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Posted

From March thru July, I could reasonably rely on catching at least 4 or 6 or 8 bass from a pond I go to.  It isn't necessarily an easy pond to fish.  Sometimes I have to switch from a frog in the pads to spinnerbaits to plastic worms, etc.  But as I said before, I could usually coerce a half dozen bass to bite.  Lately, however, it's like the fish aren't there. Some of the lily pads have died back but not many.  The pond isn't so large that with a little effort, I can't cover a good portion of it.  Unless they've all gone to the smack dab center, they should be accessible.  I wonder what's up.  Have they seen my entire bag of tricks and gotten wise to me?  What do you all do when a pond goes from "easy but you've gotta earn it" to "forget about it!"?

Posted

I'm in the same situation and would really like to read the replies regarding this.

  • Super User
Posted

I've not found a pond full of bass to ever become uncatchable. Individuals maybe, from research I've read. But not an entire population.

Bass do get hip to angling though -or should I say, warier -more discerning. If this pond was relatively unfished when you started fishing it, then you could notice such a change. Here, conditions become more important.

But I'm going to guess that this pond was not a virgin fishery and that there has been a change you just haven't picked up on.

Posted

They have most likley become conditioned. I fish some golf ponds that are only an acre or two. This has happened to me many times before. My solution has been to change up the bait with a similar technique. If you were getting hit on a popper or spook but now your not try throwing a buzzbait or wake bait. If you were getting bit throwing plastic worms, switch it up to a jig or creature. Same spots, same depth, similar presentations.

This is assuming the conditions havent changed much and the fish are still in there and healthy. In small ponds they realy dont migrate much but they will still have seasonal paterns.

letting the pond rest is also a good idea.

Posted

Try fishing slower, bigger baits, deeper water, and closer to the bottom. Let me know how you make out. I was in a similar situation and decided to change it up. My home pond where I have been struggling to catch fish all summer has really been giving me some trouble lately so I changed it up and yesterday a below average pond gave me the biggest bass I have ever seen in New England! Let us know how it works out. Remember as the season change the fish don't get "smarter", they just change their habits according to the weather. ;)

Posted

The pond is figure 8 shaped with lily pads dominating the smaller half of the 8 and also running along the sides everywhere else.  It does get some light to medium fishing pressure (including a guy who fishes for bass with bits of hotdog) but it's mostly catch and release.  It is just uncanny how quickly the temperment of the pond changed without any clear indicators.  And I've fished this pond in some pretty extreme conditions (cold, hot and bright, etc) with better results.

Thanks for the advice.  I'll give this pond a bit of a rest and see how that pans out.

  • Super User
Posted
But I'm going to guess that this pond was not a virgin fishery and that there has been a change you just haven't picked up on.
I had some dry spells at the noontime pond, and I always attributed those spells to my fishing technique, that i was missing some part of the equation - not that the fish "figured me out." I only had less than an hour to fish, so experimentation time was limited. But, more often than not, I caught fish, and even the same fish several times.
Posted

One other thing to try is to bring sombody new to the pond that is a decent bass guy with little or no preconcieved knowledge of this particular pond. The idea is that the new guy doesnt know what has worked for you in the past and he doesnt know your spots. I have done this with a couple guys who I knew but never fished with and they went to spots I normaly pass up and they threw baits that I normaly dont. They ended up beating me. I liked it.

The quick answer to your problem is you have to change something.

Posted

Maybe all the changes suggested above will work but when my local lake (40 acres) went to full stop, nothing I did worked.  This lake is just a few hundred feet from my house so I can and do go there almost every day.

I threw every darn thing but the tackle box itself in all the different ways I knew, to all levels of the water column without getting bit.  This started the first week in August.  I fished it nearly every day with my wife getting tired my complaints when I got home.

The last few days of August, I started getting a few on worms at night.  Within a week, it was back to normal.  I can walk down there after work, catch two or three and be home before supper or go in the morning and still be ready for church on Sunday.

It was not me, it was the fish/lake/weather/water or something other than that which I can't imagine.  Kinda funny others are saying to give it a rest.  My neighbor said to me the other day, "Man, you don't give them a rest do you?"  Heck, when it turned back on, I wanted to catching bass on that day, not the day after.

Posted

Sammy I was basing my suggestions on small ponds. to me 40 acres is a small lake. I dont think it would need a rest unless it has a masive amount of presure. still if something isnt working anymore then you need to change.

  • Super User
Posted

40 acres isn't a pond.  I'd call a pond about 10 acres or less.  

I've had the same thing.  In my case it turned out my pond was being fished by some folks that must have thought there was a bottomless pit to the pond and that keeper sized bass came back up from the depths at night and filled in for all the bass they took out.

In one summer that 1 1/2 acre pond was ruined by a lack of catch and release.  

  • Super User
Posted
40 acres isn't a pond. I'd call a pond about 10 acres or less.

I've had the same thing. In my case it turned out my pond was being fished by some folks that must have thought there was a bottomless pit to the pond and that keeper sized bass came back up from the depths at night and filled in for all the bass they took out.

In one summer that 1 1/2 acre pond was ruined by a lack of catch and release.

Happened out here. We had a pond go to crap in two seasons because of this.

Posted

Man, some of the ponds I fish, ya'll would call puddles ;D! Changing techniques and baits works for a while or sometimes. Seems like after a while giving them a rest is the only answer ;)...

skillet  

Posted

the guys are right..... maybe give it a week or two rest........ then key on the morning bite and late afternoon bite...........

The bass should be shallow early trying to feed.......... use a big spinnerbait, a zoom super fluke, and a senko or a trick worm on a dropshot rig.......

show the fish something different............ I've caught many a bass on a wacky rig when nothing else would work...........

My go to bait you might try as well........a 7 or 10" powerworm texas rigged..........

good luck let us know how it goes.............. :)

Posted

I've gone through this on one of the ponds I fish down here, in my case the fish became so tuned in to the shad population in the pond that they wouldn't sniff anything that didn't resemble a shad.  The only thing I can get consistently bit on is a Rat-L-Trap or a shallow crankbait of somekind.  If you have alot of bream a swim'n jig or a gp or junebug senko might be the ticket, just keep rolling with it until you find out what they want.

Posted

I haven't touched the pond for about 2 weeks so it's time to give it the ol' college try again this weekend-if I can find the time.

I haven't tried drop-shotting so I might give that a shot.  Can't hurt at any rate.

  • Super User
Posted
I haven't touched the pond for about 2 weeks so it's time to give it the ol' college try again this weekend-if I can find the time.

I haven't tried drop-shotting so I might give that a shot. Can't hurt at any rate.

I would ignore your trepidation about the bass suddenly being smarter. Fish from a clean slate. Fish the conditions in front of you. Don't fish history, esp if it's bad.

Posted
What do you all do when a pond goes from "easy but you've gotta earn it" to "forget about it!"?

Make a BIG change.  If you still are having problems then try and downsize to VERY small lures.  Beetle spings, in-line spinners, crappie tubes, etc all have been very effective for me when I have had problems coaxing pond fish to bite.

Posted

Haha they have figured you out.  thats classic. Mix it up buddy. Try fishing deeper, slower, faster, shallower. If something isn't working then its time to find something that does. keep at it and you'll figure them out instead of the opposite

Mottfia

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