I occasionally fish three gravel pits in my "home river" for Spotted Bass and LMB's. The middle gravel pit or pond is tough to fish for me. It appears to be a consistent depth of about 10-12 feet, 200 x 500 yards or so, and has HEAVY hydrilla throughout. The main bass species in this river are spots but there are the occasional LMB's. The water is very clear and I fish it from a jon boat. This pond gets pressure from the very seldom boat angler and bank anglers (AKA trespassers) typically with live bait/stink baits.

This river is also home to blue gills, catfish, carp, and a small amount of shad. It is difficult for me to isolate the most likely fish holding places because of the abundance of cover and lack of significant structure.

Any advice is welcome, thank you.

Ok im from Louisiana and I fish a few gravel pits of my own. Ok around my house there are usually culverts between each pit or a small cut in the land. Usually you will have good luck there either because there is a slight current moving through it or because it narrows the water down. Either way... if the hydrilla is soo thick that it reaches the sruface like a matt from the bank or it is under the water 6-10 to however deep it is growing in the pits you need to move to the edge of the grass. fish off the edges of the grass because the bass move to the edges of the grass just like deer move to the edges of a hedge row. Try taking a spinnerbait throw it into the edge of the grass about a foot or two and rip it through the grass or throw it parallel to the outside edges. Or use a brush hog or good worm. Another thing to try if the grass is matted at the surface would be a topwater frog like a ribbit or a spro frog, or soft jerkbaits on top of the matts of grass. The fish will literally bust through the matt to get them. That's all I can think of right now.... listen to everyone's opinion and you will come out fine.

I really don't have advice, but I was thinking about places with no structure, and I was really thinking about hauling dead trees and throwing them in there. 

While your gravel pit may not have well defined structure of the garden variety it still has structure.

The most common mistake many anglers make when thinking of structure is they expect abrupt bottom changes of steep rises or quick drop-offs. Gravel pits, pond, tanks or what ever y'all call em in your neck of the woods were built by man and will not be exactly flat and level. In these types of situation one must look for subtle changes to the bottom contour along with weed lines, places where two types of vegetation meet, changes in bottom composition, corners, ect.

Catts right on...

I would add one thing. I have a pond near me with hydrilla...LOTS!! I really didn't know what to throw. I wanted something I felt they hadn't seen alot of. I grabbed a pack of Shadolicious swimbaits w/ swimbait hooks (different weights for different depths) and went at it. Vary your retrieve speed and depth. Rig them right, and they are mostly weedless. Had success..bigger fish too.

Good luck!!! 

Alan

Thanks a lot for the advice. I can't wait to get out and try this pond again. An advantage I will have this time over the other times I have fished it is electronics. I will have to play with the sensitivety of my fish finder so it senses the bottom and not the hydrilla. Thanks again.

Try fishing the wind blown side of the pond.

If its anything like fishing a huge hydrilla mat, your not really going to be able to locate alot of fish. Md advice would be to get a good topwater search bait and cast EVERY inch of the hydrilla. Like im sure you have heard, fish the edge of the weeds with a spinnerbait also. Im positive that if you try these then you will catch some fish. Hope this helps!