During a late-spring trip to Grosse Savanne Lodge in southern Louisiana, Bernie Schultz was immediately intrigued by a massive mat of silver dollar-sized lily pads that covered one stretch of the sprawling fishery. He tried it several times his first day there with no luck. He went back the next day and again, he couldn’t get the bass to bite.
But he still paid the mat another visit on his third day at Grosse Savanne — and after 60 bites in four hours, he explained why he’s so persistent when it comes to giant fields of green, matted vegetation.
“This mat is probably a 200-acre area, and it just stands out,” said Schultz, a 37-year veteran of the Bassmaster Tournament Trail and nine-time qualifier for the Bassmaster Classic. “It’s a magnet. It’s in the middle. It’s away from the
bank. It’s dense cover. “There’s no reason the fish shouldn’t be here at some point, and that always makes a spot worth trying — every day, maybe even several times a day.”
