Hi folks I have a question on cattails. In the harbor I fish in there is a U shaped channel cut out of the cattails for small boats to go drop off thier garbage. Its 6 foot deep water with cattails on both sides. The current is pretty strong in the channel. I can hear bass in there all day. Should I stay back and cast a jig ahead of the boat along the edge as I work my way down? A worm along the edge? My other question is how should I position the boat?

If the cattails are sparse enought to through a jig into them, do it.  Just use heavy braided line.  If they are too thick to get a jig to go through, you can cast along the edge.  I would try to pitch or flip maybe 10 feet in front of the boat depending on visibility.  If you are fishing clear water, try to stay further away.  You want your jig to enter the water as quietly as possible.

Start further out and ripple a tandem SB parallel. Then move in and flip.

how can you hear the bass?

how can you hear the bass?

Turn the radio off  

I always use a 7-10" ribbon tail worm(vary colors) with an 1/8oz weight and 14lb fluoro for this. I will start on the weedline and breaks then proceed to pick apart the inside until i find them.  

how can you hear the bass?

Bass aren't quiet when chasing food in cover such as cattails.  Splish, splash.

In the summer, when the aquatic vegetation is in bloom, they attract hordes of insects, which in turn attract huge flocks of birds, mostly swallows and other insect eaters.

I've heard stories of bass eating these birds, but had never witnessed such a thing, until this year.  

The bass missed, but it leaped a foot out of the water, just missing the bird.  I happened to be looking in the right place at the right time to witness it.

The thing is, it's not only bass that feed on the insects.  Perch, bluegills and their cousins (sunfish) as well as other fish will feed in the shallows and dense cover.

Unless it's an exceptionally loud splash, I'm conditioned to ignore them.  Even a dink can make a fairly loud splash when it does a side flop.  Fish version of a belly flop.

Man, i thought i was going crazy last week because i witnessed this! There was a big black/red duck swimming with like 8 little ones following in and out of bullrush fields. Then bass started attacking them and managed to take 2 down. The ducks where only about 4" long though!

Bass aren't quiet when chasing food in cover such as cattails. Splish, splash.

Ain't that the truth?

In Florida, there are few days on the water when you won't hear bass busting in the bulrushes or spatterdock.

It's a unique sound, and you know instantly that it's either a bass or an alligator.

Roger

On one of the lakes I fish there are a ton of catails, and the Red Wing Blackbirds love to perch on them. The Largemouth have become aware of this and will bump the catails when they see one sitting on it. Sometimes it startles the blackbird enough that it will fall into the water and the bass will ambush it. Its quite fun to watch.

Man, i thought i was going crazy last week because i witnessed this! There was a big black/red duck swimming with like 8 little ones following in and out of bullrush fields. Then bass started attacking them and managed to take 2 down. The ducks where only about 4" long though!

When I started fishing jigs in the middle of March, the pond had a couple of large flocks of seagulls floating on the surface.

I'd never fished that early in the year on freshwater, and was somewhat surprised to see them.  They were there every day without fail.

When the snapping turtles started to stir, the number of gulls dwindled rapidly.  Within a week they had vanished.

No way the turtles got them all.  Somehow the gulls instinctively know, or one gets taken from their midst, and the rest beat it.

Momma and Poppa duck must have been frantic with they young being attacked like that.

On the lake I fish most, cattails seem to be the prefered cover for big bass.  My lake only has a few patches of cattails in and near the water.  It's mostly water lily, pickerel weed and other stuff.  But if there is a patch of cattails in the water that I can get a bait to, I have my best chance of pulling out a big bass.  For some reason, cattails is high-end real estate for bass and the biggest ones seems to get these choice spots.

Micro, I read a study (on bluegills) in which cattails offered by far the greatest productivity (food chain production) in the lake, which also had other aquatic vegetation. The largest 'gills spent a lot of their time in the cattails.

Thanks guys I'll try a jig right into the cattails. I went to them yesterday and managed to sqeeze my boat through a little hole under a tree to get in behind them. It turns out the sounds I thought were bass were huge carp but there were also a ton of bass in there. I could see the bass and practically bump lures off thier noses but they wouldn't bite. > Thanks for the advice guys.

I would go with slug go's, spinnerbaits, and jigs or A pegged brush hog or beaver style bait

Thanks guys I'll try a jig right into the cattails. I went to them yesterday and managed to sqeeze my boat through a little hole under a tree to get in behind them. It turns out the sounds I thought were bass were huge carp but there were also a ton of bass in there. I could see the bass and practically bump lures off thier noses but they wouldn't bite. > Thanks for the advice guys.

I found that when a jig/T-rig won't work, a Senko will slay em! GOOD LUCK