Finesse Fishing in Heavy Weed Growth? (or any heavy weed growth techniques)

[jfredds]

I fish mostly in the Brainerd Lakes area. I love to finesse fish but floating rigs  are almost always the only option because of excessive weed growth. What other rigs could i use if i would like to get the bait deeper without snagging weeds every two seconds? I have tried them all, but maybe some good weedless techniques would be helpful. Also, any suggestions are locating fish withing the 15-25 foot range, when the sun gets high and the water heats up?

[Jmcfarland]

I would try rigging a senko texas style and throwing it to the holes in the weeds. Just throw it out in a hole, let it sink WATCHING your line the whole way down and if it does make it to bottom twitch it a couple times. If you don't get a fish reel in and hit the next hole or open spot.

[fiker]

Weed growth can dictate. 

A floating mat would be different then say milfoil coming up from the bottom.
Once through, can the bait free fall radomly, or does it have to go straight down?

texas rigged worms with tungsten weights.  Especially if you have to punch through the weeds, could work on either. .

Texas rigged tubes, (for punching through, and falling straighter)  with EWG hooks.  Xtreme makes a 5" tube that  is dense enough. Could texas rig with a worm weight, or use internal weights if weeds are sparse. .   

twin tail grubs with weed guards on the jig head if weeds aren't quite so thick.


If you have to send the bait straight down, you'd want to peel line off by hand on a bc to let it free fall.  But, like said earlier, make sure to watch your line.

Weedless shakey head if weeds aren't too thick.

Somebody makes plastic worms with tungsten powder mixed with the plastic.  Not sure who, and I've never used them.  I saw a video where Mike Icanneli was the spokesperson though.

[Cy]

I throw a shaky head in heavy weed all time.  It doesn't penetrate like a texas rig but it does work.

Cy