I've been fishing the Urban lakes and ponds around Phoenix for the last few years and with the amount of pressure they get from the bait-soakers and the shark bait throwers, it can be tough. When out walking the banks, you see a ton of people that tie on a big spinner bait or huge worm and these fish see so much of it that they're conditioned not to go after them. to make it tougher, many of these ponds don't have much in terms of underwater structure for the fish either, they're more like man-made bowls.
I've learned that smaller #1 inline spinners in chrome or silver work pretty well, and finesse style baits, like the Ned Rig with a TRD or dropshot with small fluke, slowly dragged will catch a few for you. Also, now that the weather is cooling off, I've been noticing a few more bites on the end of my line too!
