With so much vegetation, plastics should be on top of any Lacassine Pool angler’s list.
But there are few relatively open pockets deeper than the 2-foot depths the pool averages.
“I have been successful with Zoom Flukes, Stanley Ribbits, Texas-rigged lizards and, most recently, Hale Lures’ new SideTrac Shad and Mud Puppies,” Sulphur’s Johnny Watkins said. “Casting the Stanley Ribbit and Top Toad can certainly get bites even early in March when there is just little emerging vegetation.”
Watkins makes long casts with the frog immitations, which are rigged on 5/0 Owner hooks attached to 65-pound PowerPro braid. He uses heavy action 7-foot Shimano rods and Curado reels.
Hook quality is very important, Watkins said, since thin-wire hooks have a tendency to bend when dragging larger bass through the masses of vegetation.
The angler said he is always ready with a follow-up presentation in case a fish misses his topwater offering.
“If you are throwing a Ribbit in sparse cover or in open water and get a blowup and miss the fish, then I’d follow up with a bait like a Texas-rigged and weedless SideTrac and try to get the bass to eat,” Watkins said. “If a bass blows up on your bait in the pads and misses it, there will normally be a hole in the pads where the blow up occurred,.
“It is crucial to get another bait in there as soon as possible; that fish is usually still within a few feet of where it initially hit.”
To work a lure into such thick salad, Watkins turns to heavy weights.
“ I’ll normally punch that bait with a ¾-ounce sinker using six or seven casts around the spot where the fish first blew up before I move on,” he said. “You can also work those SideTracs like you would a Fluke with slack in your line. Cover as much area as you can and be thorough.”
He’ll use a spinnerbait when the wind is blowing, and there are key locations he targets with these flashy baits.
“If you can find clusters of five to six lily pads, these are choice places to cast spinnerbaits, as bass will often use these clusters to ambush baitfish,” Watkins said.
He also encouraged anglers to fish the perimeter canal, which usually is deeper. The depth in this canal is 4 to 6 feet.
“Within the ring canal, throw that SideTrac Puppy in there and shimmy it along the edges of the canal,” Watkins said. “You can dead-stick it, twitch it once or twice and let it fall for about a five-count.
“On the outside edges of the canal, you will have reeds and lily pads, and then it starts to drop off. Often that’s where I will get strikes.”
It’s worth noting, however, that fish run smaller in the canal.
“I usually find smaller fish in the canal, but every now and then you can catch a 6- or 7-pounder doing this,” he said.