Learning Your Aquatic Plants to Catch More Fish

The world of aquatic plants is vast and diverse.  They live under the water, on top of the water, and grow out of the water.  Aquatic plants make good habitat for a wide variety of critters: larval insects, fish, amphibians, birds, and small mammals.  

A good way to start is to learn the common plants in the lake you fish or recreate in the most. The plants that grow out of the water are easiest to identify. Smartphone applications like my favorite "PictureThis" will give you the general class of plants and often gets the species correct just by the leaf characteristics.  If you can find a flower blooming on any plant, the PictureThis app is really accurate at giving you the species names. 

Underwater plants are a little more tricky in identifying with an app. When you pick up aquatic plants that live underwater they often fall limp and don't photograph well enough for computer app identification.  These are the plants you will need to learn by hand using my upcoming guides.  Once you know the species, there are some tricks I will share on how to catch more fish out of them.  

Look for future episodes coming soon.   

AquaticBiologyforAnglers.com

Numbers Can Be Misleading

My angler status and associated ranking does not fully reflect the story of my first year’s experience on the FLW Costa Southeastern Tour.  

Over two hundred anglers routinely fish in the FLW Costa Tour 

Yes, my ranking of 100th out of 268 is accurate, my weights were all properly recorded, but my numbers miss represent my 2018 story. 

In January, wind dominated southern Florida. The first event on Lake Okeechobee was very tragic. A pro boater’s judgement error and high winds played a key role in the death of fellow coangler Nik Kayler on day one. 

Remembering Nik Kayler - 2018

The tragedy caused the cancellation of the remaining tournament and only day-one weights counted.  A poor day of fishing showed in my pplace standing and a total weight of five pounds, two ounces. I was not on any solid fishing pattern so this finish was justified. 

Second stop of the Costa event was on Lake Seminole the first week of March.  Again, wind destroyed the lake the first day of the event and a lake wind advisory caused the cancellation of tournament day-one. 

A massive wind storm cancelled day-one

The full field was required to fish the next two days to determine the champion. 

In practice, despite the cloudy, windy days I found three solid fishing patterns that should have put me in contention for a top ten finish. 

Wind and weather had to be factored into the game plan

The fishing patterns were:  open water schoolers around isolated plant beds, prespawn bass in lilypads, and staging bass on 20-foot deep timber. 

Aquatic plants found to hold schooling bass

Lilypad beds where prespawn bass were holding

Deep water standing timber holding staging bass

The storm that passed the night of day-one wrecked my open water schoolers. I was only able to entice one bass in the three-pound class to bite my lure, but lost it at the boat. 

I also lost some numerous bass in the three-pound class fishing topwater frogs in the lilypads, and lost another four-pounder fishing jerkbaits in standing timber. 

In the end, my two day weight of 18lbs, 3ozs for eight bass gave me a finish mid-pack in the 238-angler field. 

Being in the bag line is a good thing

A large crowd gathered to see our fish

If I had landed any of the three-pound bass that I lost, I would have filled my allowable five-bass limit and I would have finished in the top 50 with a nice paycheck.  

In this last derby I played the weather correctly, developed a nice diversity of patterns to hold up for three days, and caught more weight in each consecutive tournament day. But bad execution cost me. I have relived every lost fish too many times to tell you, but I have also analyzed the cause of each loss and vow to correct the problems. 

Aquatic plants that grew underwater and chocked out spawning areas

A hard line where shorelines dropped steeply into the water

The “numbers” do not tell the whole story of how close I was to having a top finish!  

Remember, there is always a great story behind the scenes of how close each angler was to taking the prize, so do not take the numbers at face value. 

My best two bass landed on the final day of Lake Seminole event

Tight lines, and remember to learn your aquatic plants to catch more fish.    
Jeff 

Old Hickory Lake TN

2017 Ray Scott National Championship in Nashville, TN April 3rd-9th

While my tournament event did not go as expected, Cumberland River's Old Hickory reservoir in Tennessee was a beautiful system to fish the ABA National Champship. Dense angler fishing pressure and abnormal weather conditions threw a wrench in my fishing, eliminated anything I found during my single-day ride around, and shut down the bass bite to a slow crawl.

Bass Pro Shop Outpost in Chattanooga TN

With all three species: largemouth, spotted, and smallmouth bass, the possibilities for catching fish seemed endless.

Scouting

On the Tuesday I arrived water temperatures where reaching 67F degrees.  My plan started with several hours of scouting with my Lowrance Structure Scan unit.  Once I got a feel for the water conditions, I made my first fishing stop along the main river channel along a rocky bluff wall. In water 40ft deep, the logical thing to do would be to fish a jig down the rock outcroppings.

But I'm not logical and I surmised by the conditions that any bass out here would be pre-spawn, feeding in anticipation of soon heading shallow to spawn. With the predicted cold front on the way, this deeper area should hold heat longer.

Using a topwater walking bait, I fished the bluff and caught a good pre-spawn spotted bass that looked to be just under three pounds. So far so good.

First spotted bass of practice on a rock bluff

There was a large crawfish pincher sticking out of the fish's gullet.

My next fishing stop was all the way to the back of a creek to assess the stage of any spawners. I needed to find out if the bass were on beds yet or if they had spawned already.

On my first pass along the shallows I eye-balled five single bass on beds, and two paired with bigger females. No bass fry was present.  The beds were extremely different than our Florida Kissimmee Lake bass beds.  Old Hickory bass made very light colored beds and non-distinct bed on sandy bottoms. Male bass were observed in the middle of the beds and were extremely hard to see.  These bass lacked any mottling and were an almost silver in color.

The lighter color in the center of this sand flat was a bass on a bed

A nice largemouth caught fishing the shallows near beds.

Waterwillow plants were still brown from the winter but new sprouts were starting!

Since I had scouted both extremes (shallow and deep), my third fishing stop was mid-river to find bass closer to the river channel.  This group of bass should be a mix of prespawn/spawning fish but less subjected to the effects of the predicted cold front.  Cold temperatures often pull bass off beds, and may even pushed spawning fish back out to the main river until weather conditions stabilize.

It was in this mid-river area that I found the biggest largemouth and spotted bass. In fact, one largemouth bass-bed deep inside a fallen tree held a six pound female spawning with a three male!!

A six pound bass was seen spawning in the protection of this tree-fall.

Severe Weather

On Wednesday afternoon the American Bass Angler's Ray Scott National Championship registration meeting began. 

Angler registration and pairing meeting in TN Civic Center

 During the event the weather front officially hit Nashville TN. Along with rain and cold temperatures, the front also brought ludicrous-level wind speeds. With 45 mph gusts and small craft wind advisory throughout the night, the tournament organization was forced to cancel the first day of the tournament. The scheduled three-day championship turned into a two-day shootout.

I drew out as boat #29 in flight 2, so all night I wondered how the wind and cold would affect those big spawning bass. I contained my excitement of potentially catching that six pound spawning bass first thing in the morning.

  

Day One

Day one of the tournament started at 4am with predicted winds in the 30mph range and air temperatures in the low 40s.  After a 20 minute run up lake from the Sanders Ferry boat ramp, I could hardly feel my face or work my hands. The wind burn and cracked skin I received is still slowing my ability to type this blog a week later!

My first stop was a wind protected, deepwater bay just off the main river north of the mid-lake bridge. Sunlight was low and the morning was gorgeous. Working a rocky point in the bay I landed my first spotted bass over the required 12 inch limit. After catching a few short spotted bass, I moved to the back of the bay and caught my first keeper largemouth bass over 14 inches. As I was fishing, the sun was breaking the horizon on this bluebird sky day.  The warmth from the bright sunshine felt good and would hopefully warm up the shallows that sat in the mid 50s.  Surface water temperatures had dropped over 12 degrees!

As the sun rose, I noticed the water in the bay was dirty, and rising. My first thought was "Wholly crap, the main river was swelling due to rain and the lack of hydro-generation”. I fished all the rocky bluffs, creeks and bays I scouted as well as new ones with no success. Between the 12 degree temperature drop and incoming dirty water, my bass got lock-jaw.   My first day weigh-in at 3:15pm consisted of two bass for a miserable 130th place standing out of 156 pros.

Day Two

On the second tournament day it was even colder at 4am with frost all over my boat and Mercury engine. Being physically worn down from the cold at this point, I donned four layers of shirts and my BassProShop’s heavy duty rain suit.

My Triton/Mercury Marine rig was cold and covered with frost

My first fishing stop was again in the deep water bay where I caught my two bass on day one. I found the water up half a foot higher and dirty water from the main Cumberland river all the way back in my bay. After fishing for 40 minutes my coangler and I never got a bite so I called an audible.

Heading back out to the deep water of the main river I found parts of the river was clearing. Fishing the clear side along the river shoals, my coangler caught the first keeper bass off a wood laydown.  I had my first clue of the day.  But after working main river wood for an hour neither one of us got bit again.  “Some clues lead anglers in the wrong direction.”

Given the conditions, I moved to fish the deepest water in the largest protected creeks way off the main river.  My first stop was a large marina surrounded by 20 feet of water. Large schools of shad were swimming around the marina docks and my coangler caught his second keeper largemouth bass on a jerkbait. I worked hard with a jerkbait, shakeyhead, worm, and sinko around every dock and only managed to draw strikes from two short bass. 

Large, deepwater marinas held the shad and a few bass.

Fishing sinkos wacky-style earn a few bites but no keeper bass

Things just did not go my way and I ended the day officially skunked. First time I have been fishless in over 15 years fishing as a pro angler. Very disappointing to me and I felt I let my family and sponsors down. I wanted to do so much more for the Kids in Support of Soldiers.  All the yearlong effort to qualify for the national championship and miles of travel, everything at the time seemed worthless.  The highs and low of tournament fishing hurt, but that pain builds toughness, and the ability to shake it off is something tournament angler know all too well.  

On the 10-hour drive home I was able to review the event and shake off the pain and humility I experienced.

Internal Dialog

On the bright side, the ten-ton gorilla is off my back! The experience of being skunked allowed me to push through my fear of failure and stand tall despite my poor results.  Being skunked did not cause the world to end, people didn't laugh, sponsors didn't drop me, and no one posted ridicule on social media.  Wow!  Life continued…

As I write this summary, I am concurrently preparing for the second stop of the Bassmaster Southern Open trail on Tennessee's Lake Chickamauga!  Our Florida strain bass were stocked there beginning in 2000 and the bigger females are now making the local newspapers. Huge 30 and 40 pound bags of bass are winning tournaments in the area. Lake Chickamauga is set up to be a much different fishery than Old Hickory!

The lessons learned from Old Hickory Lake have greatly helped me understand the bass of Tennessee.   Stay tuned, I'll post my Bassmaster Southern Open experiences and results in the next blog.

I hope this helps you catch more bass on Old Hickory Lake.   Jeff

Reflecting on Fishing Tips from 2015

As you can see from the lack of posts, after I fished the final Bassmaster Southern Open tournament of 2015 on Lake Seminole, I didn't look back. The year marked one of my most challenging years on the tournament tour, one I needed to let go of.

As I take time to reflect back and write this blog, I realized it wasn't anything to do with the lakes: we fished some good lakes with beautiful scenery. It wasn't anything to do with people: every town we visited the people were friendly and anglers courteous. It was likely to do with my lure selection and fishing techniques not matching the fishing conditions.

There are certain lures that can be used to catch fish in high pressure situations.  As I review my 2015 season, I will share those lures that I found successful, and the ones that died under the pressure.

1) The first Bassmaster Southern Open was held in January on Lake Toho in Kimmissee, FL. That week we experienced a cold weather front, high winds, and ice on the boats in the morning.  Ice in Florida?..ugh..only during a tournament!  I found bass were extremely aggressive at the beginning of the week before the front. Bass would eat my lipless crankbaits, swimbaits, topwater, and soft plastic baits pitched and flipped to plants like torpedograss, cattails, and bulrush. Color didn't seem to matter, and I used the classics: black/silver hardbaits and junebug soft plastic baits.

My Triton/Mercury Marine rig in Lake Toho lock going to Lake Kissimmee

The high winds that came through on the last day of practice stirred up the lake bottom and ruined all my openwater areas. I found this out the next day at the start of the tournament .  This muddy water forced all the anglers to fish in the limited, wind-protected, clear water areas.  Of all my practice lures, I found that only my swimbait produced bites in the cramped fishing areas on tournament day. To entice the finicky bass to bite, I had to slow down my retrieve to half the lure speed that I used in practice.  In the afternoon, I found some bass spawning, and plastic baits worked good on catching the male, buck-bass around spawning beds.

Mix of cattail and bulrush often hold groups of bass

One patch of mixed cattail and bulrush produced a half-dozen bites from big female bass. Unfortunately, the bass were finicky and I failed to land any of them. It still amazes me how big bass can be so precise in biting only the punchers on my 3" crawfish bait, and never eating the full bait. It was a sure indication that these bass had already seen a few lures over the week. 

I ended the 2-day tournament in 122nd place, top 61%, only 9.5 pounds of the top 40 cut.


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2) Bassmater Southern Open event #2 was on Alabama River in Prattville, AL in April. This section of river is impounded by a dam, with three dams feeding water in: two dams on the Coosa River, and one on the Tallapoosa River. Water fluctuations were extreme, and while largemouth bass lived in the Alabama River, a species of Coosa River spotted bass was the prey we were hunting. This whole situation was new to this Florida angler.

Water levels changes: trees out of water overnight

My pre-tournament research allowed me to understand the water stages.  Yet, getting used to water movements of nearly four feet overnight was a challenge.  Fallen trees I would find holding bass during practice would be out of the water the next day.

Fishing for the aggressive Coosa River spotted bass reminded me of fishing for saltwater jack crevalle. When they hit your bait, they hit hard and pulled like our inshore saltwater fish. The setup of the Alabama river with its three inflowing streams produced a constant flow of water that positioned bass nicely. I really could get used to that!

Backwater areas off the Alabama River held good largemouth bass

My practice lures which caught both largemouth and spotted bass were spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, shakeyhead worms, and hard jerkbaits. The backwater areas mostly held largemouth bass and the swift current eddies supported more spotted bass.

Since I was not familiar with all the fish species and how each one hit, I was forced to catch a few fish in the practice to confirm the species and size. Drum, catfish, and other non-tournament fish will often mislead anglers to believing they found a large school of bass.

A muddy main river had me searching for clear water creeks

Changes in river flow and clarity, along with fishing pressure, unfortunately pushed the bass into deep water areas, 30-40 foot. Local angler knowledge dominated this tournament, and knowing which deep water holes held the best bass was the key I missed.  There just was not enough time in three days of practice to explore all the deep holes and fish as slow as needed. To compensate,

A large Coosa River spotted bass caught in the tournament on a chatterbait

I sought out the highest flowing, clear-water stream in search of feeding bass. My success was limited, but I left the Alabama River with a better undstanding of how the Coosa River spotted bass behave. The hard jerkbiat and shakeyhead finesse worm were the best lures during the event.  I finished in 123rd place, top 67%, just 8.9 pounds out of the top 40 cutoff.

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3) Last stop of the Bassmaster Southern Open was on Lake Seminole out of Bainbridge, GA in October. Lake Seminole was created by Army Corps as a reservoir for hydoelectric power generation, catching the Chattahoochee River, Flint River, Spring Creek, and Fish Pond tributaries.

Boating on the rocky Flint River was a thrill ride but catching shoal bass was fun  

The Flint River holds a unique species of bass known as the Shoal Bass. This fish prefers to feed on crawfish in rocky rapids, and this stream is ranked as one of the more dangerous rocky streams.  Navigating my Triton fiberglass boat and Mercury ProXS over the shallow rocks took some careful driving.

The river has to be one of the most pristine rivers I have ever fished. Shoal bass are much smaller than their largemouth bass cousins, and fishing for them was only a backup plan.

Aquatic plants are prime habitat for bass

The reservoir had been fishing extremely tough over the summer months and local tournament winners were reporting low historic weights. Hydrilla was dominating the lower end of the system, but nothing out of the ordinary could explain the low fish catch rates.

During my summertime practice on Lake Seminole, I was able to identify a lot of aquatic plants and catch some nice largemouth bass out of them.

Fishing pressure added to the difficult fishing conditions during the official practice week of the tournament, I had not ever witnessed so many local anglers on the water fishing during the work week as I did on Lake Seminole. The fishing pressure was over the top.

Aquatic plants found on Lake Seminole (videos click here)

Flipping is always a strong fishing technique in plant filled lakes and I knew this method would dominate this event. Anglers could spend days flipping soft plastic baits into the large variety of floating plants and abundant submersed plants like hydrilla, coontail, sago pondweed, and fanwort. Flipping for days is exactly what I did in practice!

Click here to visit the UF IFAS video webpage and learn more about aquatic plants

Unfortunately I was only able to entice a bass or two per day to bite, I was not alone as my fellow competitors were also reporting low numbers of bites in practice.

I took the chance of not knowing whether the bites were from bass or mudfish since I didn't use hooks in practice, Hitchhiker screwrigs are a great lure invention for holding baits on fishing line with actually hooking fish. I felt I couldn't afford to hook the limited number of bass willing to eat with all the angler fishing pressure,

Roomates Jimmy Keith, Darrel Pons Sr, Paul Elias, and Shaw Grigsby Jr.

Here I sit between Jimmy and Darrel, along with Shaw Grigsby Jr and Charlie Hartley

This last tournament of the year was special for me as I was able to house with my good friends Shaw Grigsby Jr, Paul Elias, Darrel Pons Sr, and Jimmy Keith. These Elite pros and seasoned anglers have traveled the country, and it is fun to hang out with them.  Not to mention I always gain from their insight and experiences!

The camaraderie and friends you make on the tournament trail is another benefit to the Bassmaster orginization, whether it be the Bass Nation or Open trails.

The BASS organization encourages us to post photos and video during practice.  My practice experience was out shadowed by a few guys posting photos of giant bass ten to twelve pounds caught during the week. I was obviously out of touch with the fishing conditions.

Anglers at Bainbridge GA ramp waiting for their launch numbers to be called

On the first day of the tournament I navigated my AERF-wrapped Triton Boat down the stump filled Flint River, to the lower end near the dam. I started off fishing a large hydrilla bed next to an open-water main lake channel where I had found bass in practice.

I noticed a small flurry of active bass first thing in the morning, and other than that it was a slow bite. I felt the trolling and outboard motor noises cutting through the grassbeds had probably kept the bass and baitfish on the move, and constantly alert them to angler presence.

First bass of tournament was a nice five pound largemouth 

After flipping the grass for nearly an hour I switched baits and caught my first, and biggest bass, of the tournament. I  caught it working a spinnerbait over a hole in deep hydrilla, I was surprised the fish hit a powerbait when the fishing was so slow.  It made me believe the fish were suspended in the grass and would indeed hit a reaction bait. I alternated between the spinnerbait and flipping a black and blue creature bait all day. It was not a fancy or exciting way to fish, just required making thousands of flips into miles of hydrilla and coontail beds growing along the main river. My fishes areas in the lower end failed to give up anymore bass. For the last hour of the tournament, I ran up the Flint river to try and fill out a five-bass limit. Cranks baits produced some small bass, and while I managed to catch both largemouth and shoal bass in the event, they never weighed enough.

Video clip of day one weigh-in on Lake Seminole, by AERF

I ended up finishing in 92nd place, top 55%, a mere 7.9 pounds out of the top 40 cutoff.

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Relaxing in the off season and reflecting on my tournament year

During my winter break from tournament competition, I relaxed in my home state of Florida while thinking back on my season.  My tournament record for 2015 was good, but not great.

I ended up 93rd in the Angler of the Year standings (out of 230 pros), equal to the top 45%.  I guess I am happy, given the high level of pro competition on the Bassmaster Open trail.

I was out of my comfort zone the entire time: fishing out-of-state lakes, practicing only two and a half days each event, angling for species of bass I rarely get a chance to catch, and competing against the best local anglers and Bassmaster Elite pros.

Yes, I got beat by a lot of anglers, but I equally beat some of the best local anglers and biggest names in the business. I experienced the core of tournament bass fishing, a sport that offers a roller coaster ride of emotions from highest of highs to lowest of lows. 

With 2015 behind me, I push forward into a new year with high hopes and renewed energy. My blog, website, and social media reached an all time peak in viewers and set the bar. Sharing information about fishing tips, bass and lake biology, and aquatic plant identification has become a second passion along with my tournament angling.  Each tournament situation is different, and I really enjoyed sharing the sights and stories through social media such as my Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest,

Bassmaster Open photo by JO

Knowing aquatic plants allowed me to fish them better, and research on plants was supported by the Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Foundation (AERF). I proudly wear their logo on my tournament jersey to help anglers learn about aquatic plants.

Additional support from Insight Genesis and GoFree Social Maps  really helped me maximize my Lowrance mapping features. Visit my website for links and upcoming how-to videos.

None of our recreational activities would be possible without our troops fighting to keep America free and safe. Please visit Kids In Support of Soldiers to learn how you can help them send monthly care packages to actively deployed soldiers defending our country.

Please check back with my blog monthly as I share new adventures and new fishing tips to make your fishing better and more enjoyable.

I hope you learned something new along with way! 

Thanks for following along,  Jeff Holland  
www.jeffhollandfishing.com

The Lull in Between Events

What does a die hard angler do between tournaments to keep busy and focused?

I am finding myself with that delima and in an area of lull that is foreign to me. Basically, no planned tournament fishing. A storm is brewing in my head. 

The 2015 schedule for the Bassmaster Southern Open tour has a five month break over the summer.  I have enjoyed more family time than I can remember. Trip to California, to Hawaii, and a nice dinner at the German pub in Sanford, Fl. 

So far this year on the tournament trail I have struggled to make a check in the Bassmaster Opens. I didn't even place high enough to qualify for the BassFest extravaganza on Kentucky Lake. 

As I sit at home I happily support my roommate Shaw Grigsby, friend Paul Elias, and fellow angler Troy Boussard of Swamp People on their quest to win BassFest. 

When life takes us away from our goals we all need to embark on a "grounding", the process of going back to our roots, stoking up the flames of desire, and getting motivated to burn through the challenges life throws at you. 

I just celebrated my 28th year marriage anniversary with my wife Trish. We developed juvenile diabetes with our first child 28 years ago. I say "we" because we are a team and have to rely on each other for strength. 

Today, we enjoy three beautiful children, one angel, and a great son in law. My wife's diabetes and our fight to enjoy life has been a very inspirational and motivating experience. Her ability to push through the tough times and reap the rewards of hard work without complain makes me proud!!

The strength my wife shows as she endures against all odds makes me mad at today's lazy society that wants something from nothing. 

I love tournament bass fishing and I love to take on challenges, but is there more??  I believe there is. 

I want to recuperate and gain my mental strength that I seems to have withered. I know I can catch fish, I have proven it over four years in the Bassmaster Southern Open trail. Yet, I feel I need to take a moment to regroup. My famy and my career limit me to 2.5days of practice in my Open events. With such limited time against full-time pros and local experts, I fight an uphill battle to be the best. 

So, I am thinking about expanding my promotional ability to more anglers for my sponsor #AERF.  Surveys show for every high level tournament angler there are nine anglers fishing mid-level and club tournaments.  

I stand to gain a nine-fold increase in brand impressions by fishing the Florida Bass Nation trail and ABA Weekend Series as I regroup and fish in Florida for a while with my friends. That's a win-win deal!! 

During my mission to share aquatic plant education, my goal will be to qualify for the BASS National Championship through the Bass Nation schedule and earn a berth in the Bassmaster Classic.

During my sabbatical from the Opens, I intend to accrue the vacation time needed to balance family vacations with a full-time career as a  Pro Angler. 

Juggling family time against a full-time biology career and a parttime BasspPro associate career has been a hand full. 

If it works out that 2016 limits me to home waters, I look forward to being a local expert for awhile, then everyone else will have to compete against me! 

Soon, I will recharge and challenge my Elite tournament friends again! If I retire from my career anytime soon, I will look to be a threat against the Bassmaster pros full time!! 

Look out Shaw Grigsby, Gary Klein, and Paul Elias. I'm coming! 

....This is the rant of a die-hard bass angler....I hope you feel my struggle and share my enjoyment of competitive bass fishing. Don't forget to balance fishing with family. 

Jeff