FINDING green weeds in the fall

[jalberg]

I know I'm a little early on this topic, but I want to be prepared.

I read two contrasting articles today. One said the shallow weeds die off in the fall so fish deep, the other said the deep weeds die so fish shallow. I'm assuming both are correct and there is a middle area where the weeds will last the longest. I know certain areas will be better than others. What are possible areas I should be looking for? North side of the lake? Inside turns? Hard/soft bottom? Also, what is the best way to see what the weeds look like from spot to spot? Maybe a heavy spoon dropped down with a big treble to pull weeds up? I don't have an aqua vu.

[RK]

Hiya -

Not too early at all really. Some types of weeds start to die back in late August even. Depends on the year sometimes.

Both articles are right, more or less. Some varieties of weeds die off before others (some don't die off at all...) and green weeds can be shallow or deep (frequently coontail, or deep cabbage). Green weeds seem to stay green best on inside turns, and the sides of points leeward of prevailing winds, and on shoreline breaks sheltered form the prevailing wind - west and nw shores in other words, since we have prevailing westerly winds around here for the most part. Although...this summer we've had lots of south winds and I'm curious to see what that does to my favorite late fall spots now that I think about it...

As for finding green weeds, deep diving crankbaits are a great way to find them deep. You can launch the things a mile and parallel a weedline, and find deep clumps of green weeds just by feeling them. After a while you'll get a feel for when you're hitting green weeds. Walking a deep crank through the weeds is a great fall technique. Slow rolling spinnerbaits is another good way.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm