live minnows

jig and curl tail grub.......live minnows is the best bait ta use.

Do you think weedless spoons will work?

Not sure aboupt Grass Pickeral, when I often find Muskies and Pikes buried patrolling in the weeds they never bite a lure. If they exhibit the same behavior then I think it would be very hard to solicite a bite. When they are roaming in open water just outside of the weedline, these fish will take just about any lure passed by their face.  Well it always depends on the mood of the fish.

with grass pickeral most of the time it's whether they have felt yer presents yet or not. also when they are buried in the reeds like that are they facing towards shore--not good, they won't bite-- or facing out towards open water waiting to pounce on anything that they think they can eat.

Sometimes they stay in the weeds and don't move, not even flinching after I thow lure after lure in front of their faces. That's the part that confuses me.
TIGHT LINES!

those fish are in a very neg. mood. they are just laying there sunning their selves. muskies do the same thing, lay on the surface of a lake or river not hardly moving, ya can cast and cast at them and they just either lay there or kind of sink slow under the surface and ya think they are gone. i've even seen northerns do the same thing, but only in the spring of the year after they have spawned. but most of the time when i find the pike like this, it's in a back out of the way bay and early morning or late afternoon to evening.

Try a maribou jig under a float.
1/16th or 1/8th oz. Crappie size.
Cast it up as close to the weeds as you can, let it sit.
Raise your rod tip up about two feet, drop your tip and let it sit.
This is a slow pesentation.

Good luck.

There's not a whole lot of pickerel in the lake I fish. YellowBear, will that approach work well for site fishing in the shallows?
TIGHT LINES!

it should. i have taken them that way. use small minnows on a small hook works great too.

Works for me.
Its better if you have a bit of chop on the water.
A live minnow is better but the maribou jig is a close second.