im fishing a weed bed thats about 200yds long the water depth is 17Ft to 8Ft deep with milfoil to the surface and wanted to know how to fish it and what to fish it with

thanks

Ignore any straight stretches of the weedline, casting to irregular weed pockets, points, and holes that indicate something different on bottom. It could be a ditch, a rock outcrop, or a ridge changing the way the weeds grow. I'd cast first to any isolated clumps of weed out away from the main weedbed where the bigger loner bass tend to hold. A spinnerbait or buzzbait cast around a lone clump can easily produce the best bass in the area. Then fish the spots described above, miningthe open water edges of those. Then put that rod down and pick one up with a big jig&craw (or pig trailer) and flip or pitch it to any open holes in the weedbed. Yo-yo the jig through those holes. If no holes, make some by flinging the jig (1 oz or more) high enough so it pokes through. Yo-yo it in place. Next comes a Horny Toad on a third rod cast to the shoreline, especially if there's an inside weedline there caused by rising water not giving weeds time to fill in. Swim it to the inside weedline, then slide it across the slop, letting it fall through the holes made earlier. My last ditch is a hollow frog fished agonizingly slow on the slop, stopped at the edge of holes, paused, let fall in, jig it there, pause, and resume crawling if no takers. Move on to the next good spot and pick up rod #1 and repeat.

Jim

you also may try a tube with a heavy tungsten weight, pegged and fished as jim suggested the jig.

matt

try a weightless senko never fails for me, rigged weedless of course