Heavily Pressured Pond

[33oldtimer]

Wondering what you folks use lure wise to fish heavily pressured ponds?

 

There are some nice bass in our small city pond, but they have probably seen every lure possible. I've caught 3 nice bass there all year. 1 on a crankbait, and 2 on Roadrunners while fishing for crappie. A few other small bass, 1 on micro chatterbait, 1 on a small spinnerbait. When the water is clear you can walk alongside the pond and see lots of bass in a variety of sizes.

 

What do you use in very pressured waters for bass?

[Bird]

Fish at night.

Finesse worms weightless or 1/16 wacky head during the day.

[ironbjorn]

Ned Rig on a swim hop retrieve. 1/15 or 1/16 oz at the heaviest with a true ZMan TRD.

 

Pitching Senkos, wacky or weightless weedless (no weight ever), with precision and absolute silence against any cover you can find, in any shade pockets, under any overhangs.

 

BURNING 1/4 oz lipless crankbaits.

 

Those are consistently my best options.

[Swamp Girl]

Light line. Small hook. No weight. Single hook an earthworm in its head. 

 

This setup is hard to cast, but wary bass will hit it. 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

11 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Light line. Small hook. No weight. Single hook an earthworm in its head. 

 

This setup is hard to cast, but wary bass will hit it. 

Freelining earthworms has to be the most finesse way of catching a fish ever ?

 

Can't imagine a Bass seeing that and not eating it.

 

Live bait would be my pick as well in that situation.   That or whacky rigged senko....they are almost pressure proof.    

[Pat Brown]

Weightless zoom super fluke jr on light line.  Deadly.  Catches giants.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

16 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

Weightless zoom super fluke jr on light line.  Deadly.  Catches giants.

Don't listen to Pat, he catches giants off of everything he throws ?

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, Pat Brown said:

Weightless zoom super fluke jr on light line.  Deadly.  Catches giants.

 

I note that Pat and I both suggest light line without weight. I fished a quarry pond once and two cruising bass were driving me crazy. The pond was deep, but Perrier clear like most quarry ponds are, so I watched the bass ignore everything I threw at them, again and again. However, once I threw a weightless nightcrawler at them, they raced each to reach it and I caught them both. Until I started fishing bog bass, I always fished four-pound and six-pound test for smallies, walleyes, white bass, crappies, lake trout, specks, etc.  

 

2 hours ago, ironbjorn said:

Pitching Senkos, wacky or weightless weedless (no weight ever), with precision and absolute silence against any cover you can find, in any shade pockets, under any overhangs.

 

I second this idea. 

[LrgmouthShad]

Fish at night or find something they have not seen often. Lighter line will get you more bites. My choice of finesse tactic is a shaky head. May or may not work for you. I’d use a light 1/8oz or less head and a finesse worm.
 

I fished a rocky reservoir for a long time that is only about 20 acres and receives a lot of fishing pressure. The best bait was a jig, and big ones worked too. I think a reason for that is nobody ever thought to toss a jig in there for some reason. 

[Glenn]

Here's a great video about fishing pressured ponds:

 

 

[QUAKEnSHAKE]

Throw something new on the market. My 4 biggest bass this year out of favorite city lake, former gravel pit, no boats no night fishing allowed, was with the 3.5" Yamatanuki.

 

[Bankbeater]

I fish a lot of small ponds that are between 5 and 10 acres.  These waters see daily anglers that fish for whatever they can catch, and bass in these ponds have become extremely wary of baits over the years. I try to fish with bait that other anglers aren't using. I usually use 1/8 jigs and crankbaits but not over 1/4 ounce, 4" and 6" plastic worms, 4" and 3" Senko style baits.  I fish the plastics weightless if I can get away with it. 

[roadwarrior]

 

[you]

22 hours ago, Bird said:

Finesse worms weightless

 

This is my go-to in pressured lakes around here. 4.5" roboworms and yamamoto kut-tails are great, depending on your desired rate of fall.

 

Also, 2" Keitech swimbaits on a 1/32 or 1/16 oz jig head. If you get it close enough to them, they will bite it. I've caught 4-5lb fish sight fishing with these from the bank.

[GreenPig]

I'd put money on a 3" Bass Assassin Shad on a 1/0 EWG catching them. Weightless of course.

[Drawdown]

Weightless Zoom trick worm fished so that it “glides.” Bet I would catch even more with a finesse worm. The thing is, it takes awhile to figure out the rod tip retrieve so that the worm’s action isn’t overly jerky, but rather smooth in the water. Glides along with a subtle swimming action.

 

Case in point: I fished a pressured pond with low water today, and after an hour of naught but a missed strike, I got to a spot where I could see bluegill swimming by sunken logs. I cast beyond this traffic corridor, working the worm back to shore, and each time changing the rod tip pulse.

 

To that end, don’t underestimate just watching by worm by the water’s edge; you’ll be shocked at how gently you have to work the rod tip to keep the worm traveling in a straight line, but with just the right subtle swim action.

 

I wasn’t even thinking about getting a hit. But on the next cast, I both felt and saw the bass hammer it. Seems he was either cruising, or he was stationary and must have seen me present the same worm at least a half dozen times. He was close to 2lbs, could have been just barely shy.

[RRocket]

Deps Coverscat or other poop bait.

 

These are amazing in pressured ponds. Surely a new look for highly pressured fish.

 

Many times I've gone to highly pressured pond when nobody is catching anything and literally first cast with a poop bait and I'm hooked up.

 

Give them a try..particularly the 2.5" size.

[Bazoo]

On 10/1/2023 at 12:14 AM, Glenn said:

Here's a great video about fishing pressured ponds:

 

 

Thanks for this video @Glenn. You said at about 6:15 to figure out the water column they are biting on and then target that water column for the rest of the body of water. Have you ever seen the fish be in a particular water column, say 15' on one area, and then be biting in a different depth, say 8' on another area of the same pond or area of the lake?  Like, for example opposite sides of the pond or of a bay?

 

If so, why? Was it due to structure? Light penetration? Current? Or has it ever been the case without any apparent reason?

[Bazoo]

For a heavily pressured pond/lake, how much difference does it make to get away from shore when most of the pressure is from shore anglers?

 

On Freeman Lake, there are a couple of stretches that are easily accessed and thus very popular and heavily fished shore areas. I've had seemingly better luck (but not a huge amount better) when I took the boat and got out past casting distance. There is also more cover there, falldowns, stumps, and grass.

 

If there's that much pressure from shore, how leery does it make the bass close to or semi-close to those spots? 

 

I've had a little bit of luck from shore, mostly with weightless Texas Rigged Zoom Lizards. I've caught 1 or 2 fish there on spinnerbaits, caught a couple on a swimbait, and had a strike on the Whopper Plopper, but he shook it.

 

To add to the clues as to what others are using, I caught one on a topwater frog out in the middle, though it's only 5' deep there. I don't think there are a lot of frogs in this part, and I don't think many people would use a frog there, thus probably something they don't see much.

 

Anytime I get the chance to talk to other anglers or check out what they are using, I do so. I see a lot of topwater, a lot of soft plastics. I find a lot of cranks and spinners (both inline and spinnerbaits) and a lot of topwaters like poppers and Whopper Ploppers.

 

I've heard many people say they've never caught a fish in there, or that they have never seen anyone catch anything. Indeed there has been many days I've gotten nary a bite for 3-4 hours of fishing, but I recognized right off that the pressure put on it will make them mighty tightmouthed. I also recognized that it's a good opportunity for me to learn and grow as a bass angler.