Draggin over the top

I see that there has been alot of good advice for Dballs worm quetion so I have one of my own.

What do you feel is the best method for pulling over the tops of the “Thick” lillys, weeds for the bass to blast through?

We, Dodgeboy and myself were using 6″lizzards and getting lots of hits but we were also missing a ton regardless of how long we waited.

Thoughts?

Thanks

Hey hey haywood,

I don’t have the opportunity to fish much for largemouth, especially lilly hunting! However, I do recommend throwing “Bill’s scented lure” (plastic worm that comes weedless). If not dragging the surface try plopping it into the little openings in the lilli-pads or right on the edge! Can be deadly. With “Bill’s” you’ll need to purchase some high quality ball bearing swivels! Most effective way to present this worm is put a small split shot directly above the worms leader, then retrieve VERY slowly! It rotates ever so slowly through the water! I caught my personal best largemouth last year on a Bill’s scented lure a 22 inch 15 inch girth beaut!

For gragging the surface there has to be some weedless top water baits! Don’t know of any, if there isn’t, could be a way to get rich fast!!!! Have fun bassin’!!!!!! Jim W

If it’s weedless surface lures you want, you have options. Can’t think of the maunufacturer who makes them but the makers of the Scum Frog or the makers of the Frogzilla Tournament frog both have a large selection of weedless surface draggers. Don’t know how well they work but I’ve heard rumor that in the right situation they can produce.

Another thing I use around pads (Lake Mallelieu in Hudson has lots of pads) is a bait holder hook and a grub/twister tail with just a splitshot slightly ahead of the bait. It’ll drop slow and with the bait holder hook, you can hide the hook just below the surface of the bait. It’s just like a Mepps Killer Combo minus the spinner! I’ve had a lot of action on the Mal doing this in mid summer so give it whirl sometime! Going out on the Mallelieu again Sunday so I’ll let you know how it goes!

I caught my very largest bass using a weedless spoon with an 8 inch plastic worm… the spoon rode on its back when going across weeds and pads… then it would flutter into the holes…. the fish I nailed was just 4 oz short of the Iowa state record at the time…. what a blast when it exploded through the pads and inhaled that bait….. so anyway that was MY favorite weed lure… I used it often and had success everywhere there was heavy cover….. the main thing was the spoon riding on its back when on cover….. well that plus using a heavy flipping stick and 20# test line…. so if it DID hook up.. no problem! wish they had super lines back then… that would probably have been JUST the ticket…. or maybe no one uses them for this sort of thing?

I personally use a lot of scum frogs. They key for me has been to pull them a bit and stop em. The stop usually gets them to eat it. If you give them enough time they really inhale it! I like to use white ones, because they stick out real well and I can watch them closely. Hope this helps.

~~~~~~Alkfish

Haywood, I also use scum frogs as well as moss mouses, swamp rats, moss bosses and different weedless frogs too. Somedays the fish do seem to just strike at the movement without hooking up. I try to keep a pole rigged with a plastic worm to flip in the blow hole where the fish hit. Rivereyes comment about super lines was right on. Monofilament will stretch giving the fish the opportunity to dive back into the weeds resulting in a lot of lost fish. With the no stretch super lines you can horse them over the top. Superlines also give you alot more hooking power on the long casts.

Thanks for the help guys.

Went out to Fleet Farm on Friday and picked up a scum frog and Felmlee’s Weedless Floating Frog, Looks just like a lepard frog. I went out early Saturday and started off with the Felmlee’s really liked the action and got hooked up fast!

Had little to no problem running over the thick stuff. I did have to jimmy rig the front end by adding a “corkscrew?” wire to hold the frog by the eye of the hook. I scavenged it from a different hook but it worked and really enjoyed the experience. Had several fish including a bounus not rough “dog fish” thats for you carp! He was a [censored] of a fighter but nasty to drag in the boat and unhook.

I used spider wire and worked great in the thick stuff.

When using spider wire make sure that your dog fish is tired before you grab the line. They have a tendency to run and with the spider wire you may get a bit of a cut finger out of it.

Thanks again it was a fun time!