by Bruce Middleton, September 22, 2005

Fishing lily pads is hard work but it pays big dividends…


There are a lot of bass anglers who avoid lily pad beds because all they see is an impenetrable tangle of lily pads weeds that is unfishable. There is just no way to get any bait in and back out of all the roots, stems and other tangley stuff in there. So they avoid them. On the other hand when you think of working a bed of lily pads most other bass anglers automatically think about pitching and flipping plastics through holes to get down to the relatively open underneath where the bass lie. This is a tried and true method of catching bass in this situation but it isn’t the only one.

To begin with, it takes real determination to motor past a patch of lily pads and not want to toss a jig or tube down into those tangled ropey vines to see what may be hiding down there. They seem to draw us like Sirens of old to steer our boats into the midst of them. No matter what other action is happening on the lake or other patterns or plans we had made for that days fishing, pads have an allure unique to fresh water. You seem drawn to them involuntarily almost, and force to start casting.



And you should. Pads provide one of the best habitats for bass there are. Shallow vegetation, thick cover, ambush points, and a smorgasbord of food found on the top of the water in the form of insects, mice and snakes, underwater in the form of prey fish and on the bottom in the form of crawfish and other forms of wildlife. For a bass it’s like living in a multi-dollar mansion with maid service and an all you can diner built right in. Life just doesn’t get any better for a bass.

One other great thing about lily pads is the fact that it is in shallow water. After the spawn is over and the fry have moved into hiding, they grow to a couple inches in just a few months. Along with baby Blue Gill, Sun Fish, Crappie and all the other small fishes in the lake, the carnivore big bass find the pads a supreme hunting ground. These baby fish now about two inches long all look the same to a four-pound bass. They look like Sushi. Fish has the highest protein levels per ounce than any other source. Crawfish are easier to catch but over half the weight is exoskeleton and wasted.

It is an interesting fact that a bass can lie quietly for long periods of time. During this time small fish can swim right up to the bass without any fear what-so-ever. But just before a bass goes on the hunt he yawns or what looks like a yawn. At that time you will find no small fishy within 3 feet of that bass and those that are anywhere near him will be intently watching him. Bass hunt the unwary; the ones not looking at him or that don’t see him. This yawn is well documented but little understood. Some believe that it is a stretching of the jaws in preparation of future activities.

Bass also hunt in semi loose packs. They move from one source of cover to another looking for unwary prey. When they find a baby fish not looking at them they move in and strike. The loose pack organization works by distracting young fish. They will watch one bass while other move in from different direction. The small preys only defense is to hide someplace so small that the bass can’t get to him or to hope that nature’s camouflage hides him from being seen. Numbers is nature’s last defense. That is why so many fry are born, so just a few still reach maturity.

Now while these three major facts may sound unrelated to lily pad fishing it does in fact give you some insight into how bass go about hunting for food. Mostly they lay in ambush, in a shady place looking for something unwary to wonder into their kill zone. Now that can be a fish or a crawfish or bug or a frog or whatever. This means that there are several ways in which to entice a bass into striking an offering, and at many different depths in the water column. Any number of presentations can be used in a lily pad field but a lot depends on the actual density of the field itself. A sparse field of lily pad will not hold as many bass as a matted large field will. However, if there are underwater structures like large rocks, downed trees, a creek channel or sudden depth changes of three or more feet, this will greatly improve the likelihood of bass being in even a small sparse lily pad field. If the field is large and matted with these features, the numbers of bass will increase exponentially.

Pitching and flipping worms, tubes and jigs are probably the highest percentage baits to use in lily pad fields. By dropping them into holes and letting them drop right in front of unsuspecting bass lurking around these openings you stand the best chance for a hook up. You can also use heavier weights to punch through the matted tangles to get to the relatively clear underneath, or you can skim baits over the tops of holes letting them linger there in hopes a bass will come up for it. Plastic frog and rats are especially great for this type of activity and produce some very exciting fishing. You can use spinner and buzz baits to work the tops and crank baits to work the sides of the fields. Plastics too can be used to work the edges of the fields where bass wait in ambush for baitfish to swim by. Drop shotting, spit shotting and weightless plastic swim baits are a very popular way to work the edges. There are as many different ways to work the edges, as there are to work the pads themselves. But like bass fishing everywhere else on the lake, there are times when pads fishing is better at one time that another.

Hot summer months are obviously the best times to fish the pad fields. This time of year the bass are hiding from the direct sunlight since they have no eyelids. It is a myth that the pads offer cooler water as it has been shown over and over again that the pads hold in the heat. But it is dark down there. If the water becomes too hot the bass will eventually move out of the pads but this only happens in the deep south.

Bass in the lily pads tend to be more active than most bass in the rest of any given lake. When the wind comes up or a big storm moves in and muddies up the water, most of the bass in the lake either move to the extreme shallow to find clearer water or they just stop biting until the water clears. But not lily pad bass. If anything they become even more active. I can’t explain why this happens but it does. I think it has to do with all that growth and vegetation. It never quite gets as muddy in the middle of the lily pad field as it does in the rest of the lake. The bass there become more active because more prey fish move into the clearer water providing much more food for the pad bass that normal. Now this is just an observation and isn’t scientifically proven but I think it is pretty close to the truth. When the lake water you fish in gets muddied go fishing in the pads and see if I’m right, I’ll bet you I am. Oh, one other thing, do it at mid afternoon as that seems to be the best time.

Clear lakes get a lot of boat traffic on them. Unlike land there are no lanes to follow but nobody runs their boat through a lily pad field. This is just another reason to fish these spots. Boats give them a wide berth so nobody has driven over the bass countless times. Human activity can really cut down on bass activity and bass in high traffic areas will usually move away from them.

As stated bass hide from the sun in the pads but on windy and cloudy days the venture out past the edges to roam the surrounding area. Cloudy days are perfect to cover the shoreline near pad fields and any structure near the fields too. Shallow cranks, spinner baits and lipless cranks are among some of the all time favorite lures for this type of shallow water fishing. Early in the day or at dusk is a perfect time for top waters, frogs and buzz baits.


Plastic frogs and rats on top of the lily pads have won a lot of bass tournaments. The secret is in the action you depart to the plastic. You have to make the bait look like it’s swimming with stops and goes along the way. You do this with the rod tip by shaking the rod tip gently and pulling it towards you. You stop, reel in the excess line and repeat until the bait is retrieved. The frog should move in little short 1-inch motions lust like a real frog would do. It is important to mimic the swimming action as closely as possible to a real frog. Bass love frogs and mice and even baby ducks and they gulp them down with no hesitation what so ever. When picking out these plastic wonders, get a good selection of colors and make sure they have some sort of legs for the leg action. You can get rattles that fit inside of these baits and I do think that they help. Any added noise on the surface can only serve to draw attention to your bait.




The bright Blue Bird days of summer make the bass a perfect target for jigs and plastics in the middle of the pads. Stealth is important though as you don’t want to alert the bass as to your presents. Moving slowly around the edges is a must and using the trolling as conservatively as possible is a must. Never barrel right into the middle of a field of pads. All you will do is scare all the bass away from you. Instead flip your bait for short range and pitch it for long range casts. Lily pad fields are never perfectly round or oblong. They have lots of inlets and fingers that stick out and channels that run into the field for long distances. These features are where you should concentrate you efforts. Bass will be along the edges of these fingers and channels as well as holes and openings in the pads. You can spend considerable time fishing a good-sized field and still not cover all the features it has to offer. The one thing you must do is go-slow. Work it methodically. Many anglers, if they don’t get a bite within a short time start to "run and gun" as I call it, spending just a few seconds at a spot or two here and there hoping for a strike. Never do this. If your not getting bites, change colors of the bait or the bait itself and go even slower. Really work the area and pick everything, every nook and cranny apart. This is the way you’re going to catch bass, not running and gunning.

Now all this advice doesn’t guarantee that you’ll find bass easily as bass rarely stay in one place to too long. Rather they roam the pads freely under the tangle of vines just like they do the shorelines in search of prey. A field of pads can be a very difficult area to figure out but as a general rule the bass will be nearer the edges than the middle and they will nearer any opening than they will a completely closed area. Also the edges offer more holes, channels and other places you can get a bait into verses the middle. Now this is not to say that the middle is a dead zone, far from it. But the likelihood of catching a bass is greatest around the edges, both the inside and outside edges.

Also look for isolated clumps of pads near a main body of pads. These should never be overlooked as they usually always produce a bass or two. Again work the area between the pads and the shoreline, especially on cloudy days when bass are roaming.

Once you have committed yourself to fishing the pads the first priority is finding what depth the bass are hold at. Are they on the bottom or suspended near the top or in the middle somewhere. This will determine how you fish the rest of the day. Never start out with a heavy jig, fishing the bottom. If the bass are suspended you’re going to miss a lot of bass. Rather start with a weightless worm, tube, lizard, frog or other plastic that drops very slowly through the water column or floats on top. Knowing the depth and the rate of fall will tell you the depth of the bass when they strike. From that point on you can decide what method is best to fish with. A Carolina rig can be set at any depth by varying the length of the leader if you use a floating bait. A jig is used if the bass seem to be feeding on crawfish and so on, or a weightless rig, can be continued to be used.

Baits to avoid are ribbon-tailed worms. These long tailed worms get their tails wrapped around the stems of the pads and cause a great deal of grief for angles. Anything with a treble hook is a no no in the pads. Any single hook should be hooked weedless to keep it from snagging the stems and leaves of the pads. Avoid long tailed lizards and creature baits that have extra long appendages as these too tangle too easily in this vegetation. Try not to use screw in sinkers and instead use pegged of free sliding sinkers. Sinkers that attach to the plastic bait have a habit of catching on the stems of pads and bending the worms out of shape.
Spring and fall can be good times to fish lily pad fields too. Pads usually grown in shallow dark ends of lakes that warm up first in the spring and retain that heat longer late into the fall. Although the tops may thin out in the fall as cold weather moves in the bottom is covered with vegetation that harbors a great deal of forage and some cover for the bass. I spring when the vegetation of a lake first emerges, lily pad fields are one of the first places you will find concentrations of bass. Vegetation has a strong pull on bass and the first green plants of the year will attract in great number from all around the lake. They are a good pre-spawn bet to fish. This is a real secret that most pro bass anglers don’t tell you about. You can really load a boat up with bass in a pad field before they have broken the surface in early spring. Vegetation is that important to bass.

Bass will nest right up against the lily pad beds and sometime inside the beds if the area open enough for them to build a nest in. It is very important to mark the boundaries of a big lily pad field and make a map of it so that in the early spring before the new leaves break the surface, you know exactly where it’s located. Use your depth finder too to relocate the boundaries just before spawn and fish it well for pre spawn, spawning and post spawn bass.

In the fall, schools of bass move in and out of the pads while feeding. This is why it’s important to check the pads several times a day for these schools. Visible sights of bass blowing up in a feeding frenzy is a sure sight of them feeding on prey fish. Fish these bass immediately but keep the nearest lily pad area in sight. As soon as the bite falls off, move to the pads and begin fan casting as the bass may move to pads for cover and a rest.

Lily pad field fishing like any other type of bass fishing gives no guarantee of success. But a complete understanding of lily pad habitat and bass can improve your odds greatly. You have to do a little homework and more fishing.


Don’t let that mass of tangled weeds and vines scare you away. There’s bass in them thar pads.

So there you have it. Lily pads 101. A good bet to fish spring summer and fall. Happy fishing!