Shallow bass?

I was fishing a small lake last weekend and me and my buddy decided we were gonna try going shallow in the thick weeds for bass. We saw quite a few decent fish in the big pockets and some would jump out of the weedline at our baits but nothing was really working for us. I never fished bass like this in this shallow and this thick of weed cover. I was wondering what kind of rig would work best, we used tubes with no weights but it was really tough to get a good hook set.

LARDY, read the fishing report “metro area lake bass fishing” when the bass are in the shallow weeds and pads try a scum frog or other weedless topwater bait. cast out past the holes in the pads or weed and work the frog back to the hole when the bass “Blow up” on the frog count to 2 and set the hook. the hardest part is getting the fish up ontop of the weeds once he is up just crank him in. the first couple of seconds of the fight are the most important.
1. dont set the hook to fast
2. get him out of the slop so he cant wrap you up.
maby SLOP BASS can give you more pointers.
see ya Corey

You were on the right path to catching those fish, but you will need heavy tackle for slop/weed fish. Corey was right when he said to get the fish up and out of those weeds. Most rods can’t handle tactics like that. Med/Heavy—Heavy weight rods are best suited for fishing heavy weeds. Also, don’t skimp on the line. I used 50lb PowerPro line. It is strong enough to pull any fish out of the cover.

Slop frogs do work well. Flukes and other unweighted plastics also excell. If you have some heavier gear that can handle pulling those fish out of that cover, I recommend trying it.

It will also help you get better hooksets.

The hardest part of this is to give the fish time to get the bait in his mouth. It’s really easy to yank it away too soon, and really difficult to describe how long to wait. I do a lot of Bass fishing with a fly rod, and most of that is top water and heavy cover. I’ve found it’s always better to strike a little late than too soon.

It sounds like you guys had some action and you were on fish, so you figured out the hard parts. A few tweaks here and there and you guys are going to have a ball.

Rootski

how do you guys work frogs and rats?

Do you just swim them, twitch them, jerk them????

Gary may answer may not help you much but I twitch, swim, and jerk the frogs and rats when I use them. I like the rats because I can usally get them to walk the dog if I want to. Also they have a walking rat out that works good. My personal best method of using a rat or frog though would be to pull the bait slowly into pockets and let it set in the pocket a bit twitch it once in a while then slowly pull it into the next pocket.

I really like Scum Froggin. For me the trophy size is the way to go. A Bass is going to get a hold of the lure if she wants to eat it. Always keep slight tension on your line, even when you are picking up line after a twitch. Just like working a tube over the pads, don’t set the hook until you feel the fish, the bite will feel similar to a bite on a crank bait. Personally I wouldn’t just go with a 2 count because if the fish missed you might miss an opportunity to get that fish to strike again.

I have been experimenting with a 1/4 oz swim jig over the thick pads. When a fish blows up and misses, just stop the retrieve and yo-yo the jig in place. I have been finding that more than 50% of the time the fish will grab the jig sub-surface.

scout has a good point. when I work my scum frog, i will cast out once and slowly retieve giving it the swimming effect, then cast back out and twitch and finally a bigger pop in the water so the water splashes like a hola popper. but if the bass blows up and missing the bait, stop and wait. I usually count to about 15 when I am twiching and popping, unless I am fishing a more open pad spread, then I just go with I think is a natural action for a frog. I was hoping that mike finke would also chime in on this, he fishing tonka alot in the heavy cover. he showed me a few nice jigs that work well for getting through that cabbage.

as for rods and line, I am using a 7’5″ medium heavy with 30# spider wire stealth. the real is a guide series with 6 ball bearings. their cheap one at 29.00. the only way you are going to get good with top waters is to go out and fish them, then you will get your own technique that they just can’t leave alone.

shane