Finding Bigger Fish In This Pond.

[Flippin4Biggins]

Ok so there is a residential area that has a lake in the middle of them. There aren't socks or anything. Just the lake. Now I can take a buzz bait, spinner, or hop a jog along the shore next to the gobs of cat tailish plants sticking out of the wAter and smash 2 1lbers every 20-30 feet. The lake has some shows low areas say 1 foot to 7 feet as far as I can cast. I'm bank fishing no boat. I know there are some bigger fish around the 18 inch mark and I'm having trouble finding them. It seems that I can see weed plants coming up in bunches everywhere on one side and on the deeper end straight miss and weeds on the bottom. I've tried buzz baits in the early mornings, and late evenings and it flat out works for those smaller fish.... Spinnerbaits do the same and produce all day.... I can even get them all wound up on a crank. I haven't had much luck with plastics but jigs tend to get bites as my back up if I miss a fish. Even when I downsize I get more bites but not bigger fish. So what am I missing. I know there's bigger fish I. The water and can easily fish the whole lake fan casting each area I'm at twice in a four hour span and I do fish areas people can't and won't fish. Anyways... Any help to guide me to find these bigger fish would be awesome.... It only has bass bluegill channels and I say koi bc the fish I saw was orange and clearly a carp or koi.

[Ozark_Basser]

Keep tossing those jigs. If the water is pretty clear you might want to try a t rigged plastic like a d bomb or a kinky beaver. Those have been producing some big fish for me this spring t rigged with a 3/8 oz weight and a 4/0 hook in ponds and small lakes that are clear (4 ft water clarity). I'd pitch them to the cat tails and drag them through cover.

Also pay attention to blow ups when you go in the morning. A lot of times that clues me in on where the bigger ones like to hang out. They wont stray far from where they live. It's kind of hard when you have a lot of carp blowing up everywhere though.

[Flippin4Biggins]

It is at times bc i assume they are bass to keept mind set and will toss a popper or a spinner through the blow up area and nothing.... Also I forgot to say the water is clear but closer to stained.... But I say since I got my prescription polarized I can see a white spinner pretty far away

[WRB]

Fish at night.

Add a T-rigged soft plastic 9-10" worm to your lure choice.

Try a big wake bait like a rat at dusk.

Bluegill swimbait.

Tom

[1234567]

Tom nailed it i think. Nighttime with a big wakebait worked super slow

[KayakBasser]

Keep fishing that jig....and don't put it down, you won't catch numbers but when fishing a jig there's always the possibility of a fish of a lifetime.Good luck.

[Sam]

The pond may be overstocked with small fish and the big lady is deep, coming to the bank to feed at dusk or dawn.

 

Try throwing out as far as you can into the center of the pond with a Junebug Zoom trick worm on a 1/8 jig head with a 3/0 hook.

 

Cast - Let it Sit - Jiggle Rod Tip - Bring home slowly.

 

You may want to consider harvesting some bass to eat to help the pond with its bass management program, which you will have to devise.

[Hurricane]

Try throwing a plastic Texas rigged lizard..

[Ozark_Basser]

Fish at night.

Add a T-rigged soft plastic 9-10" worm to your lure choice.

Try a big wake bait like a rat at dusk.

Bluegill swimbait.

Tom

This is almost the exact approach I started taking on a new small body of water I have been fishing. Minus the bluegill swimbait only because I haven't bought one yet, but I have been throwing a weedless Hudd 68 with some success. I've thrown 11" worms and the spro rat both at day and night with little success. The deal has been t rigged beavers, smaller worms, and a bronzeye frog mostly. I also used to fish a different pond where a big worm was the ticket most of the time for fish above 5 lbs.

I'm not saying Tom is wrong at all. He knows tons more than I do about catching big bass, and I think his reccomendation is an excellent place to start. My point is that most of the time you just have to keep trying different presentations until you find what works for a particular body of water, and a lot of time it's not your first guess.

Like Catt said,

Every individual body of water has a personality

Each individual bass has a personality

To be successful anglers we must discover and exploit those personalities!

[the reel ess]

Today a Rat L Trap in deeper water and a frog in the scum found me some larger fish. Nothing huge today, just better than average for a pond. Just keep doing the right things and they will come-if they're there.

[Rez]

Was in the same position and today I pulled a 3, 5 and 6lber out of the pond I fish when I don't have time to deal with a boat. For the longest time I would fish heavily and only occasional reel in the larger bass. However, catching the small sub 2lbers that probably averaged around a pound wasn't hard at all. So, for a while I commenced to throwing everything I had at em' with no luck. This evening, after a long day, I decided to catch the last 30 minutes of light and boy did that pay off. I think I've found that the larger bass are just more active in the late, late evening and I'd suspect the early morning as well. So my advise would be to fish the dusk until dark (and even into the night) and see what you can do. For those last few minutes of light switch to a dark blue/black jig or plastic to have a more visible presentation. Good luck and let us know.