The term “weedline” has been around ever since I can remember. I also remember when I was a greenhorn bass fisherman and found myself frustrated trying to catch bass from them. I read magazines on the subject, watched TV shows on it, but found only limited success. This went on for way too many years, until gradually and bit-by-bit, I finally developed an understanding of how bass use weedlines. Now that I understand it, I can confidently and effectively catch bass from this edge habitat.
Commonly in a lake, two weedlines exist — the outside weedline and the inside weedline. I define the outside weedline as the deep transition zone or edge where a weedbed forms an edge with deep water. As the water depth increases, light penetration decreases to a level where weeds can no longer grow, thus an edge is created.
Inside weedlines are weed edges in shallow water. Often there is a shallow zone from the lake shore out to a shallow depth of a few feet or so where the weeds often don’t grow — thus an edge is created. I’m not sure how these shallow edges are created, but I have observed that hard bottom beaches typically have deeper inside weedlines as compared to mucky bottoms.
I also wonder if wind/wave action affects inside weedline depth because as I sit here and write, most deeper inside weedlines I can think of are oriented to larger basins. Whereas it seems shallow, protected bays and so forth often will have weeds growing nearly to shore.
In reservoirs with fluctuating water levels, inside weedlines can be created by drawdowns followed by subsequent rising water levels. Let me explain this. During a drawdown, a reservoir’s water level can lower to the point where weedbeds are left to dry on the newly exposed shoreline. This kills the weeds that are exposed on dry land. Then when the reservoir levels rise again, a zone exists in shallow water where there are no weeds because they had been killed off during the drawdown. This inside weedline will be at the same depth throughout the entire reservoir. Eventually if the higher water levels persist, the aquatic plants will recolonize much of this shallow zone and the inside weedline will be less defined.
Simply understanding the definition of a weedline isn’t going to help you catch significantly more bass, however. What the real key in weedline fishing is being able to differentiate the good weedlines from the bad ones. And I’ll tell you right now, there’s a whole lot more bad ones than good ones! So let’s go over a few guidelines that will help eliminate unproductive weedlines.
Understand that inside weedlines are most important during pre-spawn, spawn and again in the fall. Outside weedlines are key during the other seasonal periods.
Points and inside turns are popular areas that bass collect in. Straight-as-an-arrow weedlines offer lower percentage fishing. Irregularities can’t be stressed enough as you’ll see by reading farther down this list.
Dead and dying weeds rarely support concentrations of bass. Look for edges bordering healthy weedbeds. If the whole lake’s population of weeds is dying off, then understand that most bass will find other cover such as rock, wood, laydowns, and docks.
Gradual, slow tapering drop-offs from a weedbed usually aren’t as productive as a weedline that forms a distinct edge along a sharp dropoff.
Rock and gravel formations interrupting a nondescript weedline will often draw bass like a magnet.
Understand that bass on outside weedlines are often bunched together rather than sprinkled intermittently along them. For example, your presentation may have to come through an area no bigger than 30 feet x 30 feet. Hit this spot and you catch bass on several consecutive casts — miss it, and you catch nothing! An angler will often have to endure long durations of catching nothing until one of these honeyholes is discovered.
Bass on inside weedlines won’t be found bunched as tightly, but there’s definitely preferred stretches for them here.
Be aware of weed species. Bass will often prefer one over another, or sometimes it’s the combination of two that will draw bass.
Be aware of weed densities. For example, in a lake choked with weeds, sometimes it’s the area on the weedline that is “broken up” that produces. Conversely in a lake with limited weed production, the weedline with the thickest density often is most productive.
Read the weather and adjust to it. Bluebird, sunny days after the passing of a cold front will push bass tighter into the weeds. They may still be close to a weedline, but just sucked up in the weeds farther where typically the weeds are denser, offering greater shade. However, cloudy conditions make the bass a bit braver so that they get out of the weeds and position along the sparsest boundaries of the weedline.
There you have it — some quick guidelines to identifying productive weedlines.
Something I always remind myself is that most of the bass are going to be found in a small percentage of the possible weedlines available. So with that in mind, keep your boat moving along the until fish are caught. Oftentimes, it’s only after I catch the fish, do I realize and detect the irregularity that drew it there to begin with.
