A sad, depressing fishing story (maybe not) HELP!

[LCpointerKILLA]

At the golf course I live on the water hazards were stocked in the 70's and they are a perfect bass ecosystem, with bluegill, redear sunfish, tilapia, carp, gar, channel cats and alligators. I have caught one double digit bass here. There are 6 of these great hazards, some better than others. I am a victim of the bait monkey and have used everything in each pond from megabass and jackall to luckycraft.

This passed year, I pretty much completely pressured all the fish in one pond, and would then move on to another. Now all the hazards are very highly pressured. I am not the only one fishing the hazards either, but I'm probably the only one not throwing a culprit worm or using garbage lures. But now the only way to catch bass in the ponds is with a 4 inch worm of anykind in natural colors. My newest technique is dropshotting shallow water, but nowadays all my catches seem to be 2 pounds or less.

I remember being able to throw a rattlin' vibe and catch 10 quality sized bass in an hour.

Any advice or techniques that could help me be more productive in these ponds?

Thanks,

GCpondman

[paul.]

first thing i'd try would be live bait - shiners, craws, worms.

sounds like you have already tried downsizing, throwing presentations that are smaller than average.  next i'd try upsizing with BIG baits - you might just be suprised.  one of the things that might be a big fish killer in here is a giant STRAIGHT TAIL worm as the fish can probably quote the brand name of the curly tails when they see 'em comin'.  another thing to try is bizarre colors or combinations of colors - things you'd never think of putting together.  this sounds crazy but i've seen it work time and time again.

i would also go weightless or use as little weight as possible on soft plastic presentations.

another trick that works well on heavily pressured fish is burning baits back in at super high retrieve speeds.  this does 2 things - it gives em something that they have not seen in terms of speed.  also it does not give them time to consider a bait, they just have a split second to react, and often they will - violently!  

of course the other thing would be stuff like senkos, flukes and trickworms - real natural looking presentations, but i'm sure others have thought of this.

one thing that might work real well too is to fish at different times than anyone else.  night would be great if you could do it.

[paul.]

first thing i'd try would be live bait - shiners, craws, worms.

sounds like you have already tried downsizing, throwing presentations that are smaller than average. next i'd try upsizing with BIG baits - you might just be suprised. one of the things that might be a big fish killer in here is a giant STRAIGHT TAIL worm as the fish can probably quote the brand name of the curly tails when they see 'em comin'. another thing to try is bizarre colors or combinations of colors - things you'd never think of putting together. this sounds crazy but i've seen it work time and time again.

i would also go weightless or use as little weight as possible on soft plastic presentations.

another trick that works well on heavily pressured fish is burning baits back in at super high retrieve speeds. this does 2 things - it gives em something that they have not seen in terms of speed. also it does not give them time to consider a bait, they just have a split second to react, and often they will - violently!

of course the other thing would be stuff like senkos, flukes and trickworms - real natural looking presentations, but i'm sure others have thought of this.

one thing that might work real well too is to fish at different times than anyone else. night would be great if you could do it.

the last thing i can thing of is using unconventional retrieves or "outside of the box" presentations - things like burning a plastic worm back in or carolina rigging a crank bait.  these show the fish lures they are familiar with, but in a way they have never seen em.

and by all means, i'd do what it took to be there when the spawn arrives.  that is when the giants will be the most vulnerable.  their motivation to strike is totally different then and with pressured fish, that can be one of the easiest times to catch 'em if you do things right.  hope these ideas help and good luck.

[LCpointerKILLA]

first thing i'd try would be live bait - shiners, craws, worms.

sounds like you have already tried downsizing, throwing presentations that are smaller than average.  next i'd try upsizing with BIG baits - you might just be suprised.  one of the things that might be a big fish killer in here is a giant STRAIGHT TAIL worm as the fish can probably quote the brand name of the curly tails when they see 'em comin'.  another thing to try is bizarre colors or combinations of colors - things you'd never think of putting together.  this sounds crazy but i've seen it work time and time again.

i would also go weightless or use as little weight as possible on soft plastic presentations.

another trick that works well on heavily pressured fish is burning baits back in at super high retrieve speeds.  this does 2 things - it gives em something that they have not seen in terms of speed.  also it does not give them time to consider a bait, they just have a split second to react, and often they will - violently!  

of course the other thing would be stuff like senkos, flukes and trickworms - real natural looking presentations, but i'm sure others have thought of this.

one thing that might work real well too is to fish at different times than anyone else.  night would be great if you could do it.

the last thing i can thing of is using unconventional retrieves or "outside of the box" presentations - things like burning a plastic worm back in or carolina rigging a crank bait.  these show the fish lures they are familiar with, but in a way they have never seen em.

and by all means, i'd do what it took to be there when the spawn arrives.  that is when the giants will be the most vulnerable.  their motivation to strike is totally different then and with pressured fish, that can be one of the easiest times to catch 'em if you do things right.  hope these ideas help and good luck.

Thanks a lot hawg, I like the idead of burning back plastics. The other day I was fishing a giggystick and burned it back after I presented it where I wanted to, and caught what felt like a one pounder. It might work to trigger a strike from one of my big girls that I have not seen in a while.

[LCpointerKILLA]

Oh yeah hawg caller, I fished the hell out of senkos for a while earlier this year. It will be a long time before they ever bite a senko of any size or color.

[Crestliner2008]

Bass are not conditioned to plastics like hardbaits. Re-try the Senkos dead sticking with an occaisional vibration from your rod tip. Heavily pressured waters here still produce quality fish on plastics.

[Guest muddy]

Hey We fish a few ponds and stripping pits this way. When they stopped hitting *** t rigged , we went to wack rigged. Then because of drought and weed growth we switched up, An old and still reliable bait proved to kick things bacvk up A weightless T rigged plastic worm ; The 2 that worked best

Alluting Ripple tails , 7 inch watermelon

Manns Jelly worms 8 inch in Purple(grape) and Motor Oil( Marmalade)

Hope this can help you too.

[mayassa]

maybe a few topwater lures?

Or try live bait

[Tin]

When I'm fishing heavily pressured bodies of water that have big bass potential my go to is always a shakey head or a Hula Grub/Spider Jig. If you have a hard bottom or vegetation matted on the bottom, I will usually go to an 1/8oz or 1/16oz. shakey head with a 4-7 inch finesse worm on 8 lbs flouro. Good example of this is KVD catching an 11+  largie in an Elite Series Event a few years back on Lake Lewisville outside of Dallas which is a really really pressured body of water.

Second choice: If there is a lot of vegetation I will throw a 4 or 5 inch twin tail hula grub on a 1/4 oz. jig head with a brush guard.

[LCpointerKILLA]

When I'm fishing heavily pressured bodies of water that have big bass potential my go to is always a shakey head or a Hula Grub/Spider Jig. If you have a hard bottom or vegetation matted on the bottom, I will usually go to an 1/8oz or 1/16oz. shakey head with a 4-7 inch finesse worm on 8 lbs flouro. Good example of this is KVD catching an 11+  largie in an Elite Series Event a few years back on Lake Lewisville outside of Dallas which is a really really pressured body of water.

Second choice: If there is a lot of vegetation I will throw a 4 or 5 inch twin tail hula grub on a 1/4 oz. jig head with a brush guard.

I have been fishing the shakey head rig with various 4 inch and other small worms, with little success. I have only thrown the jig in here one time last year. I am thinking about trying them again, but these ponds do not have the cover that people usually fish a jig on. It's mainly grass, hydrilla, a lot of open mud bottom, and I guess some large branches that have piled up. Do you think the jig would work in here?

Thanks for the good advice

[Tin]

You dont have to fish wood with a jig, a jig can be fished anyway on anytype of stucture. Since you have grass and hydrilla, go to a jig that is made for grass fishing. Like a grassmaster or a jig that has a bullet type head and where you tie the knot inline with the hook. It will come through the grass fine. Hydrilla ( which is the grass that gets matted on the bottom foot or two right? Dont have that in RI) Go to a light jig like an 1/8 that will rest on top of the mat of grass on the bottom.

Also try a larger worm on the shakey head, you might not get as many fish but they should be bigger, rule of thumb most the time bigger bait = bigger fish

[.dsaavedra.]

i was watching UMF once and this guy, i think anthony gagliardi, did something i have never heard of but it seems like a great idea.

he was on a ledge or hump or some kind of structure (since your fishing in a golf course pond it should work anywhere) and he was taking a johnsons silver minnow spoon (basi weedless spoon) and he would cast it out. let it sink. wiggle it a little. then give it big rips on his rod. what this did was it would pull the bait off the botom rapidly and then it would gently flutter down. he did this and was smackin some fish. if you've ever seen the action on a johnsons minnow spoon, you can have a pretty good idea of what this would look like, and it really looks like a baitfish dying on the bottom.

[.dsaavedra.]

oh and i forgot, since its heavyil pressured, you might want to try some reaction baits. since they probably know everything there is to know...sneak up on em and just blast an x-rap thru their turf. like paul said earlier, they wont have time to think and will just smack it. if you finesse em, they have a chance at looking at the worm, seeing its flaws, and not biting. scare em w/ something and they will reflexivly bite.

[KYbass1276]

You said the hazards are fished by other people.   Maybe they aren't catching and releasing that could explaing why your not catching the sizes you once caught.  People are keeping the big ones  Just a thought

[bocabasser]

You said the hazards are fished by other people. Maybe they aren't catching and releasing that could explaing why your not catching the sizes you once caught. People are keeping the big ones Just a thought

that is probably the case. i believe gcpm lives in miami, and it is VERY common for people to keep EVERYTHING they catch. fortunately golfcoursepondman in a catch and releaser, but some of the other folks down there don't practice catch and release. i am north of miami in palm beach, and it sickens me when i see people fishing and they have a bucket full of fish that include bass(both big and small) along with tiny bream, cichlids, catfish, mullet and just about anything they catch.

the only advice i can give you gcpm is just keep trying new baits and techniques and hopefully your fishing will get better.

[LCpointerKILLA]

You said the hazards are fished by other people.   Maybe they aren't catching and releasing that could explaing why your not catching the sizes you once caught.  People are keeping the big ones  Just a thought

that is probably the case. i believe gcpm lives in miami, and it is VERY common for people to keep EVERYTHING they catch. fortunately golfcoursepondman in a catch and releaser, but some of the other folks down there don't practice catch and release. i am north of miami in palm beach, and it sickens me when i see people fishing and they have a bucket full of fish that include bass(both big and small) along with tiny bream, cichlids, catfish, mullet and just about anything they catch.

the only advice i can give you gcpm is just keep trying new baits and techniques and hopefully your fishing will get better.

No, I am smack dab in Orlando, but

Last June the golf course had complaints about people fishing there at night, and I have not heard anything since. They were definitely not members of the club and I'm guessing they probably came from the surrounding urban area which is only like 10 minutes away... I will bet they were keeping bass, but they probably suck at fishing and did not catch that much  , But seriously, that is a good thought, you may be right.

[guitarkid]

i fish a pond that has seen every kind of trick worm out there try suspending a weight;ess t rigged u tail worm. the trick is to keep it level and to get the right style of tail. my personnal favorites are the bps squirmin worm and the zoom shakey tail.

[guitarkid]

weightless im sorry

[guitarkid]

last one i promise but try keeping the worm level

[Cajun1977]

its called fishing and not catching for a reason, fishing happens

[LCpointerKILLA]

its called fishing and not catching for a reason, fishing happens

yeah, i know a lot about fishing.

[Boett43]

haha man sometimes you just gotta go back to the basics try catching a small sunfish and rig it up with a big bobber it might look silly but i always catch big ones like that ...its a good way to end a dry spell of not catching any big ones. if the pond has a good grass like cast it about 5 feet about and just wait for big momma to ambush the little sunfish