Stan Fagerstrom
10-12-2001, 01:05 PM
It was interesting to read recent comments on the Ifish Bass Board regarding fishing lily pad cover for largemouth.
I wonder how many readers have been to Silver Lake in Southwest Washington? If you've been there, you know that Silver has a heavy fringe of pads almost all the way around its shoreline. Rarely have I seen a lake anyplace with more pad cover that this popular Western Washington bass pond.
I doubt anybody anywhere has spent more time fishing bass on Silver Lake than I have. Why do I say that? Because for three decades I lived right on the lake's shore. My bass boat was in the water about 65 feet from my front door 365 days a year. I know something about that lake, its lily pads and the bass that hang out in them.
What I discovered over those 35 years is that there is no one best way to fish the pad fields in places like Silver Lake. What works one day might not the worth a toot the next. It's best, and this applies to all bass fishing, to eliminate the word "always" from your piscatorial vocabulary. Keep changing your approach until the fish tell you what they'll take and how they want it presented.
Someone mentioned the Johnson Silver Minnow being a good pad lure. It is. Darn few bass lures have been around longer than I have. The Silver Minnow has and it still catches fish.
You can use a variety of trailers on a Silver Minnow. My favorite of the many I've tried is a pork chunk. Uncle Josh used to make one called a Pollywoggler and it was dandy when used in concert with a Number 2 Silver Minnow. Since that one's no longer available, my second choice is the Uncle Josh Number 11 pork frog. I favor the green and white chunk for most Silver Minnow pad fishing.
Early in the year at Silver Lake I often fished the Silver Minnow way back in the pads and close to the actual shoreline. If you ever fish Silver Lake, that's where you're most likely to find bass early on. They'll move toward deeper water as pad growth thickens and the water warms.
When they did get to the outside edge, I kept my boat 20 to 30 feet away from the pad field edge and threw the Silver Minnow back into the pad field indentations and pockets. If you do the same, keep your Silver Minnow on top and slithering its way between the pads. The Silver Minnow is about as weedless as they come, but don't let it work its way into the "V" of a pad top. Sure as you do you'll hang up regardless of the lure you're using. A longer rod makes it easier to maneuver the Silver Minnow through the pads. Watch what you're doing and you can steer a Silver Minnow through really thick pad cover. Keep an eye peeled for openings in the pads during your retrieve. Every now and then I got into good fish by letting the Silver Minnow flutter down into such holes. Once it got down a two or three feet, I'd give it a sharp twitch with my rod tip. The hits were most likely to come as the lure dropped or as it darted upward and away.
Though its name is the Silver Minnow, this old time bass catcher is often best in a different color. I love the gold Silver Minnow. Over the years I've probably caught more bass on that shade than the silver finish. Sometimes black can also be excellent. When I use the black finished Silver Minnow I switch to an all black pork chunk.
Lures that fail to catch fish don't stay on the shelves of tackle stores very long. The Silver Minnow has been around for a long, long time. They won't "always,"--- there's that word again---catch fish. They will, when used properly in the right place and at the right time, get their share.
Next time around I'll talk about how one little addition to your Silver Minnow sometimes makes it an even better bait.
Short Casts---If you're into using those small diameter but super strong braided lines in your bass fishing, be especially careful with your knots. Pay particular attention to what the line maker recommends for its product. Nobody wants you to be more satisfied with their line that the people who make it. Established line companies have done considerable research to determine which knots do the best job with their product. You'll be wise to pay close attention to what they have to say where knots are concerned…I mentioned last week how sharply bass fishing has dropped off at Siltcoos Lake. Siltcoos, the largest of the Central Oregon coastal lakes, is located seven miles south of Florence. I had a call from a reader who wondered where and how I got the impression Siltcoos bass fishing isn't what it once was. I didn't get it from someone else, though I can give you the names of others who will tell you the same thing. I spoke from personal experience. From 1992 until last year I kept a bass boat on Siltcoos year around. I spent a lot of time there. Siltcoos still has fish, but in nowhere near the numbers it did a decade ago. Why? I don't know. Has there been too much pressure from tournament fishing? Is there a drop off in the number of forage fish available? Again, I don't know and it appears no one else does either. I do know what I'd do if I were in a position to do it. That would be make Siltcoos Lake strictly catch-and-release bass fishing to give it a chance to recover…I had a chance recently to attend the 2002 Professional Walleye Trail National Championship in Bismarck, North Dakota. Those tournament anglers got lots of walleye, but there weren't many big ones by Columbia River standards. The largest walleye brought to the scales all three days weighed only 6.23 pounds.
http://www.ifish.net/fa1.jpg
This picture shows the thick pad cover along the east shore of Silver Lake.
Largemouth often feed along the outside
edge of these pad fields
after the water warms up.
The Johnson Silver Minnow can be an effective lure in pad cover when fished properly.
I wonder how many readers have been to Silver Lake in Southwest Washington? If you've been there, you know that Silver has a heavy fringe of pads almost all the way around its shoreline. Rarely have I seen a lake anyplace with more pad cover that this popular Western Washington bass pond.
I doubt anybody anywhere has spent more time fishing bass on Silver Lake than I have. Why do I say that? Because for three decades I lived right on the lake's shore. My bass boat was in the water about 65 feet from my front door 365 days a year. I know something about that lake, its lily pads and the bass that hang out in them.
What I discovered over those 35 years is that there is no one best way to fish the pad fields in places like Silver Lake. What works one day might not the worth a toot the next. It's best, and this applies to all bass fishing, to eliminate the word "always" from your piscatorial vocabulary. Keep changing your approach until the fish tell you what they'll take and how they want it presented.
Someone mentioned the Johnson Silver Minnow being a good pad lure. It is. Darn few bass lures have been around longer than I have. The Silver Minnow has and it still catches fish.
You can use a variety of trailers on a Silver Minnow. My favorite of the many I've tried is a pork chunk. Uncle Josh used to make one called a Pollywoggler and it was dandy when used in concert with a Number 2 Silver Minnow. Since that one's no longer available, my second choice is the Uncle Josh Number 11 pork frog. I favor the green and white chunk for most Silver Minnow pad fishing.
Early in the year at Silver Lake I often fished the Silver Minnow way back in the pads and close to the actual shoreline. If you ever fish Silver Lake, that's where you're most likely to find bass early on. They'll move toward deeper water as pad growth thickens and the water warms.
When they did get to the outside edge, I kept my boat 20 to 30 feet away from the pad field edge and threw the Silver Minnow back into the pad field indentations and pockets. If you do the same, keep your Silver Minnow on top and slithering its way between the pads. The Silver Minnow is about as weedless as they come, but don't let it work its way into the "V" of a pad top. Sure as you do you'll hang up regardless of the lure you're using. A longer rod makes it easier to maneuver the Silver Minnow through the pads. Watch what you're doing and you can steer a Silver Minnow through really thick pad cover. Keep an eye peeled for openings in the pads during your retrieve. Every now and then I got into good fish by letting the Silver Minnow flutter down into such holes. Once it got down a two or three feet, I'd give it a sharp twitch with my rod tip. The hits were most likely to come as the lure dropped or as it darted upward and away.
Though its name is the Silver Minnow, this old time bass catcher is often best in a different color. I love the gold Silver Minnow. Over the years I've probably caught more bass on that shade than the silver finish. Sometimes black can also be excellent. When I use the black finished Silver Minnow I switch to an all black pork chunk.
Lures that fail to catch fish don't stay on the shelves of tackle stores very long. The Silver Minnow has been around for a long, long time. They won't "always,"--- there's that word again---catch fish. They will, when used properly in the right place and at the right time, get their share.
Next time around I'll talk about how one little addition to your Silver Minnow sometimes makes it an even better bait.
Short Casts---If you're into using those small diameter but super strong braided lines in your bass fishing, be especially careful with your knots. Pay particular attention to what the line maker recommends for its product. Nobody wants you to be more satisfied with their line that the people who make it. Established line companies have done considerable research to determine which knots do the best job with their product. You'll be wise to pay close attention to what they have to say where knots are concerned…I mentioned last week how sharply bass fishing has dropped off at Siltcoos Lake. Siltcoos, the largest of the Central Oregon coastal lakes, is located seven miles south of Florence. I had a call from a reader who wondered where and how I got the impression Siltcoos bass fishing isn't what it once was. I didn't get it from someone else, though I can give you the names of others who will tell you the same thing. I spoke from personal experience. From 1992 until last year I kept a bass boat on Siltcoos year around. I spent a lot of time there. Siltcoos still has fish, but in nowhere near the numbers it did a decade ago. Why? I don't know. Has there been too much pressure from tournament fishing? Is there a drop off in the number of forage fish available? Again, I don't know and it appears no one else does either. I do know what I'd do if I were in a position to do it. That would be make Siltcoos Lake strictly catch-and-release bass fishing to give it a chance to recover…I had a chance recently to attend the 2002 Professional Walleye Trail National Championship in Bismarck, North Dakota. Those tournament anglers got lots of walleye, but there weren't many big ones by Columbia River standards. The largest walleye brought to the scales all three days weighed only 6.23 pounds.
http://www.ifish.net/fa1.jpg
This picture shows the thick pad cover along the east shore of Silver Lake.
Largemouth often feed along the outside
edge of these pad fields
after the water warms up.
The Johnson Silver Minnow can be an effective lure in pad cover when fished properly.