How to Catch Bass in Thick Grass All Summer Long

Hey guys, Bassmaster Elite Series pro Wes Logan here coming to you today to talk about grass fishing in the summertime, the heat of summer, the dog days on basically going to be from the end of May to, depending where you're at in the country, September, October. Where I'm from in Alabama, it starts cooling off a little bit in the mornings around middle of October, but up until then, you know, it's pretty sweltering hot.

This is going to be the time of year grass fishing. And I'm basically going to talk about more offshore grass, submerged top grass, hydrilla, milfoil, Coontail, stuff like that in this in this video. Going to see a lot of like your grass is going to be at your most full growth at that point in time of the year. The water is going to be the hottest you're going to. It's going to get the most sunlight during the day. So it's going to be at its fullest thickest point at at this time of year. Probably my second favorite time of year to fish it. I really like it in the fall when it starts to die back off, but I like it when it's real thick. You can get in there, do some really fun stuff, catch a lot of big fish.

Because grass is a really interesting thing. It's its own ecosystem. Because it'll have. It will have the bait, it will have the crawfish, it will have, you know, grass can grow around rock piles and you can actually get on schools of fish in grass. I've never done it personally. I've done it a couple times on Guntersville, but I've never done it like especially in those Texas lakes like Toledo and Rayburn used to in the past. And I'm sure they still do it. They would they would get on big schools flipping a really big jig like in like 20 foot of water, which I feel like that's that's one of the coolest ways to catch one. But that is that's one technique that you can really do.

We're going to dive into that in a minute, but I was I. Saying that to say that you can find a huge groups of big fish, they don't have to be out on the ledge or, you know, on a brush pile, like you can actually find them in little clumps of grass and and really have a fun day of fishing.

But what I'm really going to look for that time of year is, is the most obvious places in the grass. And that could be one way or the other. It could be the grass is so thick that there's holes in it, or it could be the grass is so thick that they're in the absolutely thickest clumps. And I guess I should reiterate that if you. Have some sparse grass and you find really thick clumps, that's where they're going to be set up.

So you can, you kind of have to break it down in two ways like that. And it all just depends like area wise on if the lake has a bunch of grass, like if, if the grass there's lake and I'm sorry, there's grass in the lake from one end to the other or if it's more localized. If it's more localized, I tend to like it better because I feel like I have a smaller area that I can break down.

And contrary to fished in the springtime. You're looking for groups, but it's going to be harder to find those groups. You're going to have to fish a little bit slower. You're not going to be able to throw those moving baits just because the water is so hot. They're not in a real big chase and eating mood. They're wanting to eat, don't get me wrong, but they're not just going to be snapping on a lipless in July. I can just go ahead and tell you that like that's not going to happen. You can catch a few on it, I'm sure, but that's not going to be the deal in my experience.

So what you're going to have to do is I'm still going to throw a chatterbait around a little bit because it's just hard not to, especially early summer. I feel I didn't go into that much early summer. Late spring is going to be your shad deal. You're still going to be able to cover a lot of water with that. You're going to be that's when I'm going to be throwing the top water over those clumps where it's barely almost topped out and some of those sparser areas and also the the the chatterbait in a shad color.

And that's when I'm going to be throwing the Zoom Shimmer Shad on the back of that. I really like the action that it gives that blade a jig in that grass that time of year. It just looks like those big if you're around thread fin shad, gizzard shad, whatever your forge might be, it just gives off. That profile in that grass instead of that, you know, the Z-Craw Junior type action. I'm really like that.

If I'm still on that shad spawn deal, like I said, the topwater, the chatterbait and and going to have the jerk bait, like I've said a few times here here in the past few videos. Got to have it 12 months out of the year. It's just a really good fish catching bait and I think it gets overlooked a lot.

Transitioning, you know, shad spawn's done. That's completely over with. They're going to be transitioning to brim beds, actually brim bluegill in the grass, crawfish, stuff like that. I really like flipping A jig especially I have a 5/8th tied on here. Sometimes you can get away with that, but a lot of times you have to go up to a three quarter and I will. I will change my trailer on that to a Z-Craw Junior just for a slimmer profile because I want it going in and out of those clumps kind of slow if it's a lot sparser.

5/8th this exact setup with a super chunk thicker clumps like it's hard to get into like they're almost topped out. I want that little bit heavier 1. With that, with that slimmer profile as a trailer, and you can use whatever trailer you want, you just want that slimmer profile to kind of get you in and out of there without it hanging up and just be more efficient.

Another good one is going to be dragging. That's when I start dragging around. I'll drag and have a Zoom Slinky tied on. It's not terrible. You can get a lot of bites on it, but I like something with some action. Also, I like a just a Zoom Old Monster 10 inch worm. You know that's a really good one. Just put it on EWG hook on 1/4 ounce weight 5 sixteenths. If if it's a little bit deeper.

One that I really like that you can kind of swim and drag at the same time as a Zoom Speed Worm. I like to throw the the regular size, not the great big one, especially if I'm looking for fish. If I feel like I get in the area that's got a lot of bigger fish in it, I'll I'll transition to that bigger one just to try and get the biggest bite that I possibly can in a tournament situation.

But as far as like that, that's where I was kind of getting with this, having to slow down. You're trying to cover water, but you're having to fish slower. So it kind of makes it aggravating and and going back to if the whole lake's got grass in it, it's going to be a little bit more difficult on you're wanting, you're going to want to know. You're going to want to try and figure out what section of the lake produces that time of year.

Most of the time there's always going to be section of the lake that go off certain times of the year. So if if the lower ends a lot a lot better on your lake in the winter time, the upper end where the grass is may be better in the summer time. It just kind of, you know, try and do your research, talk to some of your buddies. If you hadn't, if you have nobody to talk to or don't know anything, it's kind of just going to be trial and error. Just kind of flip a coin and trying to go with it and try to break down.

The area that you pick, but with those baits and those techniques, it's going to be, it's going to be a little bit more difficult. It's not going to be quite as fun, but if you happen to run across them, it's going to be some really good fishing for sure.

Again, probably one of my, my second favorite time of year to fish grass. I, I think I like it so much because it can be a little frustrating, but once you find it, it can be very rewarding where other people just kind of give up after a few hours. It may take all day, but when you run across them, you're going to find those big grouped up schools in that summertime grass and it can be a blast.

So next time you're out there, give all those a try and hopefully you catch them.