Isolated Grass Patches: The Key To Summer Bass Success

If your home water grows plenty of veggies, rest assured that by this time in the summer, the grass is at its peak growth. And now is also when the bass fishing in and around the grass can get a little confusing. Do you target the outside of the green stuff, or work your way deep into the salad? The answer is actually quite simple: hit the patches. Finding those patches, however, is another story.

I’m talking about the small, isolated clumps of grass that haven’t become choked out with overgrowth. They can be tough to find on bodies of water you don’t know well, and in truth, there’s no guarantee they’ll be in the same place year to year (if they form at all) on the bodies of water you do know well. What I can tell you is that isolated grass separated from the large “mothership” patches usually sprout later in the summer, meaning this is “fresher” grass. And it can be a bass magnet.

First, keep in mind when hunting for these magic patches that they’re likely to be located deeper than the main grass beds. Use your electronics (or your eyes in really clear water) to look for significant deviations from the norm, such as a big clump on a depth break line, or an isolated patch on a small hump. In addition to depth changes, the other big thing to look for is cleanliness of the grass. Quite often, the grass gets slimy in late summer. The “clean” grass patches, even if they’re a subsection of the big grass field, remains slime free for reasons like current providing cooler and fresher water daily, or even something as simple as a bottom content change that allows for lush growth of the grass even in the later summer months. Clean grass also tends to provide more late-season oxygen, which makes it more attractive to baitfish and the bass that chow down on them.