Deep Weedline Help

[KING]

Need some help with some techniques to fish deep weedlines.

Ran into some fish this weekend that were in 12-12.5 ft and holding tight to bottom, I had trouble connecting with them. Most of the stuff I have is suited more towards casting towards more visible cover.

At any rate what I ended up doing was calling on my walleye roots and trolled a crawler harness rigged with a 7" power bait along the weedline to catch them. The fish were holding at a very specific depth and trolling it was the only thing in my knowledge bank i could think of to keep a bait in the strike zone.

So what is the common "bass" fishing technique to catch in this situation?

[Craigums]

If they were on the bottom you could have crawled a jig,worm,beaver, ect...

If they were suspended a little bit toss out a drop shot

[Fever]

I'm sure you'll get plenty of replies here but I'll throw my two cents in for you and give you some ideas to start with. Depending on how thick the weeds are and what the bottom content is and how confident you are in exactly where the fish are you could start with a Crank bait to trigger the aggressive fish first, also, lately I've been trying something different / somethings bass around here don't see often; a heavy (1oz -1 3/8oz spinnerbait). But, anyway, - If the bass were tight to the bottom in 12-12.5 feet I'd have started throwing a DT14 or a strike king 5xd or a Carolina rig - which is basically what you trolled, (Not sure what color of plastic but prob sometype of tube or creature bait), Also, a jig-n-plastic trailer to bounce/hop off bottom after I got the aggressive fish to commit to my faster approaches. Hope this helps n good luck. It's fun to find those fish. Even more fun if you can figure out what they want.

[kt]

I don't think you can say there is a common thing people do to catch weedline fish. It all depends on what the fish want and what peoples strengths are. There are several techniques people will use on the weedline. But, you could use just about anything, you are limited only by your imagination.

If you had success trolling a power worm, you probably could have caught them well on a carolina rig. Which is basically a bass fishing version of a lindy rig with usually a shorter leader. Cast it out and drag it back, or troll it. A lot of guys like using a jigworm which is simply a mushroom head jig with some type of soft plastic threaded on. Cast it to the edge and let it sink. Deep diving cranks cast along the weededges are a common technique as well (sometimes cast parallel to the main edge, sometimes cast right up in the weeds). Heavy flipping jigs are another common lure used on the weedege, especially when they are up in the weeds a little ways, just drop that jig on their head and hold on. Texas rigged plastics can be used as well (just a bullet shaped slipsinker and a worm hook with any type of soft plastic). A dropshot rig can be dynamite too especially when you have found a concentration of fish just off the edge or right on the edge( usually a smaller hook tied with a palomar knot. leave some tag end and crimp on a weight at the end of the tag end).

If you know you are in a good area sometimes its just a matter of experimenting until you figure out what they want. Which is why its good to have a few different tricks up your sleeve to throw at them.

In response to keeping the bait in the strike zone. Its not always about holding the bait right in front of their faces. Sometimes its about getting them to change their eye level either by ripping something over their heads or crashing something through their sight on its way to the bottom. Sometimes they are feeding up other times they are feeding down. And other times they aren't feeding at all, you just have to trigger a strike.