Josh:

The most productive way to use a lizard is Texas Rigged hands down. You can Goggle the Texas Rig if you’re not familiar with it. For weedy waters you’ll probably want a decently heavy bullet weight. A lighter weight may not get your lizard down into the weeds, which is right where you want it.

For your retreive, you’ll want to use a lift and pause style. I like throwing my bait out, let it sink to the bottom, then lift my rod from a 9 o’ clock position to an 11 o’ clock position, then reel up the slack and repeat. More times than not you’ll get a hit while the bait is falling, so you need to keep a close eye on your line. If you see any movement in it, don’t hesitate to set the hook.

If fish are hanging out near the surface of the weeds you can throw the lizard weightless if you’d like although you’d be better off throwing a Zoom Trick Worm or something similar. If you take the weightless route, cast it out and let it sit there for a several seconds then give it a few twitches. It should trigger a strike or 2.

Grand Master Basser®:

If the lizard’s heavy enough, and floats. rig it weightless and toss it on top of matted grass, moss and lily pads. Twitch it gently across the stuff, when it comes to open pockets, stop and let it sit for a minute or two, then twitch it again. Bass will literally blow up through the vegetation.

You can try Texas rigging it in fairly clear, open shallow water, or around some kind of structure, but with a lizard, especially if it’s a floating lizard again, your best bet would be to Carolina rig it. Slide a half-ounce or so egg sinker onto your main line, tie on a barrel swivel big enough to keep the sinker from sliding over it and tie on your leader. Tie on your hook and put the lizard on.

I’ve never tried it, but you might want to try a dropshot rig with your lizard. It would possibly work well… with or without a floating lizard…