Fishing Trip

[Bass-minded]

I'm going on a fishing trip in early June to a friend's farm in Illinios. There are two or three ponds ranging from: 2 to 5 acres, 5 to 20 ft. deep, and having a medium to high levels of cover. They are stocked ( well stocked) with bass, bluegill, carp, and maybe some catfish. Does anyone have any tips?

[IneedAnewScreenName-972354]

I would suggest you stock your tackle box with a vareity of things but you don't need to overdo it. Cover your water column, Topwater poppers or frogs, spinner baits, jigs,soft plastics (worm/craws) and a couple of cranks to cover different depths. Ask your friend about the water clarity to help choose your colors. You should be ready for anything.

Good luck on your trip!

[Fishmaster10]

I would suggest you stock your tackle box with a vareity of things but you don't need to overdo it. Cover your water water column, Topwater poppers or frogs, spinner baits, jigs,soft plastics (worm/craws) and a couple of cranks to cover different depths. Ask your friend about the water clarity to help choose your colors. You should be ready for anything.

Good luck on your trip!

He pretty much nailed everything, so the only thing for me to say is X 2!

[Bass-minded]

I think they have muddy bottoms. Last year I went fishing there but I was I beginner fisherman. I threw an overly sized hook with a massive sized nightcrawler under a golfball-sized bobber. Only caught two small fish.

What kind of plugs should I bring? Do Cotton Cordells work? Rat-l-traps? And what kind of jigs?

Thanks

[Fishmaster10]

I've had decent luck with cotton cordells and Rat-L-traps, and for jigs I like to use the strike king pro tour grade jigs paired with a rage chunk. The pond you're fishing gets pretty deep, so I would have a few different size jigs with me. For example 1/4, 3/8, and 1/2 oz.... you probably don't need all three, but two of the different weights will help depending on the depth that the fish are holding. I also live in Illinois, and the color green pumpkin works really well for me. Get your jigs and trailers in the same color. For soft plastics I would recommend getting senkos or yum dingers, and wacky rig them weightless. You could also texas rig them and add bullet weights (the bullets weights should be similar in weight to the weight of the jigs I mentioned). For search baits I would stick with lipless cranks, square bill cranks, and spinnerbaits. I hope this helps.

[A-Rob]

No matter what pond in the world you go to bass will eat worms! Make sure you bring a trick worm or senko

I've had bass turn down jigs where no craw are in the ponds, same with cranks/jerks...but never had an issue with a fish turning down a worm.

A spinnerbait is always good to!

edit: Better advice than mine:

"I would suggest you stock your tackle box with a vareity of things but you don't need to overdo it. Cover your water column, Topwater poppers or frogs, spinner baits, jigs,soft plastics (worm/craws) and a couple of cranks to cover different depths. Ask your friend about the water clarity to help choose your colors. You should be ready for anything."

[Redwiggler]

I agree with A-Rob. When I can't get any strikes on the other stuff, a worm for some reason always does the trick.. 6' Pumpkinseed is a favorite of mine.. Good luck.

[Bass-minded]

Thank you. Does the size of the worm depend on the size of bass that you are targeting?

[NCbassmaster4Life]

Muddy water: colorado blade spinner bait white skirt

Lizards: watermelon and blk flake or pumpkinseed

Crankbait: 50-60 degree water: shallow diving, color depends on the season you said summer so I would go with siliver and black.70-75 degrees 5-10 ft cranks same color.

Carolina-rigged double ringer, zoom makes them they are awsume