If all else fails, literally throw caution to the wind. Even after finding weed beds with the above mentioned characteristics, many anglers still can’t put together the perfect fall grass pattern. To find the best mats in the lake, you need to follow the wind and current.
“The key here is to look for big mats of vegetation that have begun breakup and are at the mercy of the wind,” explains Hartis. “While the edge of rooted grass can yield results, finding big floating areas of vegetation can make all the difference.”
Hartis says that rooted vegetation, especially hydrilla, can create near-impenetrable mats from top to bottom that big fish can’t move through during the peak of summer. “While smaller baitfish can move efficiently through the underwater maze, many largemouth are secluded to the edge of a mat or must wait to ambush in available holes where hard bottom, rocks and stumps impede plant growth.” Float-in mats of dead and dying grass and other floating plants, however, are no different than your favorite flipping pads, offering a large canopy on top but an open understory where bass can hunt and hide.
Hartis offers this tip to identify which weed mats are rooted underneath and which are not: If the vegetation within the mat still looks bright green and has most of its leaves still attached, you may be looking at a thick wall of rooted vegetation. If the mat is mostly brown or yellow and has lost many of its leaves, you are likely looking at a floating mat that has been blown in by the wind. So pull out the flipping rod and hang on.
Fall weed outlook
According to Hartis, the grass was fairly slow to grow this year on most TVA reservoirs. “We had a ton of rain in the late spring and early summer,” he says. “That is a critical time when all submersed aquatic plants are just sprouting, and all that water movement can wipe out big areas at a time.” According to Hartis, a 4 to 5 mile-per-hour flow of water is the equivalent of a 200 to 250 mile-per-hour wind. “That’s like a tornado coming through during critical growth time for these plants”.
Although late to arrive, there are still miles and miles of grass on reservoirs like Lake Guntersville in Alabama. “Guntersville grass often isn’t subject to the force brought on by big rain events” says Hartis. “With large, sprawling backwater areas and an average depth of 8-12 feet, Guntersville typically holds grass even when our other reservoirs don’t.”
According to Hartis, many anglers think that the reduction in grass on many TVA lakes is a result of the agencies Aquatic Plant Management Program. “I hear this at least a dozen times during years when we have big rain events in the spring” says Hartis. “Our program only focuses on public access areas like the very boat ramps that anglers use to get in to our reservoirs.” Hartis says that Mother Nature holds the cards when it comes to how much green stuff will grow in Tennessee Valley Reservoirs each year.
Using these three tips can help making you a much better grass fisherman, so get out and give them a shot this fall.
For more information on fishing grass in TVA reservoirs, visit tva.com/aquaticplants.