Entry 137-1
Bass Fishing with Chad Brauer
How to Fish a Weedline
Editor's Note: How would you like to go fishing with one of the Strike King pros and have him coach you on how to fish different types of cover, which lures to use and which presentations to make to catch the most bass? For the next two weeks, we'll put you in the boat with Chad Brauer where he will operate the trolling motor as you stand right beside him. As we approach different types of cover, Brauer will tell you what type of lure to use and how to fish that specific kind of cover each day.
Situation: We're fishing early on this April day for bass during that early-morning glow when the sky lightens up, and the sun just begins to try and peek its head out from under the cover of darkness. There's a weed bed in front of us, and Brauer has positioned the boat so we can fish down this weed bed.
Brauer: During April throughout most of the country, the bass are in a pre-spawn mode. This fish probably aren't going to be really active, the water's still a little cool - unless you live in Florida or in some of the southern states along the coast. So in most of the lakes I fish, I assume that the bass are in a pre-spawn condition. I'll be flipping and pitching a Strike King jig in and around the grass.
Question: So, to what kind of targets will I be casting the jig?
Brauer: When you're fishing around vegetation like this grass bed in front of us, I look for something irregular about the weed line or the grass. I search for a weed line that has grass growing a little bit farther out in the water than the other grass in the weed line, and I'm looking for a point of land that may jut out in front of the grass. I'm going to fish the grass around that point.
I've never been very successful just fishing all the way down a grass line like most anglers do. I believe that when you see a grass line, you've got to look at that grass line and try and find what along that line is irregular or different that will cause bass to hold at that spot. Then you can target that site with a Strike King jig and a Denny Brauer chunk.
If you can find an isolated pocket in the grass, a point of grass that sticks out farther in the lake than the weed line or better yet, one or two little spots or patches of grass that are farther out in the water and separated from the weed line, then these places are ideal for the bass to hold. You want to concentrate on these irregularities.
Not only are these the kinds of areas where you'll catch a bass, but also more than likely, you'll have the opportunity to take a big bass there. Always key in on the irregularities of a grass line, and spend your fishing time on those irregularities or terrain breaks in the grass instead of fishing the entire grass line.
Contents:
- Part 1: How to Fish a Weedline
- Part 2: More on How to Fish a Weedline
- Part 3: How to Fish a Logjam with Chad Brauer
- Part 4: More on Fishing a Logjam
- Part 5: How to Fish a Point
