Small Ponds...

[David Razo]

Hi.. I fish a ssmall pond, that I know is a little overfished.don't get me wrong I catch many bass. But when whinter rolls around, there is no bass to bite. It seems like they just disappear. Any advice on how to catch these bass? NEEED HELP!!

[Nitrofreak]

It would help to know what bait you are trying to use and the ponds information etc...

In winter months you really need to slow down...way down from what you are used to.

How clear or stained is the water, do you have any springs or creeks that feed the pond?

The more you know about your water and its structure the more you will know about what your fish are doing.

The colder the water the more lathargic the bass will be, look for areas of the pond that warm up quickly as the sun comes out.

[Crestliner2008]

X2 - I agree, we definitely need more information. What is your definition of "small" pond? What's the deepest water in it? Do you have access to the deepest water? What is the water temp right now? What baits have you tried?

[Hyrule Bass]

i dont need anymore information.

Winter fishing in small ponds can be frustrating. Plastics never worked that good for me in small cold ponds. I would be throwing a husky jerk or another hard jerk bait and working it real slow. or a shallow diving crank rolled slowly. try fishing the deepest part of the pond

[roadwarrior]

Right now it's all jigs for me. More generally, every soft plastic presentation

or technique should work. Frogs and spinnerbaits are fine, but treble hooks in

general tend to find new homes. Don't fish anything that you don't mind losing.

In a boat everything is retrievable with a little effort, but not when you are

restricted to the bank.

As for a little encouragement, most of my biggest largemouth have come from

local ponds. Some of my friends that are BassResource members have caught big

bass, including several PBs on these same ponds.

[Daniel My Brother]

How cold is cold? When the water is in the mid 40s it's tough to beat a jerk bait, if you have the courage to throw treble hook lures from the bank.

Any colder and I'm fishing small jigs and plastics SLOOWWWLLYYY crawling on the bottom. As the temp drops the bass move slower too, so the bite can be hard to detect. If something feels different, set the hook.

When the sun comes out, the bass on my lake will move shallow but tend to stick pretty close to cover. That's when I'll switch to a spinnerbait.

[NCLifetimer]

The suggestions above should get you some bites, main key is to slow down alot. Where are you located? winter in the south is alot different than winter in the north. If you're fishing a pond whos water temperature is low 40 or high 30's then you'll need to slow waayyyyy down.

What do you normally catch bass on? how deep? Try fishing the deepest water you can find in the winter.

[scrutch]

Right now it's all jigs for me. More generally, every soft plastic presentation

or technique should work. Frogs and spinnerbaits are fine, but treble hooks in

general tend to find new homes. Don't fish anything that you don't mind losing.

In a boat everything is retrievable with a little effort, but not when you are

restricted to the bank.

As for a little encouragement, most of my biggest largemouth have come from

local ponds. Some of my friends that are BassResource members have caught big

bass, including several PBs on these same ponds.

I'm one of these guys! My PBLM came out of a one acre farm pond. Remember, the largest fish in the pond will be occupying the best spot. There aren't many of those spots in a small pond, so keep trying and fish low and slow. You'll find what you're looking for. Good luck!

[ClackerBuzz]

I'm one of these guys! My PBLM came out of a one acre farm pond. Remember, the largest fish in the pond will be occupying the best spot. There aren't many of those spots in a small pond, so keep trying and fish low and slow. You'll find what you're looking for. Good luck!

looks like ur getting some great advice. when you think ur going slow...slow it down even more. 9 months of the year i prefer to fish where the feeder streams enter my ponds. it brings oxygen, a cool current and is a food source so the biggest bass usually occupy the space. however in winter i fishing the back/dead end coves that usually hold all the slop/scum/algae in the summer. these coves are too hot to fish in summer but are perfect for a bass to warm up in dead winter. try reeling a 1/4oz in line spinner thru the back cove and see if it nets ya anything. good luck and stay warm

[David Razo]

Thanks for the advice.guys.. I'm not to sure about the temp. But I is only about 15 to 20 feet deep.. roughly an acre. I catch most on a swimbait(7 in) or spinnerbaits, caught some on jerkbaits. I normally only fish from shore. There is not a lot of vegitation in the way, nor is it a farm pond. Need more?

[David Razo]

There is a water inlet. The water is usually clear, unless it has rained. By the way, I'm located in northern Arizona.

[hookset on 3]

In clear cold water you say? Try a Strike King 3x finesse worm in 4inch. they float and have a tendency to stand straight out on an Owner brand drop shot hook. Drag, not hop,it along the bottom slowly.

Try watermelon black flake or even a light pumpkinseed color.

[silvercliff_46]

The suggestions above should get you some bites, main key is to slow down alot. Where are you located? winter in the south is alot different than winter in the north. If you're fishing a pond whos water temperature is low 40 or high 30's then you'll need to slow waayyyyy down.

What do you normally catch bass on? how deep? Try fishing the deepest water you can find in the winter.

Boy Howdie to that! Right now I am fishing through around 20" of ice. I know I don't seem to belong on this, and in all practicality I don't. On the other hand I can attest to catching fish in general, bass in particular in adverse cold conditions. I do it every year, especially at the end of February, and into March. I think light penetration could have something to do with it. I guess my only contribution to this is, it can be done.

[scrutch]

Another key to success, especially in small ponds, is to give the fish something they likely have not seen before. Like a Fat Ika, or a Rage Tail space monkey, for instance. You say it is fairly pressured water, that just might make the difference. Use natural colors in clear water, green pumpkin, or watermelon/red flake.

[PondBoss]

If you wanna try something that no one is doing on your highly pressured water....Speed up rip a lipless bait as fast as you can reel it. Cast out let it sink to desired depth snap your rod to activate the rattles and start cranking, Those fish may be acting slow and lethargic, but when you rip something by them they can't help but jump on it. This works really well for me on most of the ponds I fish when it's super cold outside.

[Bluebasser86]

Small jerkbaits fished very slowly with soft twitches catch most of my fish in cold, clear ponds during the winter time. Natural colors fished on mono or copoly so it hangs perfectly in the water.

[CCERDA]

What works for me at our ponds here in AZ during winter months.. A big fat plastic on a split shot rig. (Worm, watermelon with white belly) Slow bounce retrieve!! Good luck buddy!!

[Borderline11]

I'm a nothern (PA) bass guy. Brother and I have recently become slightly maniacal with chasing our personal records. I live and work in NYC, while he works and lives in NJ. Even now, in the dead of winter, we're still planning our every bass fishing move - between targeting certain lakes and ponds in and around the tri-state area, or planning our next great southern adventure (we'd love some recommendations!). Any how, we were raised on pond fishing. Our dad always enjoyed fishing, taught us everything he knew (we're now returning the favor), and we spent many of weekends shore fishing at small industrial type ponds, the types that are 2-3 acres at most. These were the types of properties where we could easily isolate certain buried structures and be able to fish to whatever target zones we thought might hold some bucketmouths. I've always found that you really need to do a thorough analysis of what type of pond you're working with, without disturbing whats hanging below the surface. I'll walk a little ways around the pond, just sort of feeling out what type of shorelines the place offers. Are there a lot of frogs, do you see a lot of feeder fish, what type of slope is there to the shoreline, how much coverage is there, etc, etc. This quick analysis usually goes a long ways to determining what I'm going to present that day. I have a few ponds within just a few miles of each other, and I've literally been able to concentrate the bass bites down to a handful of lures at each location, with each being different. If i can sight fish, i'll try to throw some plastic options as slowly as i can using a microlite setup, making it dance alot without ever going very far. If sight fishing isn't an option I'll slowly work some jerkbaits in some natural colors - something with an integrated rattle or some other sort of irritant. Truth be told, there are even times I'll throw live bait out there, even in this cold. Basically...just try to throw as much as you can until you find they start biting with some consistency. My father once told me fishing is a lucky mans game....I've since proved him wrong. Fishing with luck will feel good, fishing with knowledge will catch better.

[steve52mb]

i have the same problem .i live in so.cali in a housing complex surrounding a two acre pond .the bottom consists of small weeds the water is clear in most of the pond with some murky water in the east end of the pond .the deepest part is about 12ft. I'v tried spinnerbaits ,plastics ,jerk baits ,grubs ,creatures and jigs .managed to catch one on a jig but its hard fishing because of the weeds any other ideas

[David Razo]

Yes.. the weeds... same problem!!

[scrutch]

Borderline,

If youre looking for the next great southern adventure, look no further than our BassResource annual Roadip. This year being held at Lake Guntersville, Alabama. Check out the pinned thread in this forum for all the info. A guaranteed good time.

Also,

I might add to Borderlines post, a good way to check for structure in a small pond is to cast a heavy jig and drag it along the bottom "feeling" for structure. You might spook a few fish the first time you get hung up, but now you know where it is.

[Colton Neal]

You can never go wrong with light line and a spinning rod. Lures would include shaky heads, tubes, and dropshots. No matter where you fish smaller lures will usually get more bites. If the water is muddy remember to fish extremeley close to cover.