It’s no secret that all types of gamefish gravitate to aquatic vegetation in the summertime—including bass, walleyes, pike and panfish. Unless you’re armed with the right lures and tactics, however, fishing the weeds can be a frustrating affair. Here are five timely tips to help you avoid the hassle and catch more fish on every trip.

No longer content to congregate in small areas, the fish scatter and roam. Instead of finding the mother lode of ’eyes ganged in a single sweet spot, you often end up tracking down individual fish spread out over sprawling structure.

On the positive side, the fish are aggressive and hungry. Walleyes are far more apt to chase and hit faster-moving presentations now than they were earlier in the season, so you can cover water quickly in search of the next strike.

1. Choose The Right Jig
Jigs are wonderful weapons for plucking fish from the greenery, but not all jigs fish weeds equally well. Look for jig heads designed for jungle duty. Northland Fishing Tackle’s Weed-Weasel is a prime example. The tapered wedge head, eye positioned at the nose of the jig, and Y-shaped plastic weedguard help it slide through grass without snagging. Weed-Weasels work wonders on the cast or when vertically jigged below the boat. Tip with an IMPULSE plastic or securely skull-hooked minnow.

2. Fish A Weedless Bouncer
Bottom bouncers excel for taking spinner rigs, crankbaits and other lures down to the strike zone. Bouncers with an “R-bend” design, like Northland’s Rock-Runner Bottom Bouncer, are my pick for the weeds because they glide over moss and weedy bottoms on the drift and troll. Plus, they prevent grass that catches the mainline from sliding all the way down to the lure.

3. Assess The Bed
Searching for fish in a sizeable weedbed can feel like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack, unless you attack the bed with a plan. First off, avoid unbroken tangles in the middle of the bed. Instead, focus on ambush points along the deep and shallow edges, where predators prefer to waylay prey. The edges of open pockets within the bed can also be hot zones.

4. Control Your Fall
When fishing panfish with float rigs, choose jigs with a slow fall and natural gliding action—like Northland’s IMPULSE Helium Waxyfly, Mayfly and Stonefly. Slow fallers tempt super-sized sunfish and crappies into taking the bait better than jigs that drop like a rock. In deep water, pinch a split-shot a foot or two up the line to bring the lure down to the desired depth range, then twitch the bobber to let the jig work its magic.

5. Swim Like A Pro
Swim jigs aren’t just for casting and winding. With the right setup, you can swim a jig and soft-plastic trailer around below a bobber. One of my favorite summer combos is an IMPULSE Water Bug threaded onto a 1/32- or 1/16-ounce horizontal-hanging Northland RZ Jig. When you pop the rod tip, the bait grabs water, glides forward and swims around under the float.

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