so i’ve been hitting this tiny pond close to work in morning before work and just can not get a bite… i can literally see large mouths swimming the shallows along with few catfish. ive tryed spinner baits, berkly blue and silver swim baits, hot pink x rap, husk jerks nothing …. just hoping some one might have an idea
A slip bobber and a minnow on a hook
If the fish are cruising then I’d definitely try a Topwater. Something like a Pop-R or Spook Jr.
Early morning I’d go with dark colors, most notably black for most lures. Flashy/bright colors would be something I’d typically use in bright sun.
Whenever I can’t get a bite and they are not being aggressive o throw on a Ned rig
I cast buzzbaits, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and top water right against the bank down here. Keep the bait on or near the surface and cast parallel to the bank.
Down here the bass use the bank as a way to ambush prey or trap them against the bank. Your pond may not be conducive to casting parallel.
If the fish can see you they may not be willing to hit. Make casts well ahead of you and parallel to the shore using anything top-water as suggested.
thank you all for the advice i will pick up some more top water stuff never thrown a spook jr before heard of it just never bought one
Weightless tube or stick plastic bait.
Yep, I’d go small with some plastics or top water. I agree on parallel. Used to have a golf course pond that we fished parallel. Find a corner or cut and sneak up on it with your shadow behind you and throw parallel. Commando fishing!
And on your initial casts you might try casting a ways back from the bank. I do that now. That’s one way to fish them before they can see you.
Agreed they are likely spooked. I would hide where they can’t see you. I fished a small public lake and we always saw these 2 nice bass cruise the banks and could never get them to bite anything. We would even throw crawlers into the water, no hook, nothing and they just swam around em. One of these days you will fool em.
Soft stick bait.
Not to pimp my video, but you can see how I approach the pond here in the video I posted yesterday. You notice it is mostly devoid of any cover. It’s mostly hydrilla at the banks and in mats on the bottom.
The other pond next to it I fish may look more like your pond. It is a lot of Lily pads and I use weightless flukes and frog style baits. It’s hit or miss finding them feeding in the pads. I think they hang out in the middle a lot, but I don’t like risking hooking into a fish that I break off on the pads.
I catch way more fish in the retention pond that lacks cover because it’s easier to find them and easier to fish. However the pond with the pads gives up the bigger fish.
Another thing I forgot to mention that is very important. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for bass actively feeding near the bank. Watch for splashing and baitfish scattering. Wading birds can also tip you off if they are feeding excitedly in one spot. They likely means bass are attacking schools of baitfish at the bank.
Found a good video from Wired2Fish
As Matt mentioned, concentrate on the corners at first. Stay back and work the corner. Once you have thoroughly fished it. Go to the corner and fish from there. You can easy run your bait parallel to both sides of the corner at different depths by just moving a few steps away from the corner on the opposite bank you are casting to.
Topwater frog. Most likely the pond is very calm so a topwater would be easily noticed. Also a frog is almost totally weedless and you can run it through darn near anything and not get hung up. It is great for pond bass. Try staying back from the banks also. Cast from about 15 ft back so you don’t spook fish in the same area. Just walking around the bank can spook the fish.
This is a video I did about a week ago. While this was filmed on a good sized lake the section I was fishing was only a few feet deep or less with a lot of old reeds and dead vegetation. A lot like a pond. I think a frog makes a lot of sense on a pond. There are also some tips in the video as well. Good luck out there!
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