Bass in weeds: why are they there?

Many times tha you catch a bass it will be in around any weeds that can be found in the body of water. I know that when I was younger I always wondered why i found so many of these fish in the weeds and why sometimes i would see so many of them but they would not bite. So i started doing some reading and also recorded some observations. There are many reasons that bass sit in the weeds, here are a few:

FOR FOOD

Bass will venture into the weeds because many times thats where the little fish, or fry are including pearch fry, sunfish fry, pike fry, and really any other kind of fry they will eat. And not only fry but also any kind of minnows that are in the body of wawter including chubs, shad, and shiners. Many times these small fish will be schooled together making it very easy for a bass to fill its stomach quickley. So i started to look for every kind of fish that was in the body of water and record my observations, to see what these bass had been eating, this list included bluegill, pike, shiners, sunfish, and chubs. these baitfish had been in the weeds because their food supply was in the weeds, including weeds, small bugs, and plankton. And then i started to look for some lures taht would mimic these fish easily and allow me to fish in the thickest of weeds. This included some weedless jigs, rapala weedless spoons and some spinnerbaits.


TO AMBUSH THEIR PREY

Bass will sit in the weeds, generally along the edges of the weeds, to ambush ther prey. Most times the bass can see out at the area around them but any fishing swimmingby cannot see the bass waiting just inside the weeds. This will allow the bass to easy ambush anything that swims by and they want to eat. But also, its not just what is in the weeds that the bass are after, they also like to wait for frogs and snakes and mice to come crawling, hopping, or slitheing over the top and then ambush them aswell.

FOR COOLER WATER AND SHADE

The water in a small lake or pond can heat up quickly, and a lot of times, on hot summer days, the bass in those bodies of water are looking for the coolest spot they can find. Weeds that cover the surface of the water will provide some shade for the fish. Not only will the bass be able to be sheltered from the sun but also because the weeds are blocking the sun, the water underneath them is cooler than water not covered by weeds at all. I have found that water under weeds or in any other shade can be up to 10 degrees cooler than water anywhere else on the lake. This is where the bass will be when stressed from the constant heat.



All in all the weedsare probably the best place in the pond or lake to find these bass, not only because they hold bass, but also because generally when there is a seaweed bloom, it is quite large and will hold a lot of bass. But if the bloom is not very large, it will make it easy to pinpoint the fish... MY TIP- FISH THE WEEDS!!!! especially on the hotter days!