I can't catch more than one fish in a day!?

[Great White Fisherman]

Every time I've gone fishing, it goes 1 of 2 ways: I don't catch anything or it's a one and done trip. I can never catch more than 1 fish at a time and I'm at a loss. I fish the same area I caught the first, use the same lure, eventually change areas and/or lure, and still nope. Just the one fish or nothing at all. What's that deal here??

[A-Jay]

Hello and Welcome to Bass Resource ~

Interesting first post.

Although your question seems simple enough - without some additional information about what, where, how & when you're fishing, it's pretty hard to answer accurately.

Perhaps if you could offer more details regarding your fishing, there could be some useful advice offered here.

A-Jay

 

[Great White Fisherman]

Well I fish my pond on the property and occasionally the lake when I can get out there. Mostly the pond since it's right outside my house. I fish in the morning as I work nights so morning time is my evening and morning is also the only time I ever catch anything in the pond. I have a variety of lures but the most productive has been plastics; trick worm, fluke, lizard, nothing on the brush hog yet. Favorite would have to be the trick worm. As far as how, each of those is done differently but I suppose you could call it a finesse style as I don't jerk them around, I twitch, let it fall, twitch, etc. The pond is pretty small and easy to walk the circumference to fish different locations. It's probably pretty important to note that this pond is overgrown with hydrilla with a few open water spots. I tend to try the open water first and then come straight across the mats letting it fall in the holes. Caught a few doing the latter. But as I said, no matter what I do or how I do it, I can never get a "fish #2"...

[Paul Roberts]

I'm guessing that you are describing "random" catches, which comes from random fishing, which consists of... random casting. If you are casting, hoping the fish will come to you, you are going to get random results. The realized number associated with "random", varies with water body, season, skill, and effort. Another factor can be how apt you are to spook those fish in front of you.

 

An analogy would be rabbit hunting by randomly firing shots out in front of you. Versus, doing the work to recognize rabbit habitat, finding where within rabbits are, and figuring out an appropriate approach to actually get shots. If you can think of casting this way, you can see the problem a lot of anglers face. There's really a lot of real estate out there, even in a small pond, when it comes to "bites". And, unlike with rabbits, we can't actually see what's down there! 

 

The long-term fix is in your head, and it takes research (communicating with other anglers through conversation and media) and experience. Buck Perry said it year's ago: "Knowledge is the key to fishing." What you are after is being able to pull the curtain back on the water in front of you -be able to see underneath, and understand what those fish are relating to, and doing. Then applying appropriate techniques. And no, it doesn't always pan out. The conditions and circumstances present have a lot to say in the outcome.

 

Some short-term fixes:

-Start searching out waters that offer better catch rates. They exist. They could: have more fish, more vulnerable fish, or fit your fishing style best.

-Change locations: Bass, in general, often move to shorelines spring and fall, and away from shorelines summer and winter. Maybe you need to fish deeper.

-Mid-summer can be tough in many places as water temps peak. You may need to adjust your fishing times to very early morning, late evening, or at night. Might have to seek deep shade in heavy cover, which will require up-sizing tackle and learning the techniques. Depending on the water body, might require going to finesse gear (See Team9nine's latest fishing reports).

 

Hope this helps head you in the right direction.

 

 

 

[Great White Fisherman]

3 minutes ago, Paul Roberts said:

I'm guessing that you are describing "random" catches, which comes from random fishing, which consists of... random casting. If you are casting, hoping the fish will come to you, you are going to get random results. The realized number associated with random varies with water body, season, skill, and effort. Another factor can be how apt you are to spook those fish in front of you.

 

An analogy would be rabbit hunting by randomly firing shots out in front of you. Versus, doing the work to recognize rabbit habitat, finding where within rabbits are, and figuring out an appropriate approach to actually get shots. If you can think of casting this way, you can see the problem a lot of anglers face. There's really a lot of real estate out there, even in a small pond, when it comes to "bites".

 

The long-term fix is in your head, and it takes research (communicating with other anglers through conversation and media) and experience. Buck Perry said it year's ago: "Knowledge is the key to fishing." What you are after is being able to pull the curtain back on the water in front of you -be able to see underneath, and understand what those fish are relating to, and doing. Then applying appropriate techniques. And no, it doesn't always pan out. The conditions and circumstances present have a lot to say in the outcome.

 

Some short-term fixes:

-Start searching out waters that offer better catch rates. They exist. They could: have more fish, more vulnerable fish, or fit your fishing style best.

-Change locations: Bass, in general, often move to shorelines spring and fall, and away from shorelines summer and winter. Maybe you need to fish deeper.

-Mid-summer can be tough in many places as water temps peak. You may need to adjust your fishing times to very early morning, late evening, or at night. Might have to seek deep shade in heavy cover, which will require up-sizing tackle and learning the techniques. Depending on the water body, might require going to finesse gear. (See Team9nine's latest fishing reports.)

 

Hope this helps head you in the right direction.

 

 

 

How can I get to the deeper fish without pulling out swaths of hydrilla. The amount of weight needed to get through it would also snag on it...I would love to fish deeper because there's also cats in the pond but as of right now, it's impossible to get to them and not reel in tons of weeds

[Paul Roberts]

Looks like we crossed in cyber space. My above post was very generalized. But, casting into a few pockets in an entire pond certainly qualifies as random.

 

Dense cover can be esp tough, both for bass to capture prey, and for us to get lures to them. During summer, you may need to up-size your gear and give those bass a chance at finding your lure. I'd suggest: "Flipping"/Punching" with heavy tackle. Flip, splunk!, mind your fall rates, then shake and jiggle and be patient so bass can find your bait. Early AM esp, a weedless topwater is worth a go. Also, a weedless wacky'd stick-worm (both 5" and 4"), in those open pockets, has a lot of drawing power. If you catch one or two, and no more bites, wait a bit before re-casting. And you can also switch colors at that point. This kind of thing can make a difference. That said, I think the dense veges are the biggest issue.

[JediAmoeba]

When you say small pond, how small?  Are we talking half an acre?  An acre?  How deep?  Does it have water running into it?  Is there a fountain?  

 

If it's really small, a trick worm is a decent size bait.  You may need to downsize.  Try a Texas rigged grub - I use to have great success catching bass on my grandpa's tiny farm pond as a kid.

 

Also, in small ponds like that when you catch a fish it's a pretty substantial thing happening in that body of water to a lot of times the fish become weary until things calm down.  Bass have memories and often times they will remember a lure for a year or more so change things up.

 

Everything Mr. Roberts told you is spot on.  I would just like to add, that punching is the act of pinpointing a location that you think holds a fish twitching for a bit and then retrieving your lure.  It's an entirely different technique than you have probably done before.  

 

 

[frogflogger]

Throw a frog one fish will be exciting

 

[813basstard]

I would imagine that pond has more than 1 fish. Do something different. Throw something different, to different areas at different times than you regularly fish. 

Heres the deal, don’t be afraid to zero. Between 1 fish and zero ain’t much. Learning how to throw different baits and having confidence in other stuff is more important than that 1.5lber. Go out there with the mindset that you may zero for a week, but your going to throw something else.

[roadwarrior]

 

[F14A-B]

The simple truth is: There's only ONE fish swimming in your pond...

 

Congratulations on catching him repeatedly.

 

 

[Great White Fisherman]

31 minutes ago, Alonerankin2 said:

The simple truth is: There's only ONE fish swimming in your pond...

 

Congratulations on catching him repeatedly.

 

 

Haha no I've caught several different bass of different size. There's plenty.

[Sam]

Hunter, we need a lot more information. A small pond like you described full of hydrilla could be difficult to fish successfully.

 

Since it is your pond I offer the following for you to consider:

1.  Throw slices of bread on the water to check if the bluegills, minnows, etc. arrive to attack it. If so, great. If not, you have a major problem. You may need to add some of these bait fish to your pond.

2.  When there are a lot of grass and pads in an area, you will need two items to use to make them productive: a raft and a paddle.  Take the blow up raft out to different areas and using the paddle make three foot wide holes in the hydrilla and other grass in different locations.  Wait at least an hour and pitch and flip your plastics into the openings. The bass will come to the openings seeking an easy meal. Try a shaky head, drop shot, and Texas rigged finesse worm in the color of June bug or green pumpkin.

3.   If the pond has not been managed correctly you will have a lot of small bass. If you are catching smaller bass you have another problem: what is the bass count and do you harvest the smaller ones?

4.  Does Texas game and fisheries offer any pond help? Can they help you find out the fish count or how to control all the hydrilla. Remember, grass carp sound like a good idea until you put them in your pond and they eat all vegetation.

5.  The bass are deep at this time of the year. You write you fish in the early mornings which is prime time. Do you see the bass go after topwater action like minnows and bluegills? Do you fish the western and northern banks first as those warm up first due to the sun? Do you use a buzzbait or small Whopper Plopper for topwater action? What about a 1/4 ounce spinnerbait? A frog with the hooks pulled out via pliers from the frog's body? Weightless Senkos? Light weighted finesse worm Texas rigged dragged over the top of the grass?

6.  When you walk around the pond do you walk at least 50-feet from the bank? The bass can feel your vibrations as you move around. If the water is clear, they can look up and see you, too. Be stealth. Like a ghost. Put your tackle bag down and walk around with a few baits in your pocket or a small tackle box and one spinning rig with 6-pound momo (it floats) or 6-pound fluorocarbon line and a second spinning rig with up to 8-pound test for your topwaters and spinnerbaits. You can also go with a 35 pound braid. No leader is necessary.

7.  You can punch through the grass with a variety of presentations. This will get old if you are not up close to where the bass are holding, such as in the middle of the pond. This is why you need a raft and paddle to go out into the pond to fish the exact middle with a variety of baits and presentations and then float around hitting the bank and other areas.

8.  The bass will tell you what they want. If you are not getting hits with your current baits and techniques then change them around. 

9.  Add wood. Yes, go out and get some fallen trees and put them in the pond along the bank. The bass will come to them for safety and to rest plus ambush any forage for an easy meal. Give the area you put the wood at least seven full days for the bass to accumulate to it.

10.  Keep a fishing log like the one in the above "Tools" link (Free Fishing Log). Make a map of the pond and add all places you caught something. After three months you can look into your three ring binder at all of your reports and map locations and you will start to see where the bass hang out.

 

You may also consider having a professional pond management company give you an estimate as to what they would charge to help get the pond in better condition; what species you need to support a strong bass community; and if catfish would be helpful.

 

Good luck and how about adding where you live in Texas (it is a big state) so we can give you better information in the future. Welcome to the forum. How about introducing yourself in the Introduction section?

[Great White Fisherman]

18 hours ago, JediAmoeba said:

When you say small pond, how small?  Are we talking half an acre?  An acre?  How deep?  Does it have water running into it?  Is there a fountain?  

 

If it's really small, a trick worm is a decent size bait.  You may need to downsize.  Try a Texas rigged grub - I use to have great success catching bass on my grandpa's tiny farm pond as a kid.

 

Also, in small ponds like that when you catch a fish it's a pretty substantial thing happening in that body of water to a lot of times the fish become weary until things calm down.  Bass have memories and often times they will remember a lure for a year or more so change things up.

 

Everything Mr. Roberts told you is spot on.  I would just like to add, that punching is the act of pinpointing a location that you think holds a fish twitching for a bit and then retrieving your lure.  It's an entirely different technique than you have probably done before.  

 

 

This was actually very helpful at this time because I was going to try punching today. The pond is probably 1/2-3/4 acre, no fountains or anything manmade in it, and at the deepest it's 24'. Of course that also means about 20' of hydrilla in the center.. 

[scaleface]

50 minutes ago, Hunter_g said:

The pond is probably 1/2-3/4 acre, no fountains or anything manmade in it, and at the deepest it's 24'.

Thats quite the hole . 

[Great White Fisherman]

1 hour ago, scaleface said:

Thats quite the hole . 

Don't take it to the bank, I'm just guessing. I believe the property is 2ish acres and the pond only takes up about a 1/4 of the lot

[scaleface]

4 minutes ago, Hunter_g said:

Don't take it to the bank, I'm just guessing. I believe the property is 2ish acres and the pond only takes up about a 1/4 of the lot

I meant the depth for a pond that small .

[Great White Fisherman]

So I tried punching. Got a nibble but no bites. I'll still give it a try going forward because I like that I can keep the lure in the same place until I want to move it. I'm using 1/2oz worm weight and I tried junebug baby brush hog, green pumpkin brush hog, and black blue-tailed lizard. Once it was in the water, I waited a moment till it stopped falling (which wasn't very far) and then jerked the rod several times quickly to make it twitch and repeated. Now the only bite/nibble I got was when I yanked it out of the spot it was in and it fell in a 2ft wide gap in the mat and only after it had fallen for a couple seconds. Any pointers on what I'm doing right or wrong?

[WRB]

It's your pond to manage?     

I would get a small boat so you could fish the entire pond and make pathways through the hydrilla. It's very difficult to pull bass through hydrilla from shore unless your tackle is up to the task.

For reference 1 acre is about the size of a football field.

What is the renewable water source, stream or spring fed?

Frogs and weedless spoons should be your go to lures followed by soft plastics T-rigged.

Soft plastics without a lot of bulk or appendages will slide down through hydrilla better with less weight. 

Good luck, you will figure it out.

Tom

 

[BigAngus752]

2 hours ago, Hunter_g said:

Got a nibble but no bites

 

2 hours ago, Hunter_g said:

Now the only bite/nibble I got was when I yanked it out of the spot it was in

Have you caught fish using this type of bait before?  I ask because it can be difficult to discern when a bass has the bait in it's mouth.  You said you got a "nibble" but no "bites".  What do you feel the difference is between those two terms?  A bunch of small pecks at your lure is probably a bluegill or other panfish.  

 

2 hours ago, Hunter_g said:

I waited a moment till it stopped falling (which wasn't very far)

A "bite" can feel like a hard tap or it can feel like your bait has floated up from the bottom.  Did your bait fall to the bottom?  Or did a bass suck it into his mouth as it was falling?

 

2 hours ago, Hunter_g said:

jerked the rod several times quickly

Again, communication is difficult without a baseline so I'm going to assume that when you say "jerked" it's the same thing that I think "jerked" is.  The baits your are using are generally most useful when fished with patience.  I don't "jerk" plastic worms and creatures.  It takes very little movement of the rod to impart action and sometimes you DON'T WANT ANY ACTION AT ALL.  Sometimes you want to just let it sit.  

 

Keep working!  You will eventually get every bass in that pond!

[JWall14]

Honestly the same thing happened to me when I was first starting out. Small pond but no bites. I knew bass were in there but I couldn’t catch them no matter what. I can’t tell you what happened but i fished many other places ALONG with fishing the pond and eventually I started catching fish there. I would say to make sure and fish other places that may be easier and with time and experience you will start to catch fish in there. 

 

It could be that the pond just sucks in the summer months. Maybe take a break and try in a month or two. Wait for the vegetation to die down. Try the spring. If there are any bass in there you will be able to see them spawning in the spring too.

[FishOn!GetTheNet]

Do you have a kayak grapple anchor or anything that can rake out the weeds if so tie it to a long rope throw it out as far as you can and drag that hydrilla out make a few spots around the pond that are open enough to fish even if there only 20’ long and 2’ wide it’s going to help it’s hard work but worth it I have to do it every year just to fish the little pond I go to 

[scaleface]

I have never fished hydrilla so what I recommend may not work so hot . I have fished other vegetation s , been doing it all summer .I like to cast on top of the mats with a weightless senko type worm or Yum Swurm using a big hook and heavy action rod . Just twitch it along and pause in holes and such . Frogs and toads too .  

[haggard]

On 7/27/2019 at 11:38 AM, Hunter_g said:

Every time I've gone fishing, it goes 1 of 2 ways: I don't catch anything or it's a one and done trip. I can never catch more than 1 fish at a time and I'm at a loss. I fish the same area I caught the first, use the same lure, eventually change areas and/or lure, and still nope. Just the one fish or nothing at all. What's that deal here??

As they say in the real estate business: Location, location, location.

 

I'm on my third season and for the first two it was 1 or zero fish days. Always heard "fish like structure" but never really got it until this season. Don't get me wrong, I still struggle (4 fish a day is a good day). If you can get on a kayak or small boat and explore other parts of the pond, that could go a long way. Try fishing the different features, depths, different times of day, etc. Are there any overhangs on the banks that cast shadows at any time of day? Cast into them and close to shore, even just inches from the bank (snag factor will increase, but try to manage it). [bold]Number one is fish where there are changes.[/quote] That could be the edge of a weed line, a clear hole among lily pads, a transition between rocky bottom and mud, dropoffs, a fallen tree, etc. I don't mean to sound preachy or know it all; I'm still not really good at this, just feeling your pain

 

[jr231]

Fishing the same pond over and over is the reason I believe. Especially if you've been fishing it for years. Fish somewhere else. 

 

1/8 oz bitsy bug. Rage chunk trailer. Swim it, and pitch it to places you know the bass are. You'll catch some for sure. And probably a nice one. Good luck.