Getting bigger bites during a hot bite

[Mr. Aquarium]

Here’s a situation I found last spring.  I was getting bit on a texas rig missile  d bomb in Dill pickle color, fish were up shallow in and near brush. Nothing over 3lbs. This was mid March. Probably very early pre spawn or very close to the start.  The whole pond is very shallow.  I tied a variety of lures, lipless, cranks, swimbaits and other but they only wanted the dbomb.  I did try casting away from shore looking for staging females 
 

So you’re on a good bite.  But trouble finding larger fish. What do you do? Continue fishing the same lure  and pattern you’re getting bit on in hopes of getting a larger fish.  Try a different color?   Try a different size? With the dbomb there’s not much of a size variety. I only use the regular one not the baby one. Do you try a similar lure?  

[A-Jay]

 

When it comes to hunting plus size bass, location almost always trumps presentations for me.

I move.

A-Jay

[Dirtyeggroll]

• Upsize bait

• Fish slightly deeper

• Just keep fishing the same spot from different angles. In my experience, if the fish are grouped up there's a big on in there, just gotta get give them a chance <= this is not the same as fishing a pattern that it is producing smaller fish

 

(Don't mean to contradict A-Jay, but I have caught multiple 5+ lb fish in spots where I had caught several 2-3+ fish by simply come back and back and back to that spot either within the same session or same day)

[roadwarrior]

45 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

 

When it comes to hunting plus size bass, location almost always trumps

presentations for me.  I move.

A-Jay

 

Pay attention boys!

[A-Jay]

9 minutes ago, Dirtyeggroll said:

• Upsize bait

• Fish slightly deeper

• Just keep fishing the same spot from different angles. In my experience, if the fish are grouped up there's a big on in there, just gotta get give them a chance <= this is not the same as fishing a pattern that it is producing smaller fish

 

(Don't mean to contradict A-Jay, but I have caught multiple 5+ lb fish in spots where I had caught several 2-3+ fish by simply come back and back and back to that spot either within the same session or same day)

Contradict Away, please.

That's how we get better.

A-Jay

[roadwarrior]

19 minutes ago, Dirtyeggroll said:

Just keep fishing the same spot from different angles. In my experience, if the fish are grouped up there's a big on in there...

Never for me. Smaller fish are probably from the same year class and bigger fish

scare them...for good reason.

[WRB]

How do you know the 3 lb bass isn’t the big female in the pond? Big bass don’t live every small pond.

Tom

PS, move

 

[jimmyjoe]

   Somewhere on this site there's a mention of a study of bass done professionally. Maybe in Texas, I can't remember. It stated that there were two sizes or ages of bass; "cruisers", which are bass below a certain size and age, and more mature, territorial "ambush" fish. Cruisers tend to group together, albeit loosely. The ambush fish, or Big Mamas, are loners.

   From what I understood, cruisers will chase your lure. Big Mama doesn't. You have to go to her. You have to find her within her territory and zoom right in on her. And sometimes she's hiding where sonar doesn't tell you she's there. That's when you have to hit the "likely" territory forty different times from forty different ways, hoping you'll strike paydirt.

   After reading that, I tried to put it into practice. I got two good-sized fish, one from under an overhanging rock in the river and one from under a tree in a lake. But since I'm a shorecaster, I can't target locations with all due diligence.

 

   So ...... I've gone back to hitting the cruisers. YMMV.  ???                            jj

  

[Deleted account]

Males and females move up separately and "merge" into the spawn. If I'm catching males in the pre spawn, and they are smallish, I'll be more likely to move on if the bite dwindles. If I'm on females, then I'm probably going to stay put. Big females usually move in earlier than smaller ones. I like it when it cools hard after the watr warms, cause they will either back off a touch or stay put near by, and there will be a concentration of fish in a small area. It's almost here.

[BrianMDTX]

I think I was in the small male zone yesterday. Seven bass and not one over 1.5 to 2 lbs tops. Yet I know there are some good 5, 6 to 7 lb bass in this pond (that’s probably as big as they get, although an 8 lb mama wouldn’t surprise me). All relatively shallow (less than 3’ from shore). I tried deeper but likely not as long or serious as I could. 
 

I think ponds and lakes are not that comparable. It doesn’t take me long to get from one end of the pond to the other. Moving is simple lol. 

[GreenPig]

On my home lake I have 5 places in the Spring and Fall that the bass(Spots & LM) will corral the thread fin & sometimes bluebacks up against the shallow grass lines. I'll catch piles of 1 & 2lbers on spoons & jerkbaits. When I get enough of them and want to target a big one I'll slow roll my 6" Bull Herring or 9" SS Bull Shad 8 or 10 cast and sometimes I'll get a  reaction and sometimes not. Works often enough I'm gonna keep on doing it. With that said I do agree that 4+ lbers don't typically hang with schoolers. I believe when I catch a bigger one doing that the schoolers got a resident big fired up. 

[the reel ess]

Big bass in ponds are generally loners. I can't think of ever catching many in close vicinity except during spawn. Smaller fish are more likely to congregate, especially in a smaller body of water. You could possibly need to leave the smaller schoolers and look elsewhere. I'd catch up that school of dinks first. As for lures and tactics for bigger bass, I just fish the usual lures. But I don't use much in the way of small finesse lures until fish won't bite anything else. And then I usually catch dinks.

[Mr. Aquarium]

1 hour ago, WRB said:

How do you know the 3 lb bass isn’t the big female in the pond? Big bass don’t live every small pond.

Tom

PS, move

 

There’s big fish here.  Herring fed and plenty of other forage. I have only recently started fishing it but have some buddies tell me there’s  big fish 

[WRB]

30 minutes ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

There’s big fish here.  Herring fed and plenty of other forage. I have only recently started fishing it but have some buddies tell me there’s  big fish 

Herring living in a pond? Does this “pond” have a water source like a stream running though it that connects to a river?

Tom

[DitchPanda]

45 minutes ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

There’s big fish here.  Herring fed and plenty of other forage. I have only recently started fishing it but have some buddies tell me there’s  big fish 

I've seen some YouTube videos about guys fishing small ponds around cape cod during herring runs with big swim baits catching some big largemouth.  Looks cool and kinda unique to me.

[DogBone_384]

46 minutes ago, WRB said:

Does this “pond” have a water source like a stream running though it that connects to a river?

Yes. Cape Cod has a few ponds fed by streams where Alewives and Blue Back Herring migrate to/from.

[Mr. Aquarium]

1 hour ago, DitchPanda said:

I've seen some YouTube videos about guys fishing small ponds around cape cod during herring runs with big swim baits catching some big largemouth.  Looks cool and kinda unique to me.

Yea it’s fun, tough but rewarding. Ill see some absolute tanks, but catch 3-5lbs fish 

[DitchPanda]

1 minute ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

Yea it’s fun, tough but rewarding. Ill see some absolute tanks, but catch 3-5lbs fish 

I have a similar situation in a pond near me. Biggest bass I've caught in said pond is 5-6lbs but I've seen some considerably bigger. In fact the south Dakota state record largemouth...9lb3oz...came out of said pond. I saw one in there that I would say could top that. My pb is high 8lb range...and this fish I saw was easily the biggest bass I've laid eyes on.

[Biglittle8]

5 hours ago, DitchPanda said:

I have a similar situation in a pond near me. Biggest bass I've caught in said pond is 5-6lbs but I've seen some considerably bigger. In fact the south Dakota state record largemouth...9lb3oz...came out of said pond. I saw one in there that I would say could top that. My pb is high 8lb range...and this fish I saw was easily the biggest bass I've laid eyes on.

That big fish has probably been caught a bunch of times when it was a small fish and has seen every presentation known to man! Hard to get that critter. I think sometimes those fish have a knack for finding hiding spots that are hard to fish.

[the reel ess]

You should be able to get near a few big'uns soon during the spawn.

[E-rude dude]

My first instinct would be to thread the d bomb onto a green pumpkin jig, move out slightly deeper, cast and bounce it down the ledge or along the weed line. 
Move out some more then try it again.