Bass in the grass

[BassProAddict]

I've been to a number of lakes in the country and overseas. With the diversity of water-vegetation, there seems to come with a variety of techniques on how to fish it. I'd like to share my techniques and offer it up for critiques. I'm not catching them in big numbers but skunking seems to be a thing of the past (uh oh...did I just jinx myself???).I have my own techniques and I'm surprised how differently my boatmates fish the same lures and the same spots.I'm most fascinated at the variety of techniques in the grass and weeds.

I'd like to limit the discussion to 3 methods:

Texas Rigged Worms

Carolina Rigged Plastics

Crankbaits Mid depth

Texas Rigged worms

I pitch my softplastics (mostly worms) INTO the grass, let it sink and crawl on the bottom. I actually have a Daiwa Viento and make it skip on the BOTTOM and stay INSIDE the grass. My boatmates, let it sink to the lake bottom and feel the grass.Once they feel the vegetation, they yank/jerk the worm ABOVE the grass and just let it hover above the grass.

Carolina Rigged Softplastics

I mostly use lizards and get a TON of strikes. This, however,is where I'm most frustrated with. I would land a load of bass if I could only set the hook! I could never set it on time.I land about 10% of my strikes. What I do is toss the C-Rig a distance and drag the whole rod sideways.When I feel the hit, I reel the slack then set sideways.I miss so many strikes but get the most bites all day everyday.My boatmates drag and set rigs vertically.

Mid depth cranks

This one I just don't get quite clearly.I just toss it to weeed edges, reel sideways and hope for a strike. Is there an art in crankbaiting? Aside from reeling it in at a constant or erratic pace, is there something else to be done? My boatmates toss, reel in on a straight path back to the boat.

Your thoughts?

[WyoChris]

In reference to the cranks.... theres a lot of ways to fish. I like to use a floating crank w/ a lip. I'll throw it deep in the weeds, give it a few cranks, then let it float to the top if I need to get over some weeds or logs. Overall, I never do a constant pace, I just give it a full pulls then reel to get in the slack.

[goblueM]

I'm not sure about your carolina rig hooksetting technique if you're only 10%. I'm at least 50% and probably more like 75. I drag it along, feel the bite, reel up the slack just until you can barely feel the weight and then cross their eyes. Maybe you're pulling too hard and they feel you and drop it?

As far as crankbaits I fish Rapala DT6, 10 and 16s depending on the depth of the weedlines. Slow and steady can work just fine, twitching occasionally, pausing. Mix it up til you find what works for you. Ticking weeds is good, fouling constantly is not. Find a good balance and you're golden

[BassProAddict]

I'm not sure either

[Deitz Dittrich]

BPA- need more information here... how big is the lizzard your using.. Rod, Line?

Had a little more time, edited my post///

#1 texas rig= fish it differently each day.. Will try different tech untill I find what works... some days its dragging it, some days it hoping it hard, some days just let it sit..

#2-see above

#3 the key with cranks is it should contact something in the cast, if your not, you either need a deeper crank or cast it shallower. Speed plays a large roll, try adjusting your speed and find the pace they want it that day.

[Cecil]

One thing I do on the C-Rig, is I don't reel in the slack. I let the fish take up the slack (shouldn't be much) and allow the fish to take the rod from the side of me to the front, then set the hook. Sweep it to the side as much in the opposite direction of the fish as possible.

[TurnUpTheFishing]

Cranking grass is more than casting and reeling. Lots of people will concentrate when throwing plastics and jigs but then when it comes to cranks they just cast like crazy and dont give them the same amount of attention.

As Deitz already said you want to make contact and this is true most the time when cranking but you need to be in tune with the crankbait you're throwing, know exactly how it feels when its running correctly. Id say go to deep open water cast and reel a few times, really pay attention to how the crankbait runs then go to the weeds. Continue paying close attention while reeling when your rod hits something either pause a few seconds to see if you lure floats out of the weeds, begin cranking if it hasnt snap the rod to rip the weeds free.

If you cant crank the reel twice without getting weeds your lure might be diving too deep or you'll want to cast deeper and if you rarely hit the weeds you probably will want to again find a different lure of adjust your depth until you find the crank that just seems to walk perfectly along/above the weeds.

[RK]

Hiya -

Warning: long post coming up - even by my standards

For C-rigs...yeah man. If you are hooking 10% of the fish something's wrong. I've come to the conclusion that the right rod, right reel, and right line is really a big deal with Carolina rigging. Think about the physics at work with a C-rig. You have an anchored weight and some arbitrary amount of line swinging free past it. You haven't a clue where the fish is headed when you wind up to set the hook - toward you, away from you, up, down...so sometimes you need to pick up a lot of line before you ever get significant pressure on the hook... If you're in deep water you sometimes have to pick the sinker up a ways before you get a direct line to the fish too. Add in a long cast and line with any kind of stretch at all and you have a lot to overcome.

I think you need a rod that's 7 feet minimum to C-rig, and 7'6" is better yet. (A lot of my C-rigging is in 20' of water and sometimes more though. That may make a difference, may not. I'm inclined to think not.) I like something with a fast tip and MH power. I have a custom C-rig rod built on a Rainshadow blank, but a flippin' stick works about as well as anything, as long as it's on the faster side speed-wise. C-Rigging is one of the few applications where I really like a high speed reel. Helps to pick up line quickly when I'm reeling down to set the hook. For line, you really need something that's very low stretch. even low stretch mono has a ton of stretch, and you have to apply enough force to soak up the stretch to get pressure on a fish. (If you want to be amazed sometime, take a rod with mono and a jig or something, hold it between your thumb and forefinger, then have a friend walk away from you a cast length or so, and set the hook. The amount of stretch there is in mono - and how little force makes it to your hand - will blow your mind.) I use Trilene XT for most of my C-rigging. It's tough, low stretch, and cheap. Fluoro would probably be better but I rig around rocks a LOT, and it's brutal on line so I end up respooling a lot.

When I feel a hit with a C-Rig, I drop my rod tip, reel like mad until my rod tip is pointed at the fish, and do a sweep hookset, reeling as I do so. I miss some fish, but not too many.

As for cranks - TUTF is spot on. Way too many guys just chunk and wind with cranks. Especially around weeds, it takes a lot of concentration and attention to detail to do it well. It starts with getting a sense of what the weedgrowth is like - how high it tops out, and how deep the outside edge is. You want a bait that's ticking the weed tops as much as possible without burrowing into it, or be able to bump bottom on the outside edge. That's part of why I like the DT series - you can cover the whole range of depths. You can also fine tune running depth just by changing set-ups. If a DT-10 is running a little too deep on my usual crankbait rod, I'll put it on a spinnerbait rod with 17# test instead of the cranking rod with 12, for example. When I'm cranking weeds I'm often fishing fairly slowly, and really methodically picking apart a weedline, finding all the little fingers and inside turns. Walk the bait along, and concentrate so you can feel the bait when it hits a weed stalk - it'll kind of load up a little bit. Stop, and let it float off. If it hangs up, a shake will usually get it loose. If not, snap your wrist to pop it free (and hang on - lots of fish hit right after you snap it free of the weeds.) About the only kinds of weeds you can't walk a crank through are stringy junk weeds and bladderwort, which I absolutely despise. The stuff comes loose easily (it has no roots) and will NOT snap off because the stalk is like rope. Lord how I hate bladderwort... Anyhow...

Anyhow - there's a definitely technique to cranking weeds. As Deitz very astutely pointed out, the more you can make contact, the better, but you have to have a light touch or you end up with a front deck full of grass and not many fish. Personally, I think cranking weeds takes every bit as much finesse and feel as fishing a jig or soft plastic - maybe moreso because you are fishing with treble hooks not a single hook on a jigworm. It's worth learning though. Can be really effective, especially in mid-summer into early fall.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[Muddog]

The motion is carried. Make contact with the bottom when using crankbaits. Spoonpluging 101.

[goblueM]

am i the only one that uses braid for c-rigging? I found my hookup percentage went thru the roof. 4 to 6 foot fluoro leader on the end of 20 or 30 # PowerPro

[BassProAddict]

The techniques I realize I am worst at are these three that I mentioned. And in this order: Cranking, Texas Rig and C-Rig (due to my inability to land 90% of the strikes).

Cranking Gear- Mossy Back 6-9" G.Loomis rod with an Abu Winch with 17lb Bass XPS fluorocarbon. Cranking Technique (probably now known as cranking error) is throw it past vegetation, find vegetation, dig into vegetation,fight vegetation then SPEND TIME CLEANING LURES FROM VEGETATION. So now, after I feel the grass, what do I do? I let it float up and reel ABOVE the green stuff? What if I have a suspending Crankbait?

Texas Rig Gear- G.Blanks 6-9" medium heavy rod with a fast tip paired with a Daiwa Viento baitcaster on 17lb fluorocarbon. Texas Technique (error) involves casting INTO the grass and letting stay there during entire reeling in process. I get very few strikes but land them when I do. Is there much success inside the grass as opposed to hovering on top of it?

C-Rig Gear- Shimano Sienna reel spooled with 15lb Spiderwire braid on a 6'6" Cabela's XMLTi spinning rod with moderate fast action. As I've mentioned, I throw past the target (waaaay past it since the rig splashes a lot), reel in slowly along the bottom...get several strikes, miss the fish, reel back, cuss, repeat. It sucks so bad coz even if no one is getting a bite, I'm getting bit A LOT !!! Thing is, I never land it more than the pitiful percentage that I do.

Need help bass doctors.

[goblueM]

sounds like you have pretty nice equipment...

i'd just say read this forum, read all you can online, in magazines, watch shows, etc. Absorb all you can about technique and switch things up on the water. Note what works and what doesnt, and adjust!

[TonkaBass]

Texas Rig- A classic bass fishing techinque and one that is very versitile when fishing weeds or target. I like using all different types of plastics, but there is something special about a 7" blk powerworm on a t-rig!

Carolina rig- I just love feeling the rod load up with the long sweeping hook-set that Cecil mentioned. Ussually either a lizard or a french fry/ trick worm.

Mid-Depth Crankbaits. Dietz pretty much covered it in a nut shell.

[BassProAddict]

Sad to say, all the neat equipment I have isn't landing me more fish. I have some deep technique issues.

[Bass Whacker]

if your only useing a 6'6" for c rigging you might want a longer rod for picking up the line on the hook set that would make a huge differance.

Some time when your cranking try a dt 16 in say 10 feet of water in semi sparse weeds. It dosent work every cast but when you bust through the weeds the crank will run pretty clean through the base of the weeds. use power pro to cut through the weeds as much as possible. when you get it to work its a great way to to present something the fish have never seen before.

[BassProAddict]

So in cranking, when do I know when to bust out of the weeds? If the trebles are all "consumed" by them weeds, does it mean I'm cranking too deep?

[Bass Whacker]

yes you never want weeds hanging on the bait just snap the rod tip a couple time usually the weeds will just fall off

[Cecil]

If you have the right depth crank you can simply rip it out of the weeds. If your crank goes too deep, then you will just dig into the weeds more. Nothing wrong with getting weeds, just need to learn how to get out if them. The heavier line should help with that too.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Quote:

Cranking Gear- Mossy Back 6-9" G.Loomis rod with an Abu Winch with 17lb Bass XPS fluorocarbon. Cranking Technique (probably now known as cranking error) is throw it past vegetation, find vegetation, dig into vegetation,fight vegetation then SPEND TIME CLEANING LURES FROM VEGETATION. So now, after I feel the grass, what do I do? I let it float up and reel ABOVE the green stuff? What if I have a suspending Crankbait?

If you start to feel the grass, stop and let it float up give the rod tip a pop to lear any weeds, then continue the retrieve.. You may be slightly over powered with 17lb floro, you are for sure not allowing your crank to dive as far down as it could.

Quote:

C-Rig Gear- Shimano Sienna reel spooled with 15lb Spiderwire braid on a 6'6" Cabela's XMLTi spinning rod with moderate fast action. As I've mentioned, I throw past the target (waaaay past it since the rig splashes a lot), reel in slowly along the bottom...get several strikes, miss the fish, reel back, cuss, repeat. It sucks so bad coz even if no one is getting a bite, I'm getting bit A LOT !!! Thing is, I never land it more than the pitiful percentage that I do.

Ding ding ding, we have a winner.. ML spinning rod is not the best carolina rig rod in my opinion and if I had to guess, is much of your problem. I would suggest a 7' MH Baitcaster. Some ofyour bites may be that fish are hitting your sinker as well.. just a thought.

[Cecil]

Yeah, didnt notice the rod that was being used. That's your problem for sure. No way you can get that hook to stick on a carolina rig with a ML rod. Just not going to happen.

[BassProAddict]

whoa whoa whoa...the XMLTi is actually the model name. My rod is a medium heavy with moderate fast action.

I do feel sometimes the fish are hitting weight-clacker-bead rig. I also find the softplastic tugged all the way to the hook point. That is a fish strike right?

[Deitz Dittrich]

still not a fan of carolina with spinning gear even if its a MH spinning rod.. and no just because your plastic is pulled down, a rock, or a weed can do the same thing.. heck you can get the plastic to slide down on the cast..

[BassProAddict]

What are the advantages of baitcasters on C-rigs Deitz?

[Deitz Dittrich]

most baitcasters are going to have more line recovered per handle turn. I could be wrong on my numbers here, but a normal spinning reel gets about 19" per handle turn.. or pretty close.. a baitcaster can get at least 24-30 per turn.. helps pick up the slack quicker to drive the hook home. Secondly, and I could be way off on this.. but my MH baitcast rods are stiffer than my MH spinning.

If your more confident with spinning, continue with it, but maybe get a longer rod..

I'm just trying to help you out, not trying to say your doing it wrong.. But in deep water, there are a lot of thing out there to make the hook set hard.. so a longer stiffer rod is needed to drive that hook home.. try this test.. cut the hook off a jig, have a friend walk out 30 yards with a jig(wear safty glasses) and set the hook.. you would be surprised how little energy is back at the jig.. (dont do this with braid) try mono first. You will be amazed you ever get a hook to hold.

[TurnUpTheFishing]

Actually, spinning reels generally are faster than baitcasters even some 7:1 geared models and the larger the spinning reel (spool size) the faster they get. That being said Ive C-rigged with both spinning and casting equipment and much prefer casting equipment.