How To Avoid the Seaweed Bass Fishing With Lures

Right then, the weather is great, and the conditions are amazing. There is just one problem? Seaweed. So how do you avoid seaweed bass fishing with lures? We will not solve this problem completely but could at least increase your chances of catching in these horrendous times.

Avoid the Seaweed Bass Fishing With Lures

Bait Fishing Must Be a Nightmare

Jeez! If you think the seaweed is bad for us fishing with lures, then spare a thought for bait-fishing anglers. Ultimately, when that tide is at its peak, the weed is going to amass around your tackle in seconds. Personally, It wouldn’t bother you to spend more time pulling the ton of weed away from your tackle than actually fishing.

Seaweed Is Common Around June and July

Unfortunately, this happens every year, but lure fishing around the South East 2020 has been terrible. You only have to walk along the beach at low tide and see the heaps of green slimy weed. Personally, lure fishing for bass can be tough, but where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Fishing with lures in the weed

One night, a dreadful night for me as far as fishing goes, I learnt a couple of valuable lessons about fishing in crap conditions. The first thing I learnt about fishing when the weed is a simple one. That is if it’s fairly windy, make sure that when you go to take the weed off of the lure is to keep your line taught, so it’s in touch with the rod tip. Not so tight that it cuts your fingers lol, just thought.  What can happen is that if there is some slackline, the wind can blow your line over the rod and wrap up. Or the motion of fiddling around with the lure this can happen.

Ultimately, that same evening I spent about half an hour trying to untangle my braid that had amazingly knotted around my rod type. Also, I failed to mention that I had lost my glasses jumping over a wave before I had even cast out. This meant I couldn’t even see the knot I was trying to undo…nightmare.

It gets worse

To my utter amazement, when I finally got back into action, the others wanted to move to another location, so I had hardly fished. And to rub salt into the wound, they had both caught while I was fumbling around sorting my tangle out. Just keep your line taught easy.

We arrived at the new location, and the water looked pretty good (apart from the tons of seaweed in it). But things did not get any better for me. My batteries were flat in my head torch. Amazingly just as I had had enough, I asked my mate Steve to put Komomo II on and bang. The result was a bass of around 5lb.

Avoid the Seaweed Bass Fishing With Lures

Two Nights Down The Same Venue

So after that poor start to the previous evening, it all came good in the end. Apart from being a proper pain in the butt, I kept asking for help because I couldn’t see anything; it was a successful mission. However, the next night was a different scenario. I had two pairs of glasses and two lights.

Slow Start But all came Good but Still Seaweed

This was the reality of our fishing at this time. The seaweed was horrendous. We started going through the usual lures that have worked in the past, but nothing; they just seem to rake the weed in as soon as they hit the water. Rendering them useless. Also, the seaweed was catching on my leader knot, so I ended up tying my braid straight to the lure clip.

Change of Tactics, Change of fortune

This tactic seemed to have an immediate effect. I had put on the Megabass Dark Sleeper 3/4 oz and cast it out into the darkness. I started a micro slow retrieve, and bang, I went into a fish straight away. It was a first for me on the Dark Sleeper, although I had a feeling this lure would be a winner. The reason being, is that our rocky shorelines are littered with Gobies and Blennies. Megabass have done an amazing job replicating them. They must be a prime food source for that hungry bass.

Drifting Your Soft Plastic In the tide

My first Megabass sleeper had lost an eye, so I opted for its big brother, the 1oz version. Would you believe it I was in straight away again. Unfortunately, this one got off, but now my friend Steve had hooked into a nice bass. He was using a Gary Yamamoto Senko and drifting the lure in the tide.

He explained that the bigger bass will not always chase after bait like the smaller fish. They will sit in the tide and suck the bait in. This tactic is great if there is seaweed because the lure is going with the tide and the weed simultaneously. Bob’s ya uncle!

Double Hook Up: Senko + Dark Sleeper

Conclusion

So I have to say that what we go through in this post will solve the weed problem. It won’t. Ultimately, it will increase your chances of catching the seaweed. What’s more frustrating for me was not being aware of the drift in the tide method. I had ignored fishing when the water was amazing because of that weed. Always remember that lure fishing has so many things that can go against us. Luckily for us…not this one.

Lures Used In This Post

• Komomo II (now available in pure white)
• Megabass Dark Sleeper is Available on Amazon
• Gary Yamamoto Senko