DuPage River Hippy Smallmouth Stay off the Grass

I went for a short wade last night about two and a half hours. Right off the bat I scored a nice smallie drift fishing live bait by a bridge. I wanted to throw some artificial baits, so I waded up river to a deeper hole. I ran into a problem almost immediately. The underwater grass and other assorted vegetation was everywhere. I could not even throw a bait and keep it up over it without getting some sort of salad on my presentation due to all the chunks that were floating down. I started back to the bridge and switched back to my drifting rig. I noticed that rig stays suspended over the grass and I could cast is in-between the floating garbage and let it drift along with the school of salad. I also noticed that next to rock walls, trees, deep pools, and especially under the bridge the vegetation was not as bad due to the fact that these areas do not get the same amount of sun light to boost the weed growth. If the river was not low fishing would also have been a bit easier.(more water between the surface and the grass covered bottom. I managed to catch 6 bronze bullets and lost two smallies before the sun was set. So If you want to catch more smallies in low water grassy conditions Stay Off The Lawn!

Since I wrote this I had a discussion with a DA member called Sooner Bass, He stated that a buzz but or fluke may have worked well. I believe he is correct especially the buzz bait. It would ride the surface and you can steer it in-between the floating land mines. I just was not armed with either bait on this outing.