Best Bait For Pond Fishing

[huntergc63]

Whats some suggestions on baits for fishing in ponds? We do a lot of small pond fishing, using rubber worms and a few top water poppers, what are some suggestions on things to try?

[kcdinkerz]

small spinner baits I do good with the bomber ones

[Mccallister25]

Spinnerbait, buzzbait, spook, beetle spin, trick work, senko, small jig, fluke, rooster tail, etc.

[long island basser]

Hollow body frogs thrown in the nastiest cover you can find.

[junyer357]

Inline spinner such as rooster tail or panther martin. Will catch brim and crappie along with bass. Mostly smaller bass but often large ones too. I do swap my trebles out on some but not all. Ive had better results on bass upping to a kvd shortshank ewg a size bigger than stock

[gr8outdoorz]

I throw the same lures in ponds as I do in lakes. Bass are bass...no mater the body of water

[Ozark_Basser]

Depends on the cover, water clarity, etc. I will throw something totally different in a pond full of lily pads and stained water rather than one with clear water and rocks.

[primetime]

same as in the lakes, if a pond has shiners, then throw a bait in the same size and color, I usually start out with a shallow square bill or casting jig, or a split shot rig with a 4" grub, 6" curly tail worm, or Fluke....I love the caffeine shad when it comes to flukes, they are super heavy and flat out catch fish all the time for  me when I need a soft bait that I can work fast or slow....Any Rage bait in a pond is money.

[*Hank]

Wieghtless T-Rigged or wacky rigged flukes and senkos work well.

[Bluebasser86]

When I'm headed to a pond I will almost always have a bladed jig on one rod and a weightless stick worm on another. I may have other rods, but those 2 are almost always there. 

[bhoff]

Been doing pretty well lately on Texas rigged baby brush hogs, stick baits and finesse jigs to imitate bluegill.

[roadwarrior]

 

 

 

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/13845-guaranteed-to-catch-bass/

[Brett Strohl]

I can't claim to have any idea what I'm doing whatsoever, but I've been fishing a couple farm ponds this year and these are my only lures that have caught around 10+ bass:

 

1.  Rapala shallow scatter-lipped crank bait (blue gill paint)

2. Chartruese tailed 7" power worm

3.  White 5" yum stick bait/senko.  

 

I got a bunch of different lures over the winter/spring but so far most of it isn't effective at all, especially top water lures which I've only caught two fish on

[Kidflex]

Try a 5" grass pig from havoc. Use a1/16- 1/8oz keel weighted screw lock hook. Absolutely the most effective bait I have ever used. Started throwing it last summer and haven't put it down yet. Throw it and wind back in slowly. It gets hammered. If your in a small boat, throw to the bank and work the entire shore line. Works great in Heavy grass, open water, laydowns and standing timber. I started using this in small 5-40 acre ponds. I tried using the 3.5 inch version thinking the smaller bait would be more productive but the 5" kills! Most of my hits come from the initial landing/first few cranks. By far my my favorite bait to throw.....and a jig. I have just about all forms of 5" swimbaits from sk, v&m, big bite, keitec, and yum but the havoc has been the best for me and California 420 is the only color I throw.

[gardnerjigman]

When I'm headed to a pond I will almost always have a bladed jig on one rod and a weightless stick worm on another. I may have other rods, but those 2 are almost always there. 

 

All day every day!

 

OP, do yourself a favor and PM Blue to get some of his bladed jigs... You can thank me later 

[FrogTastic]

X2 long island basser. Get a few hollow body frogs. Also the Mann's Hardnose snakes, 4" red/red flake senkos, and trick worms will all work too. 

[greentrout]

Looking for strikes? Want action? Consider the BPS Crappie Spin @ 3/16 oz. single blade in various colors . Bass will hit 'em. Sometimes a big one.

 

The old school basser...

[Dogmatic]

Senko and Hudd grass minnow.

[the reel ess]

I throw the same lures in ponds as I do in lakes. Bass are bass...no mater the body of water

I don't find shad imitators to be as good in ponds unless the fish are so turned on they just don't care. Craws and bream are the thing though. Pond fish seem a little hungrier in general. They never seem to have a fat gut unless they're spawning. They'll fall for a little more than lake bass because the food supply is a little more limited. 

 

I also don't see them "schooling" in ponds as they do in lakes. I simply don't see them stacked up. You might catch them doing the same thing in the same area. But usually it's only a couple. Big ones are usually alone.

 

I fish a rather large pond. Actually one of two town reservoirs as well as several smaller ones. . The big one's kind of lake-like except fr the lack of shad.

[gr8outdoorz]

I don't find shad imitators to be as good in ponds unless the fish are so turned on they just don't care. Craws and bream are the thing though. Pond fish seem a little hungrier in general. They never seem to have a fat gut unless they're spawning. They'll fall for a little more than lake bass because the food supply is a little more limited. 

 

I also don't see them "schooling" in ponds as they do in lakes. I simply don't see them stacked up. You might catch them doing the same thing in the same area. But usually it's only a couple. Big ones are usually alone.

 

I fish a rather large pond. Actually one of two town reservoirs as well as several smaller ones. . The big one's kind of lake-like except fr the lack of shad.

 

 

While I agree that I don't see bass schooling & stacking up as I do in lakes, I will have to respectfully disagree with the statement of shad imitators not working well in ponds. I do very well on shad imitations in ponds. Bass are opportunistic feeders. Shad do not have to be present in a body of water for an imitation to produce well. If that were the case, you would never be able to catch many bass on trout imitations in lakes that have no trout and trout swimbaits & jerkbaits catch many bass for me & others that fish in lakes with no trout.

 

As for the highlighted statement, that has more to do with the ecosystem on the particular ponds you fish. There are a couple of ponds I fish that are like that, but in most of them, the bass are shaped like footballs. Even the small ones have full bellies. It all depends on the population of bass vs forage. Lots of ponds contain plenty of forage to sustain healthy bass. The food source may be more limited in a pond vs lake, however the number of bass is limited as well. As long as you have a healthy balance of bass vs forage, you will have a healthy ecosystem.

 

Good discussion!

[Raul]

I've fished for bass a little bit over 35 years, I've fished a good deal of ponds and many of those many times over and over again .... Let me fish for another 35 years to give you a definite answer about which bait is the best for pond fishing.

[Ozark_Basser]

I don't find shad imitators to be as good in ponds unless the fish are so turned on they just don't care. Craws and bream are the thing though. Pond fish seem a little hungrier in general. They never seem to have a fat gut unless they're spawning. They'll fall for a little more than lake bass because the food supply is a little more limited.

I also don't see them "schooling" in ponds as they do in lakes. I simply don't see them stacked up. You might catch them doing the same thing in the same area. But usually it's only a couple. Big ones are usually alone.

I fish a rather large pond. Actually one of two town reservoirs as well as several smaller ones. . The big one's kind of lake-like except fr the lack of shad.

I've found the opposite to be true a lot of times. Shad baits work very good in just about any pond, big or small, that I have fished. Also I've seen ponds with very clear water where big fish will travel in two's or will stack up in certain sections of the body of water.

The truth is every body of water is different and so is every bass.

I've also caught some very fat fish out of ponds.

[the reel ess]

I;m sure it varies greatly. That's just what I've noticed at at least 4 ponds I've fished.

[hatrix]

For ponds it's hard to beat a Rapala X-Rap size 4. I think they say like X-4. Put one of those bad boys on a UL and its game tkme. They don't suspend very deep at all and still kinda come through sparse weeds pretty good.

[the reel ess]

My top 3 are...drum roll...

 

Trick Worm (floating worm-limetreuse or bubble gum)

Rat-L-Trap (gold)

Rapala Floating Minnow (gold)

 

But I'm still experimenting.

Some honorable mentions:

 

Pop R, Frog, Senko-type worm, T-rigged anything, Spinnerbait, Craw pattern cranks

 

Tomorrow I intend to try a Johnson Silver Minnow spoon in gold with a grub trailer. They really like gold in this place. I'm also going to try a big tube.