fishing a new pond

[IL_Bassman]

Well I got permission to fish a small pond close to my house. I am going to go out this evening and give it a try. The farmer who owns it says its stocked with catfish, bluegill, and largemouth. He also said that its full of moss in the bottom of the pond. Never had a situation like this so I am looking for some help. How would you all approach this? Thanks

[Grey Wolf]

How'd you do on that new pond ?

[Clark Stewart]

try using a smallish (not necessarily crappie sized) spinnerbait. Either white or chartreuse/white will do. Booyah makes the pond magic which is the perfect size, but all the spinnerbait makers make smaller version of the same thing. White is good if the water is clear, but here in alabama the water is generally a little muddy/murky so we use the char/white.

I recommend a spinnerbait because it covers a lot of water but the MAIN thing is that you won't have trouble keeping it off the moss on the bottom which causes all kinda hell when fishing worms. Just last week I caught a couple on the spinnerbait in water less than 5 feet deep with a ton of moss on the bottom just reeling it fast enough to clear bottom.. If you have a hard time getting bit on the smaller spinnerbait then switch to a rooster tail or other inline spinner.

I hate to admit they catch the crap out of fish because I feel like it takes no skill to fish em and imo they should be fished by those still using a snoopy rod, but truth be told the old guy who fishes with me won't tie anything else on and he always outfishes me for any species in the water. Hope this helps!

[farmpond1]

I found that a Johnson Silver Minnow is a great bait for working over and through moss.  You get fewer solid hookups but that's better than fouling all the time and not getting any bites at all.   "'Tis better to have hooked and lossed than to never have hooked at all."

[BassinBoy]

How'd you do?

[IL_Bassman]

Well it wasn't too bad.  I started with a spinnerbait with no luck, but once the sun started going down I started hitting them pretty good on a buzzbait and *** strokin toad.  Nothing with much size but atleast I didn't get skunked!  I tried working soft plastics and jigs through this stuff, but its some thick moss.  Im wondering if my best bet will be to go at early morning and late evening using topwaters.

[B-Ass-Mad]

Try either a ribbit frog or a rebel hopper topwater, failing that maybe a fly - streamer or popper.

[fishinfiend]

How about a pop-r  or a floating worm rigged weightless?

[jwo1124]

I fish a small farm sized pond(it isn;t a farm pond though) and it has a lot of moss in it. This makes it useless to throw most types of lures like jerkbaits, cranks, spinnerbait, and basically anything that goes below the surface. Once in a while you'll luck out and your won;t reel in a bunch of green stuff, but most times you spend 5 minutes picking moss off the hooks before you can cast again.

I started using topwaters a lot and hI have had decent results with a popper and a buzzbait when fishing from the shore. When I take my small tin boat out I also supplemnt by tossing wacky rigged worms around lily pads and timber.

As for the time of day when to fish, I have never had a good experience fishing early morning, but I have had a couple really good nights bass fishing around dusk. It's true, that the predators get more active at nightfall, not to say fish won;t feed during the day if something comes along, but it's at night when they "turn on" and actively hunt. Hunting with the cover of darkness is smart for a fish(or any predator since they will waste the least amount of energy hunting prey that can easily see them and flee. Try going to the pond 2 or 3 hours before sunset. Once the sun has moved below the horizon, but there is still daylight for about 30 minutes, the fish should be active. I would throw a spinner bait with a colorado blade. The spinner will have the profile of a fleeing bluegill and the big blade will help the bass feel and locate it.

On a personal note, has anyone really had a great early morning fishing experience? I think I', gonna stop wasting time, gas, and hours of sleep and just start fishing at dusk and a little into the night. This is because I shore fish.

[roadwarrior]

I face the same problems with moss, specifically snot

grass (spirogyra). I have found the 3/8 oz Cavitron

buzzbait and frogs to effective early, in low light.

Otherwise, my best presentation is the GYCB Kreature:

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

8-)

[simplejoe]

on the pond up camp, I use my fly rod with a small popper on it and for my son I tie a fly on the end of his line with a bober about a foot away from the fly ( for weight so he can cast) and we catch a lot of fish.  I usally rig his rod like this when were fishing early in the morning or latter in the day for top water action ..

[Simp]

How do you fish a frog??? I've never used one but I have a pond that I know has some good numbers of bass in it. The problem is when I fished it for 15 min, and caught two bass two months ago I could tell the pond was going to moss over. I haven't went back to that pond yet because it's a long walk on our wildlife refuge and didn't want to walk that far and get nothing but moss. So I have instead went to the other pond that is a mile in the other direction walking but it seems to be heavily pressured.

[Georgia Jeff]

Most of the ponds I fish are as you described.  I kill fish on a texas rigged weightless Zoom trick worm on a 3/0 Gamakatsu Superline hook.  Senkos work great to.  They sink slow and horizontally and rest on top of the moss.  

If the moss goes all the way to the surface and is almost everywhere just throw these in holes in the moss.  If the moss is all the way to the surface and sporadic you can throw to the moss mats and fish them as if they were stumps or other types of cover.  The bass will hide under them to avoid the sun when it gets really hot.