Small, shallow, grass filled ponds

[DinkDreams]

Hit The Pond today, and wasn’t having as much luck on the jerkbait as I have had recently. Caught a few but not many so I decided to go a little further and check out the other ponds on the property.

 

there are 2 ponds that are about 5 yards separated by a drain. Both ponds are very shallow (roughly 5 feet in the dead middle) and chock full of the awful, mucky algae that can make any lure hang up.

 

I’ve only ever caught fish on topwater out of these ponds, and tried throwing a Texas rig and other “weedless” presentations but they always seems to foul up. This isn’t “let your lipless catch the grass and rip it out” water, it’s “cast into this with a treble hooked lure and pray your line holds up” water. 
 

Any recommendations on things to throw here? The couple I’ve caught topwater have been really solid fish, so I think there are a lot of fish in the pond to catch.

[BrianMDTX]

Try weightless TR’s. Zoom tricks, Senkos, Neko Machos, Fat IKA’s. Texpose them. They glide above the muck for the most part. 

[papajoe222]

 Basically, any soft plastic without appendages, T-rigged on a light wire hook. The first one I'd try would be a Zoom Super Fluke. 

  Not knowing how high in the water column that muck is, it's merely guess work on our part.  Have you tried waking a Colorado bladed spinnerbait, or running a toad just under the surface? 

[DinkDreams]

12 minutes ago, papajoe222 said:

 Basically, any soft plastic without appendages, T-rigged on a light wire hook. The first one I'd try would be a Zoom Super Fluke. 

  Not knowing how high in the water column that muck is, it's merely guess work on our part.  Have you tried waking a Colorado bladed spinnerbait, or running a toad just under the surface? 

There is just enough room between the top of the water and the algae to wake a spinnerbait or a barely sub surface lure. Maybe a foot of water

[txchaser]

 

4 hours ago, papajoe222 said:

The first one I'd try would be a Zoom Super Fluke. 

 

[Bankc]

Are you sure there are fish in them?  If it's full of algae already, there's a good chance that it overruns the pond by summer, and might kill off any fish in there.  

 

Otherwise, I'd probably stick to topwaters.  Maybe a frog, popper, Torpedo, etc.  I've not had much luck with anything coming through algae without getting fouled up.  It's best to avoid it were possible, in my opinion.  

[Smells like fish]

If topwater is a go then I’d first twitch and swim a Spro rat in there then I’d do what I could with a 6” Zoom lizard

[DinkDreams]

1 hour ago, Bankc said:

Are you sure there are fish in them?  If it's full of algae already, there's a good chance that it overruns the pond by summer, and might kill off any fish in there.  

 

Otherwise, I'd probably stick to topwaters.  Maybe a frog, popper, Torpedo, etc.  I've not had much luck with anything coming through algae without getting fouled up.  It's best to avoid it were possible, in my opinion.  

I only know there are fish there because I’ve caught a couple. Not sure how many are in there but the couple I’ve caught have been around 1.5-2lbs and look pretty healthy, all things considered. Here’s one I caught yesterday, he blew up on my topwater walking bait and I pitched a finesse jig in and he annihilated it. 

[Bankbeater]

Weedless Senko, fluke, wakebait, or maybe a weightless full size brush hog. 

[DinkDreams]

Caught another one in this pond yesterday, annihilated my topwater spook. For some reason in this specific pond, topwater seems to be the ticket. I had 4-5 blowups but only one hookup. Wouldn’t hit my follow up bait for some reason but we’ll take it. 2.2 lber which is pretty good around here. Water temp around 50deg

[BrianMDTX]

 Nice bass. That pond looks like it’s begging for a weightless Zoom Trick TR dragged slow on the bottom. 

[DinkDreams]

4 hours ago, BrianMDTX said:

 Nice bass. That pond looks like it’s begging for a weightless Zoom Trick TR dragged slow on the bottom. 

I’m heading back over there tomorrow or Saturday, will definitely be trying that.

[BrianMDTX]

39 minutes ago, DinkDreams said:

I’m heading back over there tomorrow or Saturday, will definitely be trying that.

I normally rig a Zoom Trick on a 3/0 EWG. I let it sink, wait a bit, and crank the reel three times slowly, pause, and repeat. If no bites, I’ll hop it. But I get more bites slow on the bottom in shallow ponds. 

[Boomstick]

I would keep using topwater and try a t-rigged senko and chatterbait.

[DinkDreams]

Went back today, managed to catch this little guy on a swim jig with an albino fluke trailer. Tried a chatterbait, topwater, and weightless trick worm but the wind was so bad my trick worm was blowing halfway across the pond lol. Gonna head back tomorrow and give it another shot.

 

As you can probably see from the picture, the water today was chocolate milk from the hard rain last night and the high winds.

[Basser2021]

On 4/7/2022 at 5:52 PM, DinkDreams said:

Hit The Pond today, and wasn’t having as much luck on the jerkbait as I have had recently. Caught a few but not many so I decided to go a little further and check out the other ponds on the property.

 

there are 2 ponds that are about 5 yards separated by a drain. Both ponds are very shallow (roughly 5 feet in the dead middle) and chock full of the awful, mucky algae that can make any lure hang up.

 

I’ve only ever caught fish on topwater out of these ponds, and tried throwing a Texas rig and other “weedless” presentations but they always seems to foul up. This isn’t “let your lipless catch the grass and rip it out” water, it’s “cast into this with a treble hooked lure and pray your line holds up” water. 
 

Any recommendations on things to throw here? The couple I’ve caught topwater have been really solid fish, so I think there are a lot of fish in the pond to catch.

Zoom speed worm

[DinkDreams]

Been hitting this pond again lately, managed to catch a nice ~2 lber on a spook and another decent one. No luck with anything else though.

[the reel ess]

A Johnson Silver Minnow spoon rigged with a grub or some sort of chunk can get er done sometimes. This one is gold and rigged with a Zoom swimming chunk. It looks a good bit like a mouse coming across the mat. You can drop it into pockets and at the edge of mats where you can't with a frog. Sharpen the hooks.

[hokiehunter373]

34 minutes ago, the reel ess said:

A Johnson Silver Minnow spoon rigged with a grub or some sort of chunk can get er done sometimes. This one is gold and rigged with a Zoom swimming chunk. It looks a good bit like a mouse coming across the mat. You can drop it into pockets and at the edge of mats where you can't with a frog. Sharpen the hooks.

Very interesting.  I've never seen anyone do that before

[BrianMDTX]

5 hours ago, hokiehunter373 said:

Very interesting.  I've never seen anyone do that before

A Johnson Silver Minnow with an Uncle Josh’s pork frog trailer was pretty much de rigueur decades ago. 

[hokiehunter373]

3 minutes ago, BrianMDTX said:

A Johnson Silver Minnow with an Uncle Josh’s pork frog trailer was pretty much de rigueur decades ago. 

No need to date yourself like that man lol

[BrianMDTX]

52 minutes ago, hokiehunter373 said:

No need to date yourself like that man lol

Why not? I’m dated! 
 

I had one. Never caught anything on it, but I had one. Think I left a pork frog on it that turned into a block of shoe leather lol. 

[DinkDreams]

On 4/8/2022 at 9:31 AM, Bankc said:

Are you sure there are fish in them?  If it's full of algae already, there's a good chance that it overruns the pond by summer, and might kill off any fish in there.  

 

Otherwise, I'd probably stick to topwaters.  Maybe a frog, popper, Torpedo, etc.  I've not had much luck with anything coming through algae without getting fouled up.  It's best to avoid it were possible, in my opinion.  

These look healthy?

 

Caught them both on a spinnerbait, caught probably 3-4 smaller ones, then these two back to back.