Grass Cover for Bass

Grass, also called vegetation or weeds, is shallow cover for bass that can be categorized as submerged, grass line, clumps, floating/matted and emergent.

Why is Understanding Grass Cover Important?

Understanding grass cover is important to:

Find Bass: Finding the best grass areas on the lake then selecting the most likely bass spots once the different grass types have been identified.
Select the Best Lure: Grass snags easily and can be hard to make effective presentations without the best lure selection.

Grass Options

Submerged Grass: Grass that is below the surface or has not yet reached the surface.
- Thick: Bass looking to maximize grass cover will seek the thickest submerged grass.
- Swimming Forage: Some suggest that bass look up from the submerged grass looking for forage swimming between the submerged grass and the surface.
- Common Submerged Grass:
  - Hydrilla, also known as waterthyme and Hydrilla verticillata.[wiki]
  - Milfoil, also known as water milfoil and Myriophyllum. [wiki]
  - Sand Grass commonly known as Chara is actually a form of algae that has the appearance of weeds and is commonly found throughout North America. [wiki]
  - Coontail, also called hornworts and Ceratophyllum [wiki]

Grass Line: Also called a weed line or an edge, is a reasonably distinct line between grass and no grass typically resulting from depth changes or changes in bottom composition.
- Navigation Path: Some suggest bass use grass edges as navigation paths either seasonally or other movements.
- Ambush Point: Bass will rest in the grass and opportunistically attach forage in the more open water.
  - Inner Grass Line: Some locations the grass doesn’t grow right to the shore possibly due to waves or fluctuations in water levels. Bass will wait for forage either from shore, going to shore or nearshore. Some suggest this bass behavior is more common in the spring possibly due to warmer water temperature.
- Seasonal:
  - Summer: Some suggest the deeper grass lines as they provide the coolest water temperature.
  - Spring: Shallow edges as they are the thickest and in the warmer water.
- Shade on Sunny Days: Depending on the sun direction, grass line will provide shade which bass use to further enhance the ambush opportunity of the cover. If the sun is shining into the grass line it reduces the ambush opportunity and bass may move to better cover.
- Lure Visibility – Cloudy Day: On cloudy days the bass may not be as tight to the grass line and may even be moving parallel to the grass line.

Grass Clumps: also called weed clumps, are isolated patches of thick grass, generally submerged grass.
- Center of Clumps: Some suggest bass will reside in the center of clumps presumably to maximize protection and ambush opportunity.
- Clump Sides: Some suggest bass will reside on the shady side if sunny or the side that maximizes potential forage due to current.
- Between Clumps: Some suggest that on cloudy days bass may reside between clumps off cover when actively feeding.
- Deeper Water: Some suggest deeper clumps presumably as it provided cover at multiple depths.

Floating/Matted Grass: Grass that is on the surface either attached to the bottom or freely floating.
- Shade: Maximum shade for grass potentially similar to a dock.
- Water Temperature: Water under the floating matted with no or little current can be cooler especially in thick floating/matted cover with some depth.
- Depth: Some suggest the bass will habitat in the deeper grass presumably due to temperature and/or visibility distance.
- Water Column: Bass can reside anywhere in the water column from right tight to the floating/matted grass where they can detect forage going to the surface and to tight to the bottom such that they can identify forage on the water surface.
- Common Floating/Matted Grass Species
  - Mature Hydrilla, also known as waterthyme and Hydrilla verticillata. [wiki]
  - Mature Hyacinth, also known as water hyacinth and Pontederia crassipes [wiki]
  - Duckweed, also known as water lentils, water lenses and Lemnoideae . [wiki]
  - Lily Pads, also called water lilies and Nymphaeaceae [wiki]

Emergent Grass: Generally considered grass that extends above the water surface including above the floating/matt grass.
- Cloudy: As emergent grass isn’t the best source of shade some suggest targeting emergent grass early morning, late afternoon or on cloudy (calm) days.
- Thickness: Some emergent grass can be too thick for bass to habitat.
- Common species include:
  - Cattails, also known as punks and Typha [wiki]
  - Bullrushes:
  - Pencil Reed, sometimes simply called “round reed”
  - Alligator Weed, also known as Alternanthera philoxeroides [wiki]

Other Condsiderations

Clumps vs Edges: Some suggest bass associate more with grass edges when cloudy and thick clumps when sunny.
Secondary Cover: Bass will habitat in grass intermixed with other cover for example rock, docks and laydowns.
Water Temperature: Bass will hold in grass as it keeps the water cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.
Seasons: Greg Hackney stated “In the early spring the fish will get on inside edges of grass. As the summer sets in, they may get in and under the grass more as it mats up and makes cooler, cleaner and darker areas for them to ambush. In the fall we often target bass on those outside edges.”
- Spring:
  - Shallow: Target shallow grass, which may be the only grass, as the grass grows first more shallow.
    - Spawning Locations: Some suggest bass will stage pre-spawn on grass and return post-spawn in the shallow grass.
- Dead Grass: Grass in the fall and winter is dying so it doesn’t produce oxygen but it does still provide shelter and ambush locations. This also holds true for floating dead grass.
- Fall/Winter: Bass go to deeper grass in fall and winter as it is the greenest as shallow water grass dies first.
Oxygen: Some suggest bass move to greenest grass during the day as it produces the most oxygen.
Mixed or Transitions Grass Species: Some suggest that bass choose transitions or mixes of different types of grass possibly because one species is thicker than the other.
Lanes and Holes: Some suggest bass can see forage better in what looks like to humans as lanes and holes and thus align themselves accordingly, possibly as lanes and holes are essentially mini-edges.
Structure:
- Flats: Grass flats can hold large quantities of forage and bass will look like small irregularities on the flat such as different bottom compositions, grass species, secondary cover, holes and lanes, man made garbage.
- Drop-Offs: Some suggest, if the grass is holding baitfish and other forage, bass will associate with grass on structures that provide drop-offs to deeper water for example points.
- Humps: Isolated humps not near shore with grass provide bass with multiple access points to deeper water.
Hard Bottom: Some suggest bass prefer grass on hard bottom over grass on soft bottom:
- Bare Spots: Bare spots can be an indicator of hard bottom where grass can’t grow.
Cast Directions: Some suggest, parallel to the grass line to keep the lure in the strike zone longer.
Grass Depths: Some suggest, generally, that once you have established the depth to which grass will grow on a lake it will be the same across the lake. For example, if it is established that grass lines start at 9 ft, then it is possible to use charts to find locations where there are 9 ft transitions to deeper water to locate other grass lines or clumps.
Rod/Reel/Line: Fishing grass requires stronger gear as fish will get interwinded into the forage. As such, it is not uncommon to have line from 40lb to 70lb.
Snag & Analyze: Finding the greener grass deep, or even your targeted grass species, can be accomplished by snagging some grass for example with a deep diving lipped crankbait and making comparisons.
Pressure: Some suggest that deep grass edges get less fishing pressure then shallow grass presumably as they are harder to find and make effective presentations.
Barometric Pressure: Some suggest that the arrival of a cold front that shallow bass will go to the deep grass.
Watch for Moving Emergent Grass: Bass on the move can be identified by emergent grass movement.