How to Fish Visible Cover

Fishing visible cover: stumps, trees, weedbeds, rocks, boat docks, and other bass holding objects that can be seen with the naked eye is the classic way to cast for bass. But today, with more anglers fishing for bass than ever before and with the average angler more highly skilled than in the past, visible is often subjected to intense fishing pressure. The result: It's harder and harder to catch quality bass from visible cover. This makes it more important than ever to know how to fish it right.

TYPES OF VISIBLE COVER: Here are some of the types of visible cover you're likely to encounter in your area bass waters: Weeds and Grasses. Shallow tributaries, shorelines and coves often harbor visible aquatic plants. Emergent grasses such as bulrushes, maidencane, and cattails protrude above the surface. These serve as a bridge for terrestrial creatures, especially insects, to enter the water. Surface plants such as water lilies are rooted on the bottom and often have a flowering plant growing on the surface. Submerged grasses such as milfoil, hydrilla, coontail, and eelgrass grow beneath the surface, however some types may form a thick mat on top. Pond scum is a thick surface coating of algae that forms in hot weather in slack water. Wood. Stumps, brushpiles, fallen trees, and standing timber are all popular visible targets among bass anglers. Rocks. Bass will hold around large rocks or rockpiles in shallow water, especially in rivers where they use these as current breaks. Man Made Cover. Boat docks, duck blinds, and virtually anything else man puts in shallow water may attract bass. Mudlines. Where muddy water forms around a bank due to wave action or enters a clear lake via a tributary after heavy rains, a mudline sets up. Bass use this for concealment, hiding at the edge where stained and clear water meet.

APPROACHING AND FISHING VISIBLE COVER: Whether or not you will catch a bass from visible cover is often determined before you ever make your first cast to it. Here are some tips pro anglers keep in mind when approaching and fishing visible cover: Wear Polarized Sunglasses. These reduce glare and allow you to spot objects beneath the surface more easily. Many anglers wear Polarized glasses with black or gray lenses on sunny days and brown lenses on overcast days. Approach With Caution. Think of yourself as a predator. Use stealth when moving within casting distance of your target especially in clear water. Bass are wary creatures and usually will not strike if they're aware of your presence. Avoid roaring into the area with your big motor. Instead, cut off your outboard a good distance away from the cover and use your electric trolling motor to quietly move closer. Avoid bumping into the cover with your boat. Fish The Outside Of The Cover First. Don't cast into the middle of a weedbed, logjam, etc. until you have combed the outside edges first. If you hook a bass in the middle of the cover and fight it out into open water, it will usually spook fish using the outer edges. Instead, work the outside of the cover first, then work your way gradually toward the middle. Target Isolated Cover. A lone brushpile at the end of a point or a single stump two or three cast lengths from hundreds of other similar stumps often holds the biggest bass in the area. Target Juncture Areas. These are places where two or more pieces of visible cover come together. Here are some examples: 1. Where the end of a submerged tree meets open water. 2. Where two logs crisscross on the bottom. 3. Where a major limb shoots off from the trunk of a submerged tree. 4. Where the corner of a boat dock meets a shallow weedbed or open water. 5. Where a weedline meets open water. 6. Where the bottom or bank condition changes gravel turns to mud, fist size rock turns to head size rock, etc. Target The Edges Of Visible Cover For Active Bass. In nature, all predators gravitate to the edges of their habitat zones when hunting. Just as a lion will prowl the edge where a grassy plain meets a water hole, a bass will prowl a weedline or the edge of a stumprow. Bass relating to edges are highly catchable fish. Work the outer edges first with spinnerbaits, crankbaits, topwaters and other fast moving lures for active biters. Target Deeper Inside The Cover For Inactive Fish. Bass show a marked propensity for holding tight to stumps or rocks, or burying in brushpiles or weedbeds, when inactive. Use slow moving saturation lures such as jigs, soft plastic crawfish and plastic worms for inactive bass. Target Overhead Cover. When not actively feeding, bass may show a marked preference for overhead cover, including hydrilla or milfoil mats, lilypads, water hyacinths, pond scum, even debris such as logs or leaves that gathers in slack water pockets and the back ends of tributaries. They feel a strong sense of security beneath overhead cover and may often be approached very closely without spooking. Flip or pitch to this cover using the jigs or soft plastics. Accuracy Counts. It used to be fairly easy to pull a bass out of visible cover with a sloppy cast, but not in today's high pressured world of bass fishing. All too often, if the cast isn't right on the money, the fish won't strike. Cast beyond your target so your lure is up to speed or at the proper depth when it reaches the spot where the bass is most likely to be holding. Many anglers rely on pitching when working visible cover; this is a highly accurate presentation that works in all water conditions and facilitates a silent lure entry. Learn To Dissect Cover. Don't think of a stump as a stump, think of it as a short, squat treetrunk with a broad, relatively flat top and a system of roots at the bottom. Sometimes merely casting to the stump isn't enough, if the bass are holding tight to the root system, they may not bite unless your lure hits this specific target area. Contact Cover. Pro anglers always try to bump their lures into the cover they're fishing. This gets them close to the bass and imparts an erratic action to the bait as it careens off the object, often triggering a reaction strike. Throw Bass A Change Up. Pressured bass learn not to bite lures they see repeatedly. If you see several anglers in the area you're fishing working visible cover with spinnerbaits, try fishing the same areas with a different lure that works the same depth zone, such as a shallow running crankbait. Pick The Best Times. When fishing flowering surface plants such as hyacinths and water lilies, you'll often have your best luck from midmorning until mid-afternoon, this is when the plants' flowers open and attract insects, which in turn attract bass. On other types of cover, bass often move to the outer edges in lowlight conditions and will be more catchable there early or late in the day. During midday, they'll probably be holding tight to or buried in the cover.