RANGERMAN

See previous post regarding Fall Fishing....wind moves microscopic organisms around and tends to push these creatures into dense masses which in turn are fed upon by small fish such as shad, minnows, etc. Bass then move in to feed in these ares. ALWAYS fish windy banks except when the water is very cold.

Welcom to the forum. Hope you find alot of good information here, the articles and general advice from fellow anglers is an excellent way to learn about bass fishing

Two main things to think about, 1) Photoperiod - less daylight hours has affect on most of God's creatures. Bass, and all of nature, react to the subtle changes in amount of sunlight seen over time as fall and winter approach. 2) We all tend to think about baitfish, however even more so we need to consider the food source of the baitfish ----- phytoplankton ( the green coloration of water is caused by these microscopic organisms ), then zooplankton, primary food source of shad. Since phytoplankton is consumed by zooplankton and phytoplanton populations drop as the amount of sunlight decreases, the shad migrate to back of creeks late in fall in search of more futile water which still has the inflow of nutrients aids the population of phytoplankton. Follow the food chain, current, wave action move these microscopic organisms in the water, shad move in to feed and the bass follow.

Small bodies of water tend to be affected by weather changes more that larger lakes. However the bright spot is they recover quicker as well. Also, you tend to find single patterns in small ponds whereas in lakes you may have multiple independent populations of bass that give anglers more options in terms of actively feeding fish, when a large amount of rain enters a smaller pond, the pH of water is affected very repidly. This often times causes the fish to go dormant depending on how adverse of a change to th pH occurs. The best bet, when fishing after a hard rain or rise in pond levels, fish as close to bank as possible with floating worms, rats/frogs as these type of baits not only give the fish a slower prey mimick but also resembles a prey type often found in around ponds, especially after a lot of rain

I would monitor my bait size this way,typically smaller ponds do not have well balanced bass population, unless the pond is being managed well.Either you will have lots of smaller bass or few very large bass. If the bass are small, typically one lb or smaller, you are going have a larger size forage ( bluegills ) vise versa on a pond with small population of large fish. So your bait selection is dependent on the overall population dynamics. I would start out with a reaction type bait, like a 1/4 oz rattle trap in gold color or possibly a green primary color, cover the entire pond to see if you can get a reaction strike. Most of the time, in a small pond there is one key spot that will have the largest bass in the pond, typically near the deepest water ( dam ? ) near dense cover. Here I would fish a big bulky bait like a Zoom mag II or even Ole' Monster in green pumpkin, use a light weight 3/16 oz and fish slow.