bass fishing tips

When you think grass fishing you think of Florida.  When I think grass Shearon Harris Lake comes to mind.  It is a small 4,100 acre lake here in eastern North Carolina. Hydrilla, primrose, and lily pads are found throughout the lake.  The hydrilla grass beds line much of the shore, which hold bass throughout much of the year.  In the upper reaches of the lake primrose and lily pads grow. 

Normally primrose is found in a creek arm and not on the main lake.  Both Hydrilla and primrose mat up very nice and as the summer progresses these mats become thicker.  As they thicken some plant die off occurs below them due to decreased light penetration creating a hollowed out area that bass sit under.

You can catch bass out of these grass beds many different ways: Buzzing toads, frog fishing over top, punching them with plastics, and using chatterbaits/ crankbaits/ soft plastics along the edges.  Probably the most fun for me is punching them.  Punching is using a heavy action rod, heavy weight, and heavy duty hook paired with a small plastic.  A good rod for punching is the CastAway East Texas Grass Rake.  For punching I normally use a 1 to 1½ weight, 5/0 heavy wide gap flipping hook, 65 lb. braid, and a small creature bait.  When it is warm use a bait that has more action and when it is cold use one with less action. 

The Z Man Punch CrawZ are made for this technique and would be one to use when the water is colder.  They also just came out with the Flappin CrawZ that is perfect for warmer water.  I had a chance to go to Harris last weekend and caught some decent fish doing this technique. 

 What I normally look for on Harris when targeting fish under mats is fairly deep water out in front of them.  My boat will usually be sitting in 5-8 ft. of water and it will be 3-4 deep under the mat.  Now keep in mind this works for me here in North Carolina. 

Obviously in Florida you would normally be in much shallower water.  I believe these fish up here want to be close to a channel or ditch to be able to leave the shallow areas easier if they need to.

Fishing a grass lake often will really help me prepare if the Bassmaster Opens go back to Florida next season.  Growing up in East Tennessee there was basically no grass, so that type of fishing has always been a weakness of mine.  You have to be versatile if you fish tournaments at a regional or national level.  And if you are fishing a tournament on a lake that has grass, most of the time you better be fishing grass or you’ll get beat. 

Fish find and utilize grass on lakes that have it because it harbors many baitfish and provides great cover for bass to live in especially in the summer when it gets hot.

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