TAKEOFF
SCENARIOS
WINNING IN WILLOW GRASS
When and hoW to plucK BiG Bass fRoM this eMeRGent shoRe GRass
M
oney might not grow on trees, but you can find it in wil-
low grass in the summertime.
it’s not actual cash you’ll find, of course, but big bass will
set up in and around emergent willow grass along reservoir
shorelines all through the season. When the conditions are
right, willow grass patterns can remain viable as tournament
winners for weeks or months.
About Willow Grass
Willow grass, or more accurately water-willow, is a fairly
common and well-known type of emergent aquatic vegetation
in the southeast. other similar types of grasses, including non-
native alligator weed, could be confused with willow grass, but
fishing techniques are often similar for various types of soft-
stemmed emergent bank grass. so if it looks like willow grass,
you can probably fish it the same way, with a few minor adjust-
ments depending on the density and height of the stalks.
here are the details on the real stuff, according to the
texas a&M agrilife extension service.
• stalks grow approximately 3 feet tall.
• Willow grass flowers from May through october.
• plants sprout from a web of subsoil roots; it’s known as
a rhizome root system.
Willow grass beds vary from scattered stalks along the
bank to dense beds that reach out into the shallows. a nar-
row bed is usually indicitave of a steep bank; beds grow far-
ther out from shore on flat, shallow banks. occasionally stalks
slump over into loose mats, or other grasses and debris get hung
up within the willows and create mats.
By Curtis Niedermier
Willow Windows
according to flW tour pro scott canterbury, who’s
cashed dozens of checks by fishing willow grass on the coosa
River system (and came one fish away from winning the 2014
forrest Wood cup on lake Murray from willow grass), there
are bass to be caught from the vegetation from the spawn
until winter, but they’re not always the right bass for a tour-
nament. figuring out when the willow grass bite is hot is the
first challenge.
“there are always fish in it, but it’s not always the winning
pattern,” says canterbury. “at lay lake, more times than not
it is the winning pattern. at lake Murray you have so many
other factors [including an offshore bite on blueback her-
ring], so it varies from lake to lake.
“even at lay it wasn’t always the best. Kvd won the classic
over there fishing coontail when, for three or four years, it
seemed like all the tournaments were won out of coontail.
Slow Flipping
Sometime around the end of summer, when the
lake starts to turn over, canterbury takes a slightly
slower approach to flipping willow grass.
“the fish will get shallow because the oxygen level
is better shallow than deep,” he says. “they’ll be in
the scattered grass just 2 feet deep, and you have to
fish real slow; just flip it in there and let it sit. It’s hot,
and they’re not really interested in chasing.”
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FLWFISHING.COM I JULY 2018