Fishing Holes In Pads & Weeds

[Kawabuggy]

I have read quite a bit on this site and see mention frequently of people saying to fish the holes.

I have been trying this lately by casting my weightless Senko directly into the biggest pile of lily pads I can find, and then slowly pulling it to the "holes" and then letting it sink. I have not yet had a single bite this way.

Other than allowing the bait to fall into the hole and sink-what else should I be doing?

I normally let it sit there for at least 10-15 seconds, and then I pull it out of that hole, drag it to the next, and repeat. The fish don't seem to care about this.. I have never had a bite this way.

I have had some luck bringing it to the edge of the pads and letting it slowly sink off the edge of a pad field. But no luck in a hole in the middle.. YET!

I have also used an artificial frog, and art. lizard all with the same lack of results.

[BigBassin144]

I'm not much of an expert, but try twitching it a few times before you pull it out of the holes and pockets in weeds and such.

[keithdog]

I must say that I also have better luck fishing the edges of lillypads than I do inner holes. As far as your Senko approach, I think your needing to give it more time to work. They are designed to draw a strike while laying motionless for perhaps a minute or so. When I have my Senko style bait on my line I cast it out and let it sink weightless to the bottom. I will let it sit there for 20 - 30 seconds or so. I will then grip my line in my fingers and start giving slight tugs on the line to make the Senko quiver and shake. Then let it rest about 20 seconds again and start twitching it again. After a few times of twitching with no response, I will try another spot. Give it a try.

[Kawabuggy]

Thanks Keithdog, I will try that approach. Patience is not one of my strong points though. I like to keep it moving!

[flfireman]

time and patience. Ill let it sink to the bottom and sit, then slowly yo-yo it once or twice and let it sink again. Unfortunately this takes a lot of time and patience which I have little of. I use frogs and go for the fast reaction off the edges most of the time.

[Charles E. White]

I fish frogs in pads most of the time and wrote this article for my blog. It might help.

I have tried every frog on the market that I have seen. The tournament frogs with their weight in the back end is just too heavy to fish super thick lily pads like I fish. All they do is get stuck on the pads themselves. The only frog I use is a scum frog, green and white. I have tried all the colors they make them in and you would think the one with the red on it would produce more bass but for me it hasn't and I tested it most of the summer. I have caught ten times more bass on the green and white scum frog.

Here are two things I think the bass like about it, one, it is very soft and when they bite down on it and they don't feel the hard body like in most frogs. Two, I really don't believe for one minute they think it is a frog, I believe they think it's a shad. That is why having a white belly frog is important where I fish. I can't count the number of times I have seen shad jump on the top of lily pads and flop around and when they get back to the water a bass is waiting for them.

The scum frog also vibrates the pads like a shad on top of one does, maybe not exactly but pretty close. In the pads I fish there are only little spots of water, the rest of the water is just covered in very thick pads all summer. I moved the scum frog over the pads very slowly and when I hit an open spot in the pads that has water, I let the frog sit. I use the tip of my rod and twitch it, this makes the frog turn one way or the other. I make sure the frog stays in the same water spot. I let the frog sit and twitch it again and it turns the opposite of what it turned the first time and I let it sit even longer this time. Then very, very slowly, almost so slow you can hardly see the lure move, I move the frog and this is when I get most of my strikes.

I want you to know one thing, this technique takes patience. I have had people where I fish come over and watch me and even they tell me I'm a fisherman that has a lot of patience. On the other hand, after fishing for over 50 years for bass, this method has caught more bass topwater than any other I have ever used by far. Try it!

Here's a picture of a bass my fishing partner caught two weeks ago on a Scum Frog in the pads, it went 5 1/2 pounds:

[adamchasejones]

If you're not catching them in holes then why fish the holes. Outside edges of pads are holding em...fish the outsides then. Fishermen a lot of time try to make the fish be where they want them to instead of letting the fish tell them whats going on. We should only have an idea of where they should be and then let the fish dictate where you go from there. Maybe if a cold front or heavy pressure occur and they're not biting the edges then go into heavier cover for a while. Dont waste time with spots you aren't confident in or that aren't simply holding fish.

[Bender]

When they talk about fishing the holes around here normally it is holes in the weed beds. There are pockets where you can just drop a jig or Senko in and let it fall, then wait and hold on. I've heard it called "doodling" around here.

[pig n jig]

Holes, or pockets in weedbeds can be very productive. Try at least a 1/2 oz. jig and drop them in places that look a little bit different than the rest of the weed bed. P N J