Weeds..what to do ??

Since my normal fishing grounds are covered with sand, mud and oyster
reefs..( SW flats)..I'm having a hard time dealing with the cut weeds
floating all over the Southern Wisconsin lakes.

It seems that the town fathers send out a flotilla of "weed cutting boats".
They chop and cut and chop and cut, and are supposed to scoop the cuttings
up into their oversize mauls. Many of the cuttings wind up floating on the
lake.

Add to that, some gooey, sticky, messy type weeds that cling to every crank
bait and even to topwaters!!! What does one do to get through the morass? I
notice the locals all think drowning leeches straight down to be a
solution...but....I'm not going to do that.

I'm thinking I have to go rig some special weedless plastics. But, I
probably don't have the patience to fish them slowly enough. All ideas
appreciated. RichG TX- WI

--
RichG manager, Carolina Skiff Owners Group on MSN
http://groups.msn.com/CarolinaSkiffOwners

"RichG" wrote in message
...
Since my normal fishing grounds are covered with sand, mud and oyster
reefs..( SW flats)..I'm having a hard time dealing with the cut weeds
floating all over the Southern Wisconsin lakes.

It seems that the town fathers send out a flotilla of "weed cutting
boats".
They chop and cut and chop and cut, and are supposed to scoop the cuttings
up into their oversize mauls. Many of the cuttings wind up floating on the
lake.

Add to that, some gooey, sticky, messy type weeds that cling to every
crank
bait and even to topwaters!!! What does one do to get through the morass?
I
notice the locals all think drowning leeches straight down to be a
solution...but....I'm not going to do that.

I'm thinking I have to go rig some special weedless plastics. But, I
probably don't have the patience to fish them slowly enough. All ideas
appreciated. RichG TX- WI

Hi Rich,

I have a similar problems with weeds when the pleasure boaters insist on
running through the weed beds and chopping them up. Here's some of the
solutions that I've come up with.

Using a safety pin style spinnerbait is fairly weedless, yet has good fish
catching properties and is less frustrating to use. A fine diameter
superline will enable you to snap the rod tip and clear many of the weeds
from both the line and the lure. The no-stretch properties of the line
allow you to give the lure the quick and hard snap that breaks the weeds
free, plus has the advantage of drawing reaction strikes from near-by
gamefish on occasion. The fine diameter will also cut through the weeds
like a weed whacker.

Not all soft plastic lures need be fished slow. Using soft plastic
jerkbaits like the Zoom Fluke or Lunker City Fin-S minnow, texas rigged will
eliminate much of the problem as well. These lures can be fished pretty
fast.

If you insist on using crankbaits, you could try rigging a couple of lures
with trebles with wire weedguards.

Much of the problem can be solved by looking for clear casting lanes in the
floating weeds. By simple avoidance of the floating weeds, you can get
mostly weedfree casts in, depending on how bad the weeds are.

At least that's what I do.
--
Steve @ OutdoorFrontiers
http://www.outdoorfrontiers.com
G & S Guide Service and Custom Rods
http://www.herefishyfishy.com

Use a Scum Frog on top of those floating weeds. Just remember to count
to 3 after the blast before setting the hook.

Thanks for the suggestion of using the Scum Frog.

If these were your typical, floating, "cover-all" weeds, with a lot of shade
under them ...I'd have more confidence in a Scum-Frog style lure. This crap
is growing straight up from the bottom. Added to that, there are a lot of
floating six inch strands, probably from the cutting process. The worst is,
though, the sticky, gooey, snotty type weeds that cling to any knot or
fastener.

On a windy, bright, sunny day, I've not had my best catches using topwaters.
I usually love them on a gray, rainy, day though. I'll give the Scum Frog a
try.. and also a Salad Fork?? worked like a topwater buzz bait.....

Steve from Outdoor Frontiers gave me an idea, also. I'll be rigging up a
big Sluggo and working it like a quick twitch bait. It would help if I had
more patience, but 55 + years of fishing tells me I don't and I won't be
acquiring patience at this late stage.
--
RichG manager, Carolina Skiff Owners Group on MSN
http://groups.msn.com/CarolinaSkiffOwners

wrote in message
...
Use a Scum Frog on top of those floating weeds. Just remember to count
to 3 after the blast before setting the hook.

On Sat, 26 Jun 2004 13:57:02 GMT, "RichG"
wrote:
snip
try.. and also a Salad Fork?? worked like a topwater buzz bait.....

Steve from Outdoor Frontiers gave me an idea, also. I'll be rigging up a
big Sluggo and working it like a quick twitch bait. It would help if I had
more patience, but 55 + years of fishing tells me I don't and I won't be
acquiring patience at this late stage.

That would be a Lunker City Salad Spoon. One of my favorite baits for
working over and under and through the weeds, to big lunker's house we
go...
Seriously, with the way that the keel on the Salad Spoon works, it
might just be one of your better choices, if not the best choice for
covering the mess you described.

Harry J aka Thundercat
Brooklyn Bill's Tackle Shop Fishing Team
http://www.geocities.com/brooklynbill2003/products.html
Share the knowledge, compete on execution.

Spoon, Fork...what the heck, neither my mom nor the nuns could ever teach me
proper table etiquette.
--
RichG manager, Carolina Skiff Owners Group on MSN
http://groups.msn.com/CarolinaSkiffOwners


"Thundercat" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 26 Jun 2004 13:57:02 GMT, "RichG"
wrote:
snip
try.. and also a Salad Fork?? worked like a topwater buzz bait.....

Steve from Outdoor Frontiers gave me an idea, also. I'll be rigging up a
big Sluggo and working it like a quick twitch bait. It would help if I
had
more patience, but 55 + years of fishing tells me I don't and I won't be
acquiring patience at this late stage.

That would be a Lunker City Salad Spoon. One of my favorite baits for
working over and under and through the weeds, to big lunker's house we
go...
Seriously, with the way that the keel on the Salad Spoon works, it
might just be one of your better choices, if not the best choice for
covering the mess you described.

Harry J aka Thundercat
Brooklyn Bill's Tackle Shop Fishing Team
http://www.geocities.com/brooklynbill2003/products.html
Share the knowledge, compete on execution.

"RichG" wrote in message
m...
Spoon, Fork...what the heck, neither my mom nor the nuns could ever teach
me
proper table etiquette.

I've seen you Rich, you have the knuckles to prove it!
--
Steve @ OutdoorFrontiers
http://www.outdoorfrontiers.com
G & S Guide Service and Custom Rods
http://www.herefishyfishy.com