Some South Dakota bass

[Steve81]

This video is from a tournament last month on a small lake in South Dakota. I had never been there before this tournament but we caught a lot of fish and had even more fun!

In this video, you're going to notice a lot of matted grass and you might think that I should be throwing a frog. Believe me; I tried! They wouldn't touch a frog. But the cool part of the day was that after the tournament was over, everyone had a bunch of pieces of mice in their livewells that had been spit up by the bass. Naturally, nobody realized this until after the tournament and, you guessed it, nobody ever thought to try a hollow body mouse!

[cojab]

Great video Steve.
What is the tall vegetation on the edges of that lake. We have it here in a lake I fish but I've never known exactly what it is. I've always just called it tules or cattails.....

[Steve81]

Great video Steve.
What is the tall vegetation on the edges of that lake. We have it here in a lake I fish but I've never known exactly what it is. I've always just called it tules or cattails.....

Those have a bunch of names depending on where you go in the country. To me, they are called reeds or cattails. But if you go out west, tules would be common. Or down in Florida, you might hear them called buggywhips.

[cojab]

So quick question on those tules, or cattails, or buggywhips etc.....

How deep (far inside, not depth) do fish hold in them? They seem so thick that a fish wouldnt be able to get to far back. I have caught a few off the edges of them but am thinking of pitching into them this year with a jig or something.

[Steve81]

In my experience and from every article I've read/video I've watched, the answer to that question is going to be dictated mainly by the depth of the water in the reeds. In this particular tournament, there was about 2-3 feet of water on the edges and then 2 feet or less of depth once you got about 10 feet back in the reeds. In practice, I did mess around with pitch far back into the reeds and managed to get a few bites from small fish. Looking back, I'm sure that there were quality fish somewhere on that lake further back in the reeds.

Last year, Aaron Martens won a Bassmaster Elite Series event on Lake Havasu by doing something very similar to this. If you can, watch that video of the tournament. There's a lot of really good info that you can pick up simply by watching how he tries to present his bait to the fish that are way back in the reeds.

[cojab]

Thanks Steve. Actually I saw that video of Martens that your talking about. I think I will watch again with this in the back of my mind. The tules just seem so thick it's hard to think a fish gets around in them very well but I'm sure they adapt.

[Steve81]

Largemouth are one of the only fish species I've seen that are truly at home by being buried in vegetation. They love being back in that stuff. They crave dark/shady areas and those reeds create tons of it. Plus (and this is probably the most important factor) there's tons of things to eat back there. Small minnow, bluegills, frogs, crawfish...

Heck! On the lake I videoed, they were feeding on mice back there!