Jackson: Heavy thoughts on catching bass from heavy cover

I see myself as an explorer, someone who acquires angling knowledge while traveling through space and time.

Some detractors would like to take that statement a step farther, referring to me as a space cadet, but I choose to take the high road because I have literally been there and done that.

Now, regarding bass fishing while surrounded by watery, obnoxiously slimy and super-heavy weed cover, I have come to a stage in my angling education and life that has led me to embrace three different presentation styles.

I have grown fond of using the following proven techniques for mostly largemouth bassing. I say "proven" because they worked for me.

First, there are Little Action Mac pre-rigged plastic worms. Another is the use of plastic, totally weedless frogs and other creatures pulled along the surface of heavy weed cover (most call it "slop").

And the last technique was taught to me by two guys, one from Texas and the other from Michigan.

The first time I fished Lake Fork in east Texas, I encountered a sharpshooter angler who suggested I switch to a 1-ounce bass jig and tip it with some sort of creature, such as a squirmy crawdad, lizard or short-grub trailer.

The same logic was at play in Michigan. Both camps believed the heavily matted cover could be easily penetrated with a heavy jig, and waiting largemouth hiding either on the bottom or just below the mat would go for the jig combo more easily once their lateral lines signaled an appetizing intruder.

So I went to school with these techniques on Bangs Lake in Wauconda, and the results were pretty amazing.

I used 1-ounce Lindy walleye jigs with a plastic crawdad. I made it a weedless setup by burying the hook end into the craw. And I headed for the heavy stuff.

I also used a casting reel spooled with one of the 20-pound super braids while also tying on a 40-fluorocarbon leader. I was playing it safe by using that kind of heavy leader and line.

The reel sat firmly in the reel seat of a 7-foot Grandt XLH casting rod. The sun was starting to creep over the treetops on the eastern shoreline. After shutting down, I glided the boat into the heavy cover area. I made short casts to around 20 feet from the boat, figuring at this early stage of my "continuing education" I wanted to have better line control while allowing the jig and crawdad to penetrate the heavy cover. Nothing happened.

I carefully moved the boat another 15 feet, into the salad, and repeated the process.

It was on the fifth cast when I felt the tick on the line. The jig that had busted through the surface junk was slowly making its way to the bottom. With the heavy 1-ounce device, one might assume it would sink like a big cannon shell. No such luck.

The plastic crawdad added quite a bit of buoyancy to the rig, thereby slowing its fall even after it broke through the heavy surface weeds.

I immediately raised the rod and set the hook. I boated about 3½ pounds of largemouth bass - along with another 3-plus pounds of cabbage and coon tail weeds. I didn't mind dredging up a lot of weed cover because I was able to knock on the front door where this one largemouth was living.

I went on to catch six more big bass in several other heavily covered areas.

• Contact Mike Jackson at angler88@comcast.net, catch his radio show 7-9 a.m. Sundays on WGCO 1590-AM (live-streamed at www.1590WCGO.com) and get more content at mikejacksonoutdoors.com.