Bass live around grass. From 6 inches of water to 35 feet deep, aquatic vegetation is where bass eat, hide, and call home. But not all grass is the same — and knowing the difference between good grass and bad grass, shallow grass and deep grass, matters as much as the lure you tie on. This is a full breakdown of the science behind aquatic vegetation and exactly which lures to throw in each situation.
Grass Fishing Quick Reference
| Grass Type | Root System | Depth Range | Best Lure Categories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Algae | None — floats or grows on surfaces | Surface to shallow | Weightless soft plastics, punch rig, frog |
| Floating Plants | None — moves with wind & current | Surface canopy, varies below | Topwater, spinnerbait, swim jig, vibrating jig |
| Submergent | Anchored to bottom — flaccid stem | 6 in to 35+ ft | Jig, swim jig, vibrating jig, crankbait, soft plastics |
| Emergent | Anchored to bottom — rigid stem | 1 ft to ~10 ft max | Frog, punch rig, swim jig, spinnerbait |
The Four Types of Aquatic Vegetation — And What They Tell You
Most anglers look at a grass line and think about lure selection. But before you ever make a cast, the type of grass you're looking at is already telling you something about the depth, bottom composition, and fish location underneath. Here's how to read it.
Type 1: Algae
Algae are single-celled organisms with no vascular structure — no stems, leaves, or flowers. They either grow on surfaces or float in masses across your pond or lake. The most recognizable example is snot grass: that slimy, stringy stuff that coats your hook and fouls your lure on nearly every cast.
As a habitat for bass, algae is largely unproductive for anglers. It doesn't form the kind of structure bass use to ambush prey, and casting into heavy algae almost always means a fouled presentation. Some algae species can be actively harmful to a fishery by choking out oxygen or adding harmful nutrients, though most are simply an inconvenience.
When algae is your primary cover, go weightless or near-weightless. Weightless soft jerkbaits, weedless wacky rigs, and drop shots with the weight held off bottom are your best options. When algae covers the entire surface, only a punch rig or topwater frog can realistically reach fish underneath.
Type 2: Floating Plants
Floating plants — duckweed, hyacinth, and gator grass — have leaves and roots, but those roots are not anchored to the bottom. They go wherever the wind and current push them. Because they aren't fixed, they form a surface canopy with open water beneath them, which makes them excellent warm-weather bass habitat, especially in late spring through early fall.
That open canopy underneath floating grass is prime real estate for bass. The shade breaks up surface light, the canopy concentrates baitfish and bluegill, and the bass have a clear sightline out from under it. The key variable is whether there's actually enough depth beneath the mat for fish to live. If a floating mat has drifted over a mud flat in 4 inches of water, there's no canopy — there's no room. You have to fish it to know.
Fish the edges and pockets of floating grass mats first — this is where bass transition from open water into the shade. Then work lures underneath the mat with a swim jig, spinnerbait, or vibrating jig. If the canopy is tight and thick, punch through it with a heavy Texas rig or switch to a frog on the surface.
Type 3: Submergent Grass
Submergent grasses — coontail, milfoil, cabbage, hydrilla — are anchored to the bottom and grow upward through the water column. Their defining characteristic is a flaccid stem: if you pull a piece out of the water and hold it up, the stem can't support its own weight. These are the most versatile and widespread grass types in bass fishing, growing from 6 inches of water all the way out to 35+ feet deep.
One of the most useful things you can learn about submergent grass comes from fisheries biologist Steven Barden: the leaf spacing on the stem tells you the depth it grew in. Submergent plants like coontail grow their leaves close together in shallow water, where they get all the sunlight they need near the surface. In deeper water, those same plants spread their leaves farther apart on the stem because they're reaching toward the light from a greater distance.
Find a piece of submerged grass that's broken off and floating near the boat ramp. If the leaf whorls are tightly packed, that grass grew in shallow water. If they're spaced far apart — sometimes 12 inches between segments — it came from deep water, potentially 10 to 15 feet down. This trick is especially useful on unfamiliar lakes when you don't have electronics.
Submergent grasses can grow on virtually any bottom composition — mud, sand, clay, hard rock — which makes them harder to read than emergent plants when it comes to bottom structure. The grass itself won't always tell you the bottom type, but it does tell you there's enough light penetration and water quality to support plant growth, which is always a good sign for fish.
Type 4: Emergent Grass
Emergent grasses — cattails, pencil reeds, lily pads, hay grass — are rooted to the bottom and grow above the waterline. Their stems are rigid: pull a piece out and it holds itself up. This structural difference isn't just biological trivia — it tells you a great deal about depth and bottom composition.
Unlike submergent grasses, emergent plants are constrained to specific depth windows. Cattails typically grow in 1 to 4 feet of water. Where the bottom drops below that threshold, they stop completely — which is why you see cattails lining pond and lake edges rather than growing out in the middle (unless the entire lake is consistently shallow, like Lake Okeechobee). Lily pads can reach stems out to around 10 feet. Pencil reeds and hay grass max out around 3 to 5 feet.
| Emergent Grass | Depth Range | Best Bottom Composition | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cattails | 1 – 4 ft | Mud or sand | Line the bank; where they stop, depth drops off |
| Pencil Reeds | 1 – 4 ft | Hard bottom, rock | Indicate hard structure — often offshore humps |
| Lily Pads | 1 – 10 ft | Mud | Stems can reach surprisingly deep; shade = bass |
| Hay Grass | 1 – 5 ft | Clay | Common in East Texas reservoirs; soft bottom indicator |
A stand of pencil reeds growing out in the middle of a lake signals a hard-bottom offshore hump rising into the 2–4 foot depth zone — surrounded by deeper water. If the same area had soft bottom, you'd expect lily pads or cattails mixed in. Just pencil reeds on an offshore flat almost always means hard rock or gravel beneath. File that away before you make a single cast.
Good Grass vs. Bad Grass — Not Every Green Patch Holds Fish
This is the part most grass fishing content skips over. Not all aquatic vegetation holds bass — and the difference between productive grass and empty grass is something you need to learn to identify quickly.
When Submergent Grass Becomes Bad
Milfoil and hydrilla can grow tall enough to break the surface and fold over, forming a floating mat above open water. When there's adequate depth below that mat — say 4 to 6 feet of water — bass can hold underneath in excellent ambush position. That's good grass. But when the same mat is sitting over a flat that's only 8 inches deep, there's no canopy underneath, there's no room for fish, and fishing it is a waste of time. The two areas can look identical from the surface. The only way to know is to punch through it and feel whether there's open water beneath.
Mixed-Grass Areas Require Work
Some of the best bodies of water have five or six different grass types overlapping in the same zone — cattails along the bank, carpet grass from 1 to 3 feet, milfoil from 3 to 6 feet, lily pads scattered throughout, cabbage in 8 to 12 feet. On any given day, bass may be keyed in on just one of those zones and ignoring the others completely. The fish that were stacked on pencil reeds yesterday may have moved to the milfoil edge today because the bluegill moved. You have to put in the time and work each zone until you identify the good grass of the day.
Look for transitions and changes in aquatic vegetation, not just the grass itself. A 100-yard flat of identical milfoil is far less productive than the spot where the milfoil ends and a gravel point begins, or where a hole opens up in the middle of a pad field. Change is where the fish sit. Find the edges, the pockets, and the drop-offs within the grass and you've found the good grass.
Lure Category 1: Soft Plastics
Soft plastics are the most versatile and broadly applicable lure category for grass fishing — and that's by design. Virtually every soft plastic style works in grass. The key is rigging it correctly for the type of grass and the depth you're fishing. Three rigging styles cover most situations.
Light Texas Rig
A light Texas rig — 1/8 to 3/16 oz bullet weight — is the everyday workhorse for grass fishing. It gets a worm, creature bait, or craw into pockets, gaps, and edges in submergent and emergent grass without hanging up constantly. Cast it to transitions, holes, and points in the grass line. The light weight keeps it from burying too deep, and the weedless rigging handles the fouling better than any exposed-hook presentation.
Punch Rig
When milfoil, lily pads, or cattails mat up at the surface, the punch rig is the only effective soft plastic presentation. Tyler's setup: 50 or 65 lb braided main line, one bobber stopper, a 1 oz tungsten bullet weight, a 3/0 flipping hook, and either a Strike King Rage Hawk (very active and aggressive) or a mock craw (more subtle). The tungsten weight punches through the mat and drops straight down into the open water below. Works from the bank just as effectively as from a boat.
Use the lightest weight that punches through the mat cleanly every cast. If 1/2 oz gets through reliably, don't use 1 oz. Lighter weight means a slower, more natural fall in the water column below the mat — which is where fish see it and decide to eat. Start at 1 oz and work lighter until the mat starts deflecting your rig, then go back up one size.
Drop Shot
The drop shot is underused around grass but highly effective at targeting specific fish sitting near transitions and depth changes in submergent vegetation. Keep the weight light enough to hover just off the bottom at the base of a grass edge, and fish it on a tight line with subtle shakes. The suspended presentation keeps the bait in the strike zone longer than a dragged Texas rig.
Lure Category 2: Jigs — Tyler's Favorite Grass Lure
If Tyler is picking one lure category to fish in quality submergent grass, it's the jig. The jig sinks down into the grass in a way a light Texas rig doesn't, allowing it to reach the bottom of a healthy grass mat and target the fish holding deepest in the structure. Three specific variations cover the full range of grass fishing situations.
Arky-Style Jig — For Deeper Grass
Tyler's preference is an arky-style jig head with a vertical line tie, not horizontal. The vertical line tie makes a meaningful difference in grass: a horizontal tie catches grass on the head as the jig hops through vegetation, while the vertical tie allows it to come through much cleaner. Standard weights run 3/8 to 1/2 oz for most grass situations, stepping up to 5/8 or 1 oz for deep grass in 10 to 15 feet of water. If the grass in your area is healthy submergent vegetation — coontail, milfoil, cabbage — this is the jig to start with.
Swim Jig — For Shallow Grass and Lateral Presentation
When grass is shallow or you want to present the jig moving rather than falling, a swim jig is the choice. Tyler's current favorite is the Outcast Tackle Jackpot Jig — a compact beefy-hooked swim jig that slides through lily pads, cattails, and shallow grass better than a standard arky-style. Use it for swimming over the tops of submerged grass, skipping underneath overhanging mats near docks, and covering water along grass edges. At 3/8 oz, it covers shallow to mid-depth grass efficiently.
Vibrating Jig — For Grass Edges and Open-Water Transitions
A vibrating jig doesn't replace an arky or swim jig around grass — it fills a different role. Where the other jigs excel at vertical presentations and tight quarters, the vibrating jig is your long-cast, cover-water tool for grass edges and breaks just off the bank. Tyler's pick is the Strike King Tungsten Thunder Cricket in 3/8 or 1/2 oz. Burn it over the top of a submergent grass edge, let it deflect off the outside wall of a cattail line, or work it through a gap in lily pads. Nothing covers grass-adjacent water faster.
| Jig Type | Best Grass Scenario | Weight | Key Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arky-Style (vertical tie) | Healthy submergent grass, medium to deep | 3/8 – 1 oz | Vertical line tie passes through grass cleaner |
| Swim Jig | Shallow grass, pads, cattails, lateral retrieve | 3/8 oz | Hydrodynamic head deflects rather than grabs |
| Vibrating Jig | Grass edges, transitions, covering water | 3/8 – 1/2 oz | Best for casting parallel to a grass line |
Lure Category 3: The Topwater Frog
The topwater frog is the lure most anglers under-deploy. They throw it around the edges of grass mats, get a few follows, and decide it's not working. The problem isn't the lure — it's the location. The frog was designed to be fished over the nastiest, thickest, most impenetrable grass you can find. If you're not throwing it in water you're sure you'll never get it back from, you're not fishing the frog correctly.
Popping vs. Standard Frog
Tyler throws a popping-style frog (Strike King Popping Pad Perch) roughly 80% of the time. The cupped face spits water and creates a surface disturbance that calls bass up from a distance. In any situation where there's open water visible — gaps in pads, edges of mats, any open pocket — the popping frog gets the call. When the cover tightens up — heavy matted milfoil, dense lily pads, thick pencil reeds — a standard-nose frog (Strike King Pad Perch) penetrates and slides through the cover more cleanly. The blunt nose catches; the pointed nose glides.
Line: Go Heavier Than You Think You Need
40 lb braid is the minimum for frog fishing. Tyler regularly throws 50 to 65 lb. This isn't about strength — a 6-pound bass can't break 20 lb mono. The reason to go heavy is abrasion resistance. When you're tearing a frog — and a bass — back through matted grass mixed with cattails, wood stems, and lily pad stalks, you need the diameter and durability of heavy braid to survive that abuse without fraying and breaking. Light braid frays fast around abrasive vegetation. Heavy braid cuts through it.
1. Throw it shallower and over nastier stuff than you ever have before — that's where the biggest fish live under mats. 2. Use heavier braid than feels comfortable — 40 lb minimum, 50–65 lb preferred. The abrasion resistance of heavy braid in thick cover is worth far more than the sensitivity of lighter line.
Lure Category 4: Crankbaits Around Grass
Crankbaits and grass feel like a contradiction. Two treble hooks, a floating body, and a bill that grabs everything — it sounds like a recipe for lost tackle. But fished correctly, crankbaits can be one of the most productive grass lures available, especially for anglers fishing deeper submergent vegetation in northern lakes.
The Key Rule: Match Dive Depth to Grass Depth
With hard-bottom crankbait fishing, you can throw a lure that dives deeper than the bottom — dredging gravel and rock actually triggers bites. Grass is different. If your crankbait dives 4 feet deeper than the top of the grass canopy, it gets buried in vegetation on every cast. You need the crankbait to tick the top of the grass just slightly — making contact enough to trigger reaction bites, but not enough to foul completely. A quick snap of the rod tip clears most fouling. That deflection and float-up is often exactly what triggers a bite.
Tyler's Two Grass Crankbaits
Strike King 3XD (8–12 ft dive): Best for deeper submergent grass in lakes. If the grass tops are at 8 to 10 feet, this crankbait grazes the canopy at the right depth. Primarily a lake tool — too much dive for most ponds.
Strike King Hybrid Hunter: The L-shaped bill makes this crankbait more self-clearing in grass than a standard rounded bill. It hangs up less, deflects off vegetation more naturally, and can be fished slightly shallower into a grass canopy. Better suited for ponds and shallower lake situations.
Lipless Crankbait — The Variable-Depth Option for Ponds
For pond fishing and bodies of water with inconsistent grass depth, a lipless crankbait is the most adaptable crankbait choice. Because it sinks, you control the depth entirely with rod angle and retrieve speed. Rod tip up and burning fast keeps it near the surface. Rod tip down and a slower retrieve puts it deeper in the water column. This lets you probe the contours of irregular grass without constantly fouling on unexpected shallow patches. Chrome, red/chrome, and shad are the go-to colorways.
Avoid crankbaits around eel grass — the long, stringy, waving vegetation that's more likely to wrap than deflect. Stick to spinnerbaits, vibrating jigs, and swim jigs in that situation. Also skip slow-sinking or suspending crankbaits in grass — you want a fast-floating bait that bounces off the canopy and rises immediately when you pause. A slow floater just settles into the grass and gets buried.
| Crankbait | Dive Depth | Best Grass Scenario | Body of Water |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strike King 3XD | 8 – 12 ft | Deeper submergent grass, ticking the canopy | Lakes — too deep for most ponds |
| Strike King Hybrid Hunter | 4 – 8 ft | Shallower grass, self-clearing around pads & milfoil | Lakes and ponds |
| Lipless Crankbait | Variable (retrieve-controlled) | Irregular grass depth, pond fishing, ripping through grass edges | Ponds and lakes |
Putting It Together: Grass Fishing by Season
Grass fishing changes through the year — not just because bass behavior changes, but because the grass itself changes. In spring, emerging vegetation is sparse and translucent; bass are using it for cover during the spawn cycle. By summer, submergent grass has reached the surface in many lakes and formed full mats. In fall, dying grass creates transitions that concentrate baitfish and the bass that follow them.
| Season | Grass Condition | Where to Focus | Top Lures |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spring (Pre-Spawn) | New growth, sparse and low | Grass edges near hard bottom and spawning flats | Swim jig, vibrating jig, spinnerbait, Texas rig |
| Spring (Spawn / Post-Spawn) | Filling in — reaching mid-column | Pockets and holes in grass near hard bottom | Wacky rig, Texas rig, swim jig |
| Summer | Peak density — often matted at surface | Under mats with canopy; grass edges in shade; deeper cabbage offshore | Punch rig, frog, arky jig, crankbait (deeper lakes) |
| Fall | Dying back — creating open holes and transition edges | Live grass adjacent to dying grass; edges where forage concentrates | Vibrating jig, lipless crankbait, swim jig, jig |
Tyler has full masterclass videos on several of the lures covered here — including a dedicated Chatterbait Masterclass and a Drop Shot Masterclass. Links are in the video description above.
Source: Based on video content from TylersReelFishing — "How To Fish GRASS For Bass! (Lures & Science)" · youtube.com/@tylersreelfishing
Q&A Flashcards: How to Fish Grass for Bass
Tap any card to reveal the answer. Great for reviewing before your next trip.