Hydrilla and Milfoil

[jooleyen]

What are both of thses? Weeds? What are they good for? How can you tell the difference?

[JB]

[jooleyen]

What do they give bass?

[JB]

Cover and shade for bass, plus smaller bait fish can feed on smaller life forms.

[WTL]

Bass love to hang around hyrdilla. I would say the presense of hydrilla or milfoil in a lake is almost a fundamental differencemaker by itself for any given fishery.

[texasbasser]

bass love them pretty much! my lake is completely covered in milfoil, and the bass snug up in there alot. thats why soft plastics worked in it is killer

[pig n jig]

JB, Eurasion milfoil that we have in my area. It produces alot of oxygen and heavy matted hiding places. P N J

[JB]

we've seemd to have a bumper year for that here too pnj, its nice to find but the lakefront homeowners hate it and usually have the lake spayed to kill it. For about 2 weeks after the fishing is slow..
Our local ponds are full of the same until about late october...its fun to fish the inside edge or zip something over the tops of the plants........

[jooleyen]

Cool. Are these usually on shorlines? Will I be able to see it them?

[texasbasser]

on my lake they are all over the bottom...

[ROBZILLA]

also gives oxygen to the fish,they also attract other little fish and under water critters to hide out and the bass know that. it's a feeding ground/nursery/hang out.

[3dkicker]

We have both on the Potomac River. The milfoil grows as individual plants or small clumps in 2-4' of water. It grows to the surface early in the year and is normally targeted before the hydrilla. Hydrilla usually doesn't make it to the top of the water column until late June to July or later. It is much denser cover with little space between the plants. It will grow in 2-6' and sometimes deeper but due to the sediment flowing down river it doesn't grow as deep as in most lakes. Both hold a tremendous amout of food (for fish, crabs, snails, crayfish,etc) and filter out the sediment. Great to fish channel edges lined with either types of grass. The pro's have found that the thickest grass near the channels will hold quality fish especially in the summer. They then flip heavy weighted plastics into the heavy cover crashing baits through the top layer to get under the grass. Both types hold baitfish until late in the year, Nov., before it breaks up.

[1FASTLASER]

A local lake of mine has all but compl;etly been taken over by hdrilla. I LOVE it. All I hear is you can't fish in that stuff it's so think. I just smile and walk away, call my buddy or get the kids and go fishing. This fall was a KILLER crankbait year. Fished the outside weedlines with CRANKBAITS when they where shallow and paralelled with deep diver's when they went deep. I had especially GREAT reslts with some cranks sent to me by a couple of friends. They are called the Bulldog. People where calling me a liar saying there was NO way u could fish cranks in that stuff. Did I ever prove them wrong. Even my fishing buddy was doubtful till I started showing him by catchng 2-3 times as many bass. He is now converted.

[Super Fluke]

They give bass cover

[Rebbasser]

Originally Posted by jooleyen

Cool. Are these usually on shorlines? Will I be able to see it them?

If you can't see them just throw a crankbait-you'll find it quick enough .

Seriously, you can see it easily, especially if it is on the surface-it can get so prolific in a small body of water that it can choke it out. it provides cover, shade, oxygen and cover for their prey-it is a bass magnet.

[Vabass22]

Make sure to put the hook point back in the bait if you are texas rigging in this stuff.