How To Fish The Weeds In Spring

Bass and baitfish love it. Novice anglers dread it but touring professionals and guides gain confidence when they find it. Wherever you flip, pitch or cast throughout this country, your lure is bound to land in or next to some form of aquatic vegetation. When you learn to fish weeds, you'll add a brand new tool to your arsenal!

Aquatic vegetation can be divided into two types:

Emergent Plants
That grow above the water’s surface such as cattails or tulles, bulrushes, lily pads, hyacinths and duckweed
Submergent Grass
That are anchored to the bottom and its foliage remains either submersed or floats on the surface, such as hydrilla, elodea, milfoil, sand grass and pondweed.

Both types of vegetation can be found in lakes and reservoirs throughout the United States. Nearly all weeds tend to hold bass, but some species attract more fish during certain times of the year. Here’s a look at how to fish weeds on waters in the regions of the country to determine the best tactics for spring.

Fishing Weeds In The North

Coontail, milfoil, eelgrass, and lily pads are prevalent in natural lakes, reservoirs, and rivers. Punching a craw or tube bait through milfoil mats is an effective spring tactic for weed bass. Running a lipless crankbait through the eelgrass in the rivers also triggers strikes in the springtime.

Fishing Weeds In The South

Springtime bass hiding in water willows or gator grass can be caught swimming a jig or twitching a hollow-body plastic frog. Running a buzz bait along the outer edges of these weeds is also an effective springtime technique when you want to fish weeds.

Fishing Weeds In The East

Slow-rolling a 3/4-ounce spinnerbait with small blades (numbers 4 and 5) over the tops of milfoil and elodea produces big bass during the prespawn. Later in the spring, you can switch to a 1/4-ounce spinnerbait for buzzing over the top of the grass.

Fishing Weeds In The Midwest

Reservoirs from Texas to Illinois feature hydrilla, which is a great springtime target. The best tactics for catching bass in the grass include ripping lipless crankbaits through the vegetation during the prespawn, twitching soft plastic jerkbaits along the edges of the grass, swimming jigs over the weed tops, flipping jigs or Texas-rigged tubes into the mat during the spawn and hopping Texas- or Carolina-rigged soft plastics through the hydrilla during the postspawn.

Fishing Weeds In The West

Slow-rolling a 3/4-ounce spinnerbait over hydrilla and through sparse tulles works best to fish weeds for prespawn bass. Flip a jig or Texas-rigged creature bait into the mats when the hydrilla starts growing later in the spring.