Shallow cranks and squarebills are excellent for shallow wood and grass. A 7-foot medium action composite cranking rod allows long casts and is easy to rip from grass. Try it on a fast reel to be able to speed up or catch up! BTW, KVD Mustad Ultra Point Triple Grip Trebles are an awesome replacement hook! Sharp and they can be upsized for better hookups!
Under cloudy skies, early morning or with low water, try topwaters. Search for the clearest water and work top down. Post spawners fall for walking baits, keep them moving after misses! Otherwise, you won’t get them to come back very often! Warmer afternoons produce topwater action with poppers. Low water is best no matter water clarity. In clear calm low light use small light-colored poppers. With more chop and stained water, try darker and bigger baits. Bigger baits create commotion in choppy water. When grass is matted, use swim toads and hollow frogs! For toads I use 5/0 Mustad Ultra Point swimbait hooks with adjustable weight to cast farther and to go faster, depending on the thickness of the grass! Use 60-pound test GAMMA Torque braid!
Mud Puppy Boogie Buzz buzzbaits bring up bigger fish. In open water add a 2/0 or 3/0 stinger hook. In general, if water is clear, speed up retrieve. Slow down in stained water and go to a buzzbait with a clacker. Have a follow-up bait ready on a spinning reel to cast to misses, Mud Puppy JERK SHADS and Mud Puppy Custom Lures 5” Jiggle Stick worms on 3/0 hooks.
Target grass clumps and edges, pads, and docks with jigs and plastics. Try 1/2 and 3/8-ounce jigs with Mud Puppy 3” Mad Craws. A good pair of polarized sunglasses like Maui Jim Polarized Plus in Maui HT protects from UV A&B rays enabling you to spot wood, grass, etc. even in stained water. Green pumpkin copper and blue craw tubes Texas rigged on 3/0 hooks with a 3/16 BULLSHOT weight work in heavy cover. In other cover, use insert tube heads. Swim tubes over grass, around wood and through pads. Skip tubes under docks and over shallow cover…skipping is more natural. Fish slower in stained water. On bright sunny days, fish hold tight to cover. On cloudy days, fish might not stray too far from cover, so work deeper docks and nearby grass edges. Docks with grass are usually better at higher tides on sunny days. Texas rigged bulky, thumping craws are a big fish bait!
Swimming black/brown ½ ounce jigs around docks and over grass is also working. Trim weed guards and use Mud Puppy 3” Mad Craws with vibrating claws. Punch through grass mats with 60-pound GAMMA Torque on a 5/0 hook. Use a ¾ or 1-ounce tungsten weight. Look for mats with a mix of hydrilla and milfoil. Milfoil makes an archway exit/entrance to the mats.
In Spoils and Smoots Carolina rigs, split shot and drop shot rigs are great with Mud Puppy Custom Lures DS (drop shot) worms on wide gap thin wire hooks. For split shot rigs use bullet-shaped BULLSHOT split shot from Water Gremlin. In stained water drop shot darker baits on a 6-12 inch leader keeping baits in the strike zone around drops and near grass edges as long as you need it. Pitch to the bottom and gently shake. If you feel cover with your weight, leave to aggravate fish into biting. The Drop Shot can be flipped or pitched with heavy line.
Cast stick worms like green pumpkin 5″ Mud Puppy Custom Lures 5” Jiggle Stick worms weightless Texas rigged on 3/0 hooks or wacky with a 2/0 weedless wacky hook and let drop…no other action required. Let it sit and gently twitch. Pull to the surface and drop again…back to the boat. If fish are chasing on the retrieve, go to moving baits or soft plastic jerkbaits. Neko rigs are also good with 1/8 or smaller weights.
As water rises, stay in contact with grass: the outside edge, the inside edge, and the TOP edge. Work the top and inside edge as clear water rises and cover a lot of water with bladed jigs. I use a Mud Puppy Jerk Shad as a trailer! This is a huge target! Try craw patterns as well as traditional black/blue and white combos.
Go 4-10 feet deep with crankbaits on drops around the Spoils, Smoots, South Point, Fort Washington Lighthouse, and Hogg Island. With 12-pound test GAMMA Copoly make longer casts to cover water. Try darker patterns, like firetiger and craw patterns.
Try 1/4-ounce spinnerbaits at low tide and 3/8 at high. The smaller bait comes through grass easier on short-targeted casts. Larger baits work well at higher tides to cover water and work best under cloudy conditions, with a chop on the water. In clearer water, go to willow/Colorado nickel blades with a white/chartreuse skirt. Stained water, white skirt and tandem Colorado/Indiana gold blades. Cast into pockets and across edges, maintaining contact. 16-20 pound test Gamma Fluorocarbon keeps baits higher over grass.
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