Help? Little ponds in the fall...

[Tokyo Tony]

Hey guys, I've been struggling lately on the little chain of ponds I usually fish after work.  I know that fall is supposed to be good fishin', that the bass start to fatten up, but I wonder if the same is true in little ponds in the Northeast - 5 acres or less.

There aren't any creeks in these ponds, and the main forage is little minnows, bluegills, and terrestrial critters that stumble into the ponds.  The main cover is weeds around the perimeter, but these weeds have almost all turned brown and are obviously dying.  Haven't had luck around them lately.  Is it true that when they start to die the bass don't relate to them as much because they suck up the oxygen?  What type of advice do you have for me?

I've been using flukes, senkos, jigs (where possible), t-rigged worms in the weeds, topwaters, rattletraps, spinnerbaits and X-Raps, but haven't had much luck.  I haven't caught as many or as big fish.  The only bait I can seem to get them on is the X-Rap (or little dinks with the senkos), and topwater only seems to work for about 40 mins around dusk.

Any advice for little NE ponds at the beginning of fall?  Thanks guys.

[roadwarrior]

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1190039737

I'm also having VERY good luck during the middle of the day with a 1/2 oz jig (black)/ GYCB Kreature used as a trailer (black w/ blue flakes).

[Jake.]

In a pond I have been fishing latley, finesse jigs have been the ticket. Hopping them quickly along the bottom has been the most efective presentation.

[Tokyo Tony]

Thanks guys - I will try the jig/Kreature rig as well as finesse jigs, but as for the Cavitron: I actually bought a black on black on after reading your post RW, but buzzbaits don't seem to produce too well on my home waters right now.  I've caught one fish on it after using it a few times - Zara Puppies seem to work much better around here.  

As for hopping jigs, the pond bottom in the "fishy" areas in my ponds has weeds that grow up about 2 feet off the bottom, so it's tough to fish a jig there.  I'm gonna try swimming a finesse jig with a small SPRO frog as a trailer and see if that works, but I still feel kinda stumped.  

[WRB]

Try to finesse these small pond bass. Good finesse presentations are slip shot and drop shot rig for small soft plastics, Underspins and small minnow lures like Pointers and original Rapalas.

The 3" reaper soft palstic presented using a 1/8 oz slip shot rig on 6 to 8 lb premium mono when shore fishing, is a very good technique. If the reaper is hard to find, then a 4 1/2" curl tail worm from Roboworms work well.

Remember to use a light wire hook like Gamakatsu or Owner size 1.

WRB

[wagn]

could be location as well. I'm up northeast in new hampshire and the places i've been most consistantly hitting fish on are points. The fish have been real shallow, but almost always on some type of point.  I've also had to slow down my presentation a little. just letting a senko sit for an extra 10 seconds seems to be helping

[roadwarrior]

For the grassy bottom you describe, the GYCB Kreature is the perfect bait:

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1180909581

[Davis]

Trick Sticks (senko type bait) wacky rigged has killed them in my dads small 3 acre pond.

Watermeleon with any color flakes has been the top producer. Fished the Fat Ika for the first time and was getting slammed about 20 foot offshore.

[PondBoss]

my favorite way to catch small pond bass is throwing a bright colored trick worm and working it weightless right under the surface.  it falls a lot slower than the senko and just may be able to give you that slow presentation you are looking for without catching the dinks on the bottom.  generally I use the bright orange or bubble gum, rigged up with a #2 gammy and walk the dog retrieve.  works like a charm.

[Tokyo Tony]

Awesome, thanks for the replies guys.  Definitely have some new ideas to try out there.  Those bass have it comin'  ;D