Tips for small weedy lake

[jvm1]

Hi,

I went and tried a small weedy lake yesterday. The lake is bowl shaped and deep. I'm in 20 feet of water casting at 3-8 FOW from 40-60 feet away.

It is also very clear.

What techniques would you recommend for a lake like this?

I'm new to bass fishing most of my stuff is topwaters and cranks, and with the weeds on top it was impossible.

[M1dwestF1sh]

Try jigs. Texas rig is nice because its weedless. If you texas rig a 5" senko and just keep twitching it off the drop off youd probably hammer them. There's tons of videos on YouTube I'm sure explaining how to do it. Or a big bait like a pit boss texas rigged.

[Igor Drackenwolf]

Jigs is a great suggestion. I'd also try slow-rolling a spinner bait between and through and over weeds if you think you can do it without getting hung-up more than you can tolerate. Depending on the type and density of weed cover, a spinner bait can move right through lanes in the cover that hardly look available. Bumping into and pulling free from weeds on the retrieve enhances the presentation, and with practice, you can avoid getting hung-up more and more the better you get.

[RuddyDuck]

If it has a good sharp outside weed edge you could try a jig worm. Just cast it to the edge and let it drop along the weeds to the bottom. Pop it off the weeds as it falls. They usually hit as it is dropping. My favorite plastic for this is a 4in ring worm with a curly tail on a mushroom jig head. Others like 4in senkos for this.

You could also try punching the thick areas of weeds. I'm not good at this, but maybe others will chime in on it.

[KickNBass]

If you are having a tough time fishing the weedline, you can position your boat next to the weeds and fish from deep to shallow.

[jvm1]

If you are having a tough time fishing the weedline, you can position your boat next to the weeds and fish from deep to shallow.

Thanks for all the replies, this is what I was thinking, would it be better to fish from shallow to deep? The drop off is very steep, like i said it goes from 8 feet to 15 feet in about 4-5 yards

[M1dwestF1sh]

You could definitely try that but I completely spaced out on spinner baits. I would throw those just straight across it when you are sitting out deep. To me that drop sounds great for a jig though.

[mainbutter]

Spinnerbaits, inline spinners, and crankbaits to cover water. It sounds like there is lots of poorly defined area for the bass to inhabit, so they may be spread out and not concentrated.

It never hurts to slow-work soft plastics over the tops of the weeds at any depth.

Throw topwaters early morning, even if you're not IN any thick stuff, the commotion draws in bass from a distance. 3FOW or 20FOW, it can work wonders. Walk-the-dogs and soft bodied frogs are a favorite, but poppers are classics.

If it were me, I'd be covering water with small crankbaits and hard jerkbaits, and switching it up every 10-20 mins to slow-working a wacky rigged senko instead.

[Meat-Run]

This has jig-worm, Texas-rig and lipless cranks written all over this lake...

MR