Streamlined swimbaits like the Berkley Havoc Grass Pig, Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper, Yum Lil’ Suzee and Yamamoto Swim Senko offer a lot of versatility for grass fishing.
You can rig them weightless and buzz them across the tops of scattered grass, slowly swim them over denser cover for the sputtering presentation that deeply buried bass can find, or add a small bullet weight to make the bait swim subsurface around grass edges or through lanes and guts of large grass areas.
Screw-Lock hooks that hold the bait with a free-moving coil affixed to the eye minimize wear and eliminate the need to frequently reposition the bait.
Also, in grassy habitat these swimming baits also work well on the back of a ChatterBait. If the full bait is too much, bite an inch or so off the front end.
In addition to traditional swimming-style plastics, the undulating motion of a big ribbontail worm can be highly effective when fished horizontally across grassy cover. Resembling a slithering snake, ribbontails present a different look that might trigger another bite if the fish get tired of seeing a swimbait.
“When it’s Texas-rigged, it can be very weedless, so you can bring it through the thickest type of cover,” Bassmaster Elite pro John Crews said. “But when the fish bites it, because of the long, skinny design your hook-up ratio is extremely high.”
