frog ontop of one of the pads, and just kinda twitch it, making the pad stalk move, then I'll slowly bring it off the pad, and let it hit the water, maybe give it a slight twitch, but other then that just a nice 5-7sec pause. If nothing happens, I'll give a jerk or two, and start to slowly twitch it onto another pad, and just repeat the process. If this style doesn't work, you can always try and play around with a "faster approach" in fishing the bait..sometimes you'd be surprised.

Oh, and braid really does help for cutting through the pads. Although I typically bring 1 rod with me, because I bank fish, so Im using fluoro majority of the time, and I don't have many problems in these conditions with it.

Thank you I have some 10 inch power worms with a big curl tail if I peg a 1/2 ounce bullet sinker would  that work well :

I also love using SPRO frogs, pitching/flipping plastics with pegged sinkers, and dropping weightless stickbaits on the edges. One thing I'll add...

the Berkley Bladedancer is a great lily pad lure. It has a very unique action on the surface, and also awesome action when you let it fall into pockets or on the pad edges. The lure takes a while to get used to, but it's a great weapon that the bass rarely see. To be honest, I'm not sure why this lure isn't more popular than it is.

Go Skinny Dippin... :-X

Second choice would be a jig.

I throw a Yum Buzzfrog on 50lb power pro braid and buzz it along the surface occaisionally pausing on a pad.  There might be ways of getting more bites but I tend to get big fish and they hit the bejeezus out of it.

The thicker and harder to fish the better, scares away the light hearted!

 *,EWG ,Weightless t rigged, backwards, 10 inch manns Jelly worms ( T rigged ,weightless) , fish em right on and over the pads, when the drop into the spaces HOLD ON and Don't soil yourself!!!!!!!!

 FROGS, Snag Proff type, as close up onto the shore as possible, very effective where weeds switch up, example silver dollars close to shore, pads, opening to submerged milfoil or emergant grass, wow!

 

Go Skinny Dippin... :-X

Second choice would be a jig.

Useless in pads.

Fish a t-rigged zoom trick worm or two trick worms melted together(fished weightless) both in june bug. A lemon colored senko is a good one for the spawn

During the spawn do not waste your time fishing the pad "fields" look for isolated pads especially where there is a bare bank all-around it

If you want to fish the pad fields just run a horny toad of them.

Later in the year you can do the hard work and fish the brunt of the pads a big worm rigged weightless or a creture with little to no weight.

I like throwing the Rage Tail toads in the pads and I have had a lot of success with them this year.

hey BB hunter,

"Simple... 30# braid with 1/2+ ounce jig topped off with a trailer

FLIP FLIP FLIP(...pitch...) FLIP FLIP FLIP"

How many bronzebacks do you get doing that?

How Many smallmouth do you have in dense pads?

Eakins jig with a yamamoto flappin hog II trailer. Flip and Pitch gets the big girls, just like me

hey BB hunter,

"Simple... 30# braid with 1/2+ ounce jig topped off with a trailer

FLIP FLIP FLIP(...pitch...) FLIP FLIP FLIP"

How many bronzebacks do you get doing that?

How Many smallmouth do you have in dense pads?

That was the punchline.  See the winking emoticon?

;D

forgive me, my brains on lock. there actually trying to make me do something here at work.