If you fish anywhere near weeds, you’re going to get weeds on lures. While there are certain techniques you can employ to keep weeds off of your lures in the first place, you’ll never have 100% success. You’ve probably wondered if you should remove weeds on fishing lures before making a cast. In most cases, yes, you should remove weeds before casting out a fishing lure as weeds can negatively affect the lure’s action and tip off fish that something is wrong. Let’s explore this in more detail.
Weeds on Lures Can Kill Their Action
The first reason you should take the weeds off your fishing lures before casting them out is they can kill a lure’s action. Believe it or not, fishing lures are precisely engineered tools. They are balanced to run at a certain depth, speed, and with a certain action or wobble. Tossing on a few ounces of weeds can ruin this action. While you never know if a fish is going to want something different, chances are you’re better off fishing a lure the way the manufacturer intended. After all, lures that don’t catch fish don’t (consistently) sell.
Sometimes, it isn’t obvious how much the action is going to be impacted. Take your average spinnerbait, for example. Many of them have a swivel of sorts near where the blades connect to the bent wire frame. If this swivel gets too much gunk in it, the blade won’t properly spin. This takes less gunk than you’d think!
They Can Prevent Proper Hookups
Too many weeds near a crankbait’s hook, for example, can make it difficult for the hook to stick the fish and stay stuck. Even if you do poke them, the weed or other debris can provide some leverage that helps fish throw the hook. Many treble hooks are quite thin so leverage can help them rip out easily.
Fish Can Be Scared by Weeds on Fishing Lures
Fish aren’t quite as dumb as they look. Yes, you’ll get some greedy buggers who clearly have been repeatedly caught, but the truly large fish haven’t made a habit of getting in trouble. Further, they’ve been around the lake long enough to know that minnows, frogs, and insects (read: what you’re trying to convince them your lure is) don’t typically swim around covered in weeds. It is a very unnatural presentation and one that is going to give wary fish serious pause.
You’ll Rob Your Own Confidence
In your heart of hearts, don’t you just know that you’re going to catch less fish with weeds on your lure? Even if you’re wrong, the mere lack of confidence is going to spell your doom. The extra few seconds it takes to remove weeds from your fishing lure is worth the confidence boost almost every time. You don’t ever want to make a cast expecting not to catch a fish, so why leave weeds on when that’s exactly what that implies?
How to Detect if Your Fishing Lure Has Weeds On It
Sometimes you will want to leave your lure in the water for an extended time. This could be because you’re soaking some bait going for catfish, are working something slow like a soft plastic or jig, or are trolling. All three of these presentations run the risk of your having weeds or grass on your fishing lure and not knowing it until you reel it in and say, “Well, that’s why I didn’t catch anything!”
It’s not always that easy to tell when you have weeds on a fishing lure. If you’re just soaking some bait, it can be nearly impossible. However, if you notice your rod has a pronounced bend to it and is not shaking like a fish has grabbed on, that probably means a clump of vegetation got around your lure and is providing resistance. This goes for soaking baits as well as trolling.
Another way to tell if you have gunk on your lures while trolling is to feel the line for vibration. I wrote about this extensively in my article on trolling for chain pickerel. Basically, every “clean” lure you drag behind your boat is going to have a certain “vibration signature.” I suggest touching the line after you toss it out and are sure there aren’t any weeds on it. Then, from time to time you can check it and if the “vibration signature” is off, you know something is up.
It is more difficult to tell if there are weeds on a slow-moving lure like a jig or a worm. You’re basically trying to tell if it weighs more suddenly. It can be hard to clear soft plastics of weeds because you can’t just give a strong jerk without running the risk of really fouling things or moving the hook through the plastic in ways you did not want. Your best bet if something feels off is to reel in and inspect.
Is It Ever OK to Leave Grass On a Fishing Lure?
What about if you just have a little bit of weeds on your lure? Is it OK to leave it on? Well, that depends. Is it so little that it’s just going to fling off on your next cast? If so, then cast away and solve the problem! If not, take a few seconds to peel it off.
Some people think it’s OK to leave some weeds on lures that are fast-moving as it is unlikely that fish will even notice. I’m not so certain about that. How many times have you had a fish follow a lure all the way to the boat, and, for whatever reason, they just didn’t strike right away. They were sizing it up. Trust, me, a fish is going to be able to move way faster than you can reel in. They can keep pace with your lure as long as they need to – if they’re that hesitant, they have a chance for a weed to put them off.
How to Remove Weeds from a Fishing Lure
There are three appropriate ways to remove weeds and grass from your fishing lure. You can take them off carefully by hand, you can cast them off, or you can rip them off in the water by giving your rod a hard jerk as you retrieve. Under no circumstances should you ever smack your lure against the water as you could break your lure, hurt someone, or scare the fish.
I hope you found this article helpful!
Want to learn how to take your kids out fishing? Do you have a friend who might need a hand? Click the pictures below to purchase my helpful books!
