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Posts: 46
Location: Plymouth, MN | Pondweed has taken over one of the lakes I fish this year, and it is extremely thick. With the limited fishing time I've had so far this year I've tried to get right into the thick growth with a spinnerbait with no luck. Any tips on how to fish in pondweed? Will muskies get into the growth when it is extremely thick or do they prefer to sit on the edge? | |
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Posts: 153
Location: MN | Early in the year the pondweed can be a good area to fish. I generaly fish the inside or outside edges, allthough the pondweed has not reached the surface yet so I have been fishing over top of it. I have not found any fish relating to the pondweed, I haven't spent more than a day fishing pondweed this year so far. I would consider it a barrier weed and dought the fish will be in the thick of it. Pondweed grows early sometimes under the ice and dies early, so by the 4th of July it will be dying, and start floating to the surface and washing in to shore. | |
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Posts: 300
| Would Eurasian Water Milfoil qualify as a barrier vegetation as well? A few of the lake I fish get extremely thick and overgrown with milfoil (usually look like a golf course with a stream running through it). I've only contacted fish in the late fall as the milfoil is dying off. Any tips for fish thick milfoil? | |
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Posts: 153
Location: MN | I'm no expert, but I think milfoil would be considered an barrier weed. I believe the top side of a milfoil bed is thicker than at the bottom. From everything I have read about milfoils effect on a lake is that the fish tend to get larger because people are unable to catch them because of the thick milfoil. I have read about bass guys using jigs to drop through the heavy top layer of milfoil and jigging the fish from closer to the bottom. There are plenty of folks on here that fish Minnetonka that should have more experience with muskies and milfoil, I'm guessing most fish the edges though. | |
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Posts: 833
| Milfoil is a barrier weed and it does presents challenges, but it is hardly insurmountable. Tonka has pondweed as well so this applies to that as well. Basically there are 3 weed edges, inside, outside, and on top. Seems like folks most often forget about that last one. The description above is correct, foil is very thick on top and then looser below the canopy. You hear about presentations like ripping dawgs through cabbage. With Milfoil you still want the "collision" but it is more about ticking the weeds that ripping them. Milfiol is much more likely to hang you up so the margin for error is far tighter. That being said, it just takes practice with cadence and control.
As far as edges, it is like any other weed. You want to find places where things come together, like a corner where weeds meet sand and a dock, or where weeds meet rocks, or where different species of weeds come together, etc. Pretty basic stuff, IMO.
One other aspect of foil is that it doesn't always grow in a straight line, often times there are cuts into it. If you have the patience to find these cuts you can be well rewarded. I think this is a big reason why you hear about fish (bass and pike) on foil lakes getting bigger. On a lake with cabbage you can just troll the cabbage wall with rapalas and catch plenty of game fish. Foil causes headaches for that presentation since it is more irregular. | |
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Curly Leaf Pondweed