Bass are lured to hydrilla, lily pads and other forms of aquatic vegetation for several reasons. Not only does vegetation provide shade, but it attracts the smaller members of the food chain on which they feed. They can be a bass fisherman’s best buddy or his very worst enemy. They can treat him like a king one day and then torture his confidence the next. Keep messing with them and you’ll get the picture – sooner or later.

They’re salad green on the surface and may grow as thick as mustard in certain nooks and crannies. On occasion, they’ll lure you in with promises of mammoth bass and then foil you with nothing more than frustrating hang-ups or dinks.

Welcome to the weed zone – that enigmatic resort with varied branches in just about every respectable lake or pond in Texas. Every good bass angler knows bass love weeds. In fact, when given the choice, largemouths will take grass over wood anyday, or so it’s been said and proven time and again.

Weeds provide bass with security, which explains why a man can sometimes dredge a 20-foot bass rig right up on top of a thick mat of muck, drop a bait vertically through the canopy and snatch a fish from directly beneath his boat.

This particular practice, often referred to as “flippin‘,” is commonly used in the grass-infested waters in East Texas, where hydrilla is the domineering form of cover in many of reservoirs.

In addition to providing bass with security, weeds also yield the perfect setting for bass to ambush unsuspecting forage such as shad, bream and minnows. Forage fish are attracted to weeds to feed on tiny snails and other small fish attracted there by new aquatic growth.

Another reason why many noted anglers believe bass like to hang out around weeds has to do with the fact they provide the fish with shelter from the scorching summer sun. The water temperatures beneath the umbrella-like canopy of a weed bed are apt to be somewhat cooler than water temperatures in areas that don’t have any vegetation. So naturally, bass will often take refuge beneath the umbrella to enjoy the cooler water.

There are many different types of vegetation present on lakes across the south, some of which are tall and lanky and protrude several feet above the surface. Namely, we’re talking bulrush and cattails, a pair of prolific weeds which tend to flourish in nutrient-rich water depths of two-feet and less.

The lily pad is another aquatic plant common on many southern reservoirs. While their growth is sometimes spotty, it’s nothing out of the ordinary for thousands of them to occupy a given stretch in the shallows.

Lily pads resemble giant sand dollars and ripple with every movement beneath the surface. Needless to say, there’s nothing more exciting than seeing a line of pads stirring in unison as a broad-shouldered bass rips a path towards a weedless topwater plug as it hops from pad to pad.

Among some of the other types of vegetation commonly found are duck weed, coontail and milfoil. Ah, but we must not forget hydrilla, either – you know, that lush-green hitchhiker that came here from who knows where and is so prolific that it has the ability to migrate from lake to lake via the boat trailer.

Unlike the previously mentioned weeds, hydrilla has the ability to grow almost as well in 18 feet of water as it does in two feet of water. It tends to flourish best in clear-water reservoirs where sunlight penetration is optimum. Hydrilla can consume a shallow-water flat in a hurry, so it’s often considered a nuisance by pleasure boaters and lakeside homeowners. But where bass fishermen are concerned, it’s been the saving grace of many of reservoirs.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife has done an excellent job of managing reservoirs, but it should be known that it would have never been possible without the quality habitat (hydrilla) we have in some of lakes. You can’t have good fishing for any length of time without good habitat. Take the habitat out of lake and you’ll see the fishing go downhill. I know. I’ve seen it happen time after time on lakes all over the country.

One of the first southern impoundments where hydrilla showed up was a popular Texas/Louisiana border lake boasting the name Toledo Bend. And as strange as it may seem I can recall the days when many anglers used to avoid the grass like the plague. It was like that on both Toledo Bend and Sam Rayburn. There was a time back in the mid-to-late 70s when lot’s of anglers simply refused to fish the grass, either because they didn’t know how or because they didn’t like it. But when tournament after tournament started being won out of the grass during the summer and fall, more and more anglers found out they were going to have to learn how to fish it in order to compete.

It’s important to remember that the grass you see on the surface may or may not be a clear picture of what is actually below. That’s because hydrilla can grow outward along the bottom without actually reaching the surface, thus explaining why having a good depthfinder is of the essence. The key to catching bass out of the grass is determining the density of the grass they are holding in. Once you’ve done this, you should be able to apply what you’ve learned to other areas of a given impoundment.

I rely on two things to help me determine the density of a grass bed – polarized sunglasses and a flasher (not an LCR) with a gain knob. Grass beds confuse liquid crystal units and they are not very accurate as far as telling you what is below.

During the early hours of the day, bass are most often found relating to the outer boundaries of grass beds growing in 12-18 feet of water. Often times, the fish will be suspended and they may be as far as three or four feet away from the edge of the bed.

The best way to establish the depth at which the fish are holding is to drop a heavy jig or plastic worm straight down along the edge of the hydrilla, feed it line until it reaches the bottom and then jig it a foot or so off the bottom. You may have to stay on the move and try this tactic at varied depths to find the magic marker.

Once the sun starts hammering down bass will retreat to the inner reaches of the bed, usually about three or four feet inside the canopy. Here again, the trick is to stay on the move and drop your bait vertically through the muck, making a constant effort to put the lure around small indentions, pockets, points and other oddities in the grass bed that could be tell-tale signs of a change in contour.

It is also important to note that it’s nothing out of the ordinary to cover 200 yards of fishing-looking grass without a single bite and then catch 20-30 fish out of one small stretch. That’s just the way this type of fishing is.

The way bass hit a bait vertical jigged in the grass can vary from day to day. At times, the strike can be detected by a subtle “thump” or jumping line. But on other occasions you may notice that the bait suddenly feels mushy or heavy when you jig it. In either case, set the hook!

I am of the opinion that big, heavy baits work better in the grass than do small ones. A heavy, bulky bait will penetrate the canopy easier, plus it’s easier for the bass to to find.

My No. 1 bait choice for vertical jigging the moss is a 3/4-ounce Stanley Jig with a matching crawworm trailer, mainly because it catches larger bass consistency. The best color combinations are black/blue, black/chartreuse, junebug, plum and electric blue.

Texas-rigged crawfish imitations as well as eight-inch plastic worms tend to produce better for numbers of fish as opposed to size. Often times you can get by with a fairly light slip sinker when fishing out away from the edge of the grass. But once the fish bury up beneath the canopy you’ll have to go to a 3/4 or one-ounce sinker in order to get the bait to them.

Finding and catching bass out of the grass during the summer months is an advanced technique that requires patience, skill and a good working knowledge of electronics. Put those three attributes together on a reservoir with good habitat and you could wind up catching some of the biggest bass of your life.