®
Summer 2018
VEGETAT
by Tyler Brinks
page 38
B
ass love grass
and bass anglers
know the power of fishing around vegetation.
Largemouth especially, love to
live their lives around the green
stuff. Typically, any time you
find grass you will find bass;
but what if you are faced with
vast expanses of good looking
vegetation?
Bassmaster Elite Series
pro Keith Combs shares how
he tackles multiple types of
grass and a general approach
for fishing when there is no
shortage of vegetation.
FIND THE DIFFERENCES
You hear it all the time in bass fishing: find something different or find where there is a transition between two types of structure. The same rule applies to fishing vegetation according to Combs.
“The first thing I look for is to find the grass edges,” he said. “That is always a good place to start. When you have two types of vegetation coming together, they often create a defined edge and that is a great place to find fish.”
One of the easiest ways for finding transitions is usually done just by scanning and looking for slight changes in color. This simple approach helps Combs narrow down where to start fishing and makes him more efficient as he searches for bass.
in the thick stuff; but, it just takes longer to find them, and your percentages go way down.”
The submerged patchy grass is one of the best scenarios and according to Combs, it will hold fish all year long and is relatively easy to fish with different lures.
BARE SPOTS AND SAND
Similar to finding patchy grass, Combs also looks for sand spots and bare spots in the grass. This allows him to have a place to target and shortens his search.
“Any openings in the grass are potential spots for bass to be holding. I always make sure to cast to each opening,” he shares. “Even a very small open spot or a little patch of sand can be all you need to find a bass.”
PATCHY GRASS
If Combs can find patchy grass, he will always make a point to fish it. “What that does is it creates more ambush points for bass and is easier for you to target specific spots,” he said. “When there is a huge flat of grass, it is much harder to pinpoint where the fish are. They are still
BAIT SELECTION
As a rule, Combs keeps his bait selection simple when fishing any type of vegetation and changes up based on how thick the grass is.
“It is dependent on what kind of grass you are fishing and how mature it is,” he added. “Further along in the