Milfoil and other grasses rarely ruin a structurally attractive spot, and they may enhance a spot's appeal to bass. These long-stemmed grasses sport a massive canopy, but provide lots of room for fish to swim and feed below.
At some point in late summer or fall, bass move out of dense vegetation in some waters. This shift is associated with the onset of senescence of the plant--the gradual process whereby it dies back during winter. Whether the cause is changing cover conditions or reduction in oxygen, bass may evacuate Eurasian milfoil and hydrilla during this period. Northern milfoil and coontail are more persistent in fall and thus attract bass until winter sets in.
For big jigs in dense grass, most experts prefer 6 1/2- to 7 1/2-foot stout baitcasters and braided line. Make short pitches with the jig and allow it to free fall straight down through the canopy. Bites may come on the way down, as the jigs settle on the bottom, or after you give it a couple hops.
Falcon recommends "weighing" your jig to ascertain light bites. "Focus on the feel of your jig as you raise and lower it, whether it's a 5/8-ouncer or a 1 1/4-ounce model. If it suddenly feels heavier or lighter, set the hook."
3. SWIMMIN' JIGS
Most anglers regard jigs as vertical drop baits. In the applications discussed above, a balanced vertical fall is important in triggering bites. But the jig's combination of density, compact size, and alluring features also lend themselves to a horizontal presentation called swimming a jig. From the Upper Mississippi River to Alabama and Arkansas, jig swimmers have accounted for huge bass and have won many major tournaments.
Tom Monsoor, the man to beat in Upper Mississippi River tournaments, swims a jig throughout the summer season and into early fall, targeting weedy and wood-laden backwaters of the Mississippi where largemouths abide. "Swimming jigs work best in relatively clear water, since it gets reaction strikes from fish that see the bait passing overhead," Monsoor notes.
"Instead of dropping a jig into a hole in cover, you make long casts and move the bait over varied cover, calling bass out. Depending on water depth and the thickness of cover, pointy-nose jigs from 1/4 to 3/8 ounce work well." Monsoor crafts his own swimming jigs, as do many practitioners of this unusual technique.
Mitch Looper of Barling, Arkansas, a big-bass expert, swims a jig from the Prespawn Period until Thanksgiving. "The best jig-swimming days are cloudy and windy," he notes. "Bass are up and active and ready to hit a moving bait. Fish it wherever you find dense shallow vegetation or woodcover. The key is to keep the bait high in the water column, within a foot of the surface, swimming with a steady retrieve or with slight undulations imparted with the rod.
"Hold your rod at about the 10 o'clock position while winding the bait. When you get a strike, don't set right away, but lower the rod tip and retrieve slack, then set hard." Looper employs a flat swimming head that planes through the water. Like Monsoor, he uses a thin, light weedguard, since the bait passes above the densest cover, and the thin guard will not interfere with a long-distance hookset.
