|
|
Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | How and when do you fish different weed structures? When do you go to the milfoil? cabbage? Bullrushes? Time of year? Weather conditions? What baits do you like to throw in each and why? | |
| | |
Posts: 32926
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Not allot of milfoil here, but when I fish that stuff, spinnerbaits and jigs really shine. Reeds are seasonal on some waters, and killer most of the year on others, spinnerbaits are my choice there. Heavy slop on the once temps hit 55 on to ice up, topwaters that work through it like a Weagle or a Violent Strike Mag Willow, or a glider snaked through it.
Cabbage, broadleaf, once it gets to 4" or so can be magic on the sand. Twitch baits, creatures. Once it develops an edge in June here, I fish the edges and pockets, topwater, twitch (including gliders), creatures, and spinnerbaits, hair if I can get it through.
Tobacco cabbage, I love that stuff. I fish it with anything I can run through it until it sends up the seed pods, then I use topwater and gliders I can snake through it.
One over the others? Depends on forage and conditions, give me a bright calm day and I'm in the slop on a dark water lake tossing a Weagle or a Violent Strike. Good sky heading toward low light I'm on the cabbage edges on clear water. Evening, same water, I'm in the tobacco cabbage and in the center of the broadleaf with topwater and gliders. Near dark long casts across the edges into the slop, I look for places I can do that, surface and just subsurface stuff. There's more, have to think about this a little. | |
| | |
Posts: 227
Location: Southeast Wisconsin | Milfoil is my favorite spring weed. The areas that get the thickest in summer are usaully the best ares to start in the spring Topwaters,gliders and small twitch baits work best. When full grown, Milfoil beds usually have a non-tapering edge, so trolling the edges or working them parraellel with a crankbait will usually produce a fish or 2.
bullrushes/pencil reeds really shine in the spring.In the fall/winter the stalks die off, turn black and some even remain above water. In spring, those dark areas draw in massive amounts of heat and also feeding muskies. Work them with 1oz spinner baits and weedless spoons. walk the dog topwaters work too.
cabbage, no matter what the breed, is proabaly my favorite weed to fish through. It usually has a tapering edge so a different approach is needed to locate fish. One of the most deadly summer patterns Ive encountered over the years has been slow-rolling big spinnerbaits through the cabbage. I like working the edges, or sitting just off the edge and covering the tops, but nothing beats slow rollin. Mainly because almost nobody does it for any length of time. Find the first patches of green cabage in the spring and you will find the fish. Suspending twitch baits, gliders and fast moving bucktails work nicely. Ripping bulldawgs through newly emergent weeds will also trigger spring fish.
In my experience, the best spots on any lake will usually have a variety of different weed types in one area. For instance, small clumps of coontail mixed into a large cabbage bed are key areas to target..
| |
| |
|
How do you approach different weed cover types?