Fishing grass at Athens

I finally got to fish Athens Saturday, caught a few but here is my question. There is a lot of brown grass out there, and a lot of green grass. I fished a lipless crankbait over (and through) both and never got a bite doing that. But for future reference, do the bass hang out in the brown grass as I know they do in the green grass? (I don't know the names of the grass species, that's why I got fired from my job as a horticulturist a few years ago). The ones I caught were very shallow on a hollow body frog out past goat island.

Not to be a smart A, but if you didn't catch any fish in the brown stuff, doesn't that answer your question??

Didn't catch it in the green stuff either. Not a cloud in the sky, not sure how that was effecting things. I'm the first to admit, I'm not much of a fisherman so I have to ask the questions. I have fished rocks a lot of times to no avail and didn't give up there. Other times I have had great days fishing the same rocks. The lakes I usually fish have no grass at all.

I have found them in both. Just two different kinds of grass.

excellent, thanks

Soft Plastics. Would have been the difference between catching and not.

I caught them out of coon tail, hydrilla, eel grass, hyacinths and duck weed (the brown stuff) last Wed on Athens.

Find a place where they mix and a lot of times you can find a lot of fish...

thanks, I'm going back in a couple weeks, I will be more prepared

Try a c rig baby brush hog on the outside edge.

Great question! I'm nowhere near an expert on bass fishing and only fish 2-3 times a week, but from what I've read from those who do it for a living, focus on the green if you have brown and green of the same species since the brown is dead but the green is producing oxygen and drawing in the food chain. So, if you have brown hydrilla and green hydrilla, the experts, from what I've read, would say fish the green hydrilla. From what I understand, this applies mainly to the warm seasons - now through fall.

He didn't ask if he got a bite there.....not as concentrated as in the green. He asked if there are fish in the brown grass.

Yes there are fish in it. As they get more pressured, they are more and more finicky about bait and presentation.

You fished a crankbait through weeds and grass? How in the world did you not wind up with grass/weeds all over the crankbait? Bass aren't blind or stupid...they'll see even a small amount of weeds hanging on the bait and they wont touch it. At least thats been my experience in 44 years of bass fishing(I'm 59 years old).

Right, I fished above the grass on purpose, it was easy to see when it went through the grass because I brought some back with me. Through the grass... was unintentional. Like you I'm 59 years old... but with maybe 44 weeks of bass fishing. Still learning.

In your 44 years of fishing, You have never fished a crankbait through grass/weeds ?

Drummond, I'm 72, and have been bass fishing for more than 60 years - and I'm still learning. Never stop learning. Once you think you know all there is to know about bass fishing, it's time you're going to get humbled!

I've caught a lot of bass over the years by ripping Rattletraps out of and over the top of green vegetation - but never over brown, dead grass. That must mean something.....

Yes and I quickly realized what a exercise in futility and waste of time it is. You must be fishing MUCH sparser vegetation than I am. Some of the places I fish a crankbait would be covered in weeds/grass/algae/moss the instant it hit the water. Theres other baits better suited for such scenarios.

I have caught them out of both. One of the best crank bait days came out of the brown clumps scattered down the shore line in about 3 to 5 ft. of water. It was early in the year and that was all there was on the main lake points and secondary points. They were using it to spawn beside. The 1.5 chrome black back was killing them in the bright sun on a blue bird day.

So my point is they will use what they have. If the brown grass is deeper and the Bass want to be at that depth they are going to use it.

For the next couple of months on Athens, a creature bait with a slow fall like a Pit Boss, Texas Rigged with a 1/4oz or 3/8oz weight in that grass should be pretty lethal