Bass love weeds, but they really love minnows and other small fish. Let's face it folks - Bass eat fish. It's their #1 forrage. This is why fishing the weeds and other structure with a soft minnow bait will increase your bass catching rate dramatically.

A 4-5 inch minnow like the Fin-S attached to a lightweight hook and fished on 8-12 lb test line weightless, is about as good a real life presentation as it gets.

Bass relate to weeds for a variety of reasons; - cooler water, saftey from larger fish, increased oxygen levels, and more important, that's where the bait fish hang out. When scouting an area with weedy edges and other cover, the presence of smaller baitfish will almost guarantee that the bass will be nearby. Add nearby deep water or channel and you have the recipe for a great day.

Fishing the inside and outside edges of the weeds is a good bet once the weather becomes hot. When approaching a well defined weedbed that has clear inside and outside edges, you should make your initial casts to the outside first. Casting to the inside first, may spook the fish hangin on the outside edge.

Repeated casts during hot days is a must. Sometimes it will take 5 to 10 casts to the same spot to produce, as bass become lethargic in hot water. Repeated casts will produce reaction bites.

In the early morning hours, fishing above the weeds is a great way to hook into a few good ones roaming for food. As the day moves on, so will the bass. During hotter months they will relate to the deeper outside weed edges. In the spring and fall they will relate to the inside edges, but never discount either edge during a tournament or outting.

While most of the fish will be relating to one edge or the other, there will usaually be a few bass hanging out on the opposite edge.

Now let's talk about your presentation - for fishing above the weeds, take your weightless minnow lure and simply cast the lure out - let it sink a foot or two then jerk it 3 times, let it sink then repeat.

For this type of fishing I like to use a 6 1/2 to 7 foot light to medium spinning rod with a fast action tip. This will afford the best action at the business end. Your favorite spinning reel spooled with 8lb test clear line will be fine.

With a good pair of polarized sunglasses you can see the many pockets in the weeds. After the jerk jerk jerk cadence, be sure to let the lure flutter into these pockets, as many times the bigger bass will be waiting to inhale the presentation.

When working the lure along the weed edges, especially the inner edges, you can use the same jerk jerk jerk cadence. Let the minnow flutter down, then jerk jerk jerk again. Follow the weed edge from one end to the other. Remember, make repeated casts.

For the deep weed edges, a split shot placed anywhere from 1-3 feet above the minnow will work well as the minnow will then reach the desired depths. Maintain your jerk jerk jerk pause cadence and watch your line. Most times the bass will pick up the minnow and swim with it. You will then see your line begin to move outward.

Use a sweeping hook set to set the hook. This is important. A normal reel back hookset will often pull the bait out of the fish's mouth. The sweeping set will give more time for the fish to grab it and turn. This will dramatically increase your hook ups.

Next time your on the water, dont overlook that beautiful weed bed and the edges that surround it. This may very well be the condominium complex that holds many of the lakes resident bass.

Get out there and have fun!

Mike Panek