4-5-09 Outing with Fishizzle

[Tokyo Tony]

Hey guys, I figured I'd post about my outing on 4/5 with fishizzle to one of my honey holes. I found the place on Google Earth, and to my knowledge, it has no name, so my brother and I dubbed it Huge Pond. considering the small size of the pond and the fact that it's in CT, the fish in it are huge; hence, the name :-)

It was a high of 65 yesterday and very windy, with gusts near 30 mph. Due to a recent rainstorm, the water was muddy with temps ranging from 55 to 58. We started out working a shallow flat with spinnerbaits and chatterbaits with no luck. We fished some reeds and some wood with a variety of baits, still nothing. About an hour or so in, I made a "joke" cast to a little muddy area in less than a foot of water with a shallow diving LC crankbait, and a bass that was sunning itself in 6" of water nailed it. It wasn't much of a consolation because it seemed like a fluke and it wasn't something we could pattern. Fishizzle got a few dinks in a back cove on a jerkbait.

We tried a different area with clearer water and picked off a few fish from laydowns by skipping wacky senkos, but that bite dried up pretty quickly. We tried a deep dropoff we know of in the middle of the pond for a bit with no luck. We were pretty much resigned to the fact that we just weren't going to have a successful day...

until we went back to the first shoreline where we launched. It had been pounded with waves all day, and they were just stacked up there. Fishizzle caught some on a jerkbait (LC Pointer, aurora black) and I was getting them on a T-1 3/8 oz spinnerbait - double silver willow leaf, silver/blue/red/clear skirt. Unfortunately, they were all dinks under two pounds, but we were definitely getting a much-needed bass fix, getting strikes every couple of casts, with a few doubles as well. I said to fishizzle, "Think of how long we've waited through the winter for a day like this." So true.

Anyway, at one point I made a cast out with the aforementioned spinnerbait, straight out from shore, and I felt the thump and the heaviness of a good fish. I knew right away it wasn't a dink, and not wanting to give her a chance, I forced her in and grabbed her lip. Finally, the first nice fish of the year, just about an even four pounds, picture below.

We continued to catch a bunch of smaller ones for a while, then the bite died as quickly as it had come, although we continued to catch several more in the next couple of hours. In that 1.5 hours of fast action we had probably caught about 40 fish combined.

I messed around with my 9" Mattlures Woody for a bit (if that sounds funny to you, grow up ;-) ), with no luck. Still waiting to get one on the wakebait.

Sorry for the long post, but I figured I'd share the story of the best day of '09 so far. Hopefully it'll just get better from here. As always, thanks to fishizzle for a great day - it's always a pleasure, even when we got skunked at the same pond two or three weeks ago.

[fishizzle]

Thanks Tokyo Tony, I had a great time too.  Keep chucking your Woody,  It'll happen.

To add to your great post the water temp was almost 60 there but most of the larger lakes are probably 50 so it was weird to me fishing that temp at that time of year.  Definitely a mental challenge for me to adjust.  Usually I fish the season not the temp.

We caught tons of 1 lbers but where are all the mamas?  We caught all the schooling males and only 1 good female.  We did go deeper looking for more girls but to no avail.

Huge pond is mostly hydrilla in the summer.  Old weed edges held a bunch of fish.

In a prespawn pattern,  how do you locate and catch pigs here?

[paul.]

very nice.  sounds like y'all had a really good day.  i like the picture too.  congrats to both of y'all.

[Ready2Fish]

nice trip guys! great fish! try drop shotting something larger like a lizard or something around the edge? or a jig! my .02

[J Francho]

Looks like a sweet pond you found.  Just curious as to the max depth, if known.    In my experience, if it isn't at least 12'+ somewhere, the bass will be dinks.  At those temps, I'd be swinging for the fence with a BIG presentation.

[fishizzle]

this pond of about 8 acres has lots of 3-6lbers (really).

it is almost 12 in 1 area the rest is 3-8

the wind was blowing onto the shallow side of the lake

all of our bass were on the windy shoreline away from the deep area

[J Francho]

I suspected there was a deeper portion.  I didn't mean to say that the fish would be deep - to the contrary, you guys found them where I'd expect them to be in those conditions - just that the deep water is a prerequisite for big fish.

[Tokyo Tony]

Thanks guys :-)

J - max depth is right at 12 feet, but that's just in one small area. There is a big portion of the pond that is 10 feet, but it's just a mucky bottom without any structure, except the ridge where it drops from 7/8 to 10. The thing is, I know for a fact that there is a good population of 2.5-6 pound fish in there because I've caught them. We just couldn't find more than one of the bigger fish.

I'm starting to think maybe there were some bigger ones mixed in, but the smaller ones were so active that they outswam the bigger, lazier ones. Next time I'll throw a big subsurface bait (Mattlures soft 'gill) through the school of smaller fish to try to entice the big ones.

[Paul Roberts]

Great report.

We caught tons of 1 lbers but where are all the mamas? We caught all the schooling males and only 1 good female. We did go deeper looking for more girls but to no avail.

Huge pond is mostly hydrilla in the summer. Old weed edges held a bunch of fish.

In a prespawn pattern, how do you locate and catch pigs here?

My guess is you were close to them. My guess is that cove/shoreline attracted fish bc of temp and food (with the temp, and maybe the waves). The girls were there, just bunched up. Again, my guess is you were very close.

Looks like a sweet pond you found. Just curious as to the max depth, if known. In my experience, if it isn't at least 12'+ somewhere, the bass will be dinks. At those temps, I'd be swinging for the fence with a BIG presentation.

I have to disagree. Depth IS a plus, but not always necessary. Also, BIG lures can cull out smaller fish, but are not necessary for larger ones. For the larger fish (the girls), esp in the coldwater period, location is most important.

To add to your great post the water temp was almost 60 there but most of the larger lakes are probably 50 so it was weird to me fishing that temp at that time of year. Definitely a mental challenge for me to adjust. Usually I fish the season not the temp.

I do chase temps, and it can be a really strong pattern, but not a dependable one can't rely on the weather, and confounding conditions. But when it happens the fish are truly stacked, and stoked. I do notice some blue in the pic and sunshine. Was the area with the fish different in temp from other areas?

(I'm not certain how much I have to factor in the waves. They are an advantage for feeding fish.)

I'd love to see the sat image or map of this pond. It's compass orientation, topographical configuration, wind direction in relation to those stacked' fish. I'm going to PM you guys and ask some more specific questions. Hope that's OK.

[J Francho]

Sorry Fizzle and Tony for derailing here, but as long as I have Paul on the line...

I have to disagree. Depth IS a plus, but not always necessary.

Paul, do you have a minimum depth?  I'm green to this pond stuff, but I'm determined to exploit them for some seriously big fish.

[Tin]

Nice...

Looking at the background and the muddy water that looks like a jig-fishermans' heaven.  

Black jig with a blue sapphire trailer....

[Paul Roberts]

John, No I don't. And the "big" bass I tend to catch run 18 to 20 inches -considered quality fish (the big girls) in many waters -the 3 to 5lbers I believe we are talking about here.

I can give you examples of what I do fish:

-I have fished many ponds that grow mature bass (18"-20") that are less than 8 feet, some only 4 feet deep. Winterkill is the biggest threat.

-I have one pond that I currently fish that, at high water, is 11 feet max, and averages 6-7. I've seen it drop a foot and half for a full year at times. It has a large number of 19-20inch fish.

For bigger fish, depth is probably be a plus, but I can't speak to that; And I haven't looked it -yet. It's been on my list. Would love to hear from others about this question. Anyone else know ponds that give up numbers of quality fish, and it's known depth? Worth a thread I think.

Here's an interesting theoretical observation:

Doug Hannon had a huge outdoor aquarium in which he kept very large (DD) bass. It was 4feet deep) He found after a time (couple months as I remember it) he would eventually find the bass floating at the top and having difficulty maintaining equilibrium. They would then die of exposure.

He found when he increased the depth to 6 feet, this did not happen. He surmised that such large bass may have difficulty maintaining their gas bladder and require some pressure (depth) to maintain it. Now there are lots of possible other factors, (were these "deepwater" fish forced to live shallow, was this a disease, etc ...) so we really don't know whether the speculation is true.

[Tin]

I would like to see someone other than Hannon replicate the study. It made me think that we have one large lake in RI that it a large puddle with one small 5' wide feeder stream, doesn't get deeper than 6' 95% of the year and by June/July the water temps can hit the mid 80's and there have been 9's and 3 10 pound plus fish taken from it on record. Plus in winter there can be 2-3 feet of ice on it.(Our state record is only 10-6 so they like to document the dd's up here) The fish will adapt and there are always exceptions to the rule imo.

[Paul Roberts]

I would like to see someone other than Hannon replicate the study.

Ditto.

Tin I copied your post into another related thread about Big Bass Pond Size. Hope that's OK.

[Tin]

It's all good.