By Kenny Lookingbill

Article Posted: March 24, 2009  

9:28PM, CST
 

 

 

 

 

If you are not fishing small bass waters, you are missing out on a lot of enjoyment. Community ponds, inlets, and farm ponds are excellent providers of great, low pressure Bass fishing. Many of these ponds can be very small (<0.25 acres), but yield great catches. I fish many small ponds all over the state of Illinois and a significant amount of my best catches have come from these small venues.

 

For instance in a private farm pond that I have access in Western Illinois, I have caught many nice bass up to 4lbs, from last summer. In addition, there is always the chance that you will run into other species of fish as well.

 

Small ponds are great options early on in the year when the ice melts. Many times they are the first places to heat up and bass move in the shallows to spawn. Also utilize these ponds at night. Small pond night-bass fishing is some of the best fishing a bass angler can encounter. While community ponds are public, farm ponds are mostly private ponds. The best thing to do with these ponds is to get the landowner's permission to fish their ponds. They just might say yes, but give many conditions such as releasing all the fish you catch or staying away from certain areas of their property. Abide by all of their rules and respect their property and you will be welcomed back. Clean up after yourself (ex. Don’t leave pop cans or bait containers out there). I have access to most of my farm ponds by this tactic as well as through work and odd-jobs for farmers and friends.

 

 

Small waters require many adjustments for the angler when compared to fishing the larger lakes. The first is properly selecting your lures. The depth of the water is a big factor. In many smaller ponds, the maximum depth does not get more than 10-15 feet, and in some cases, less than 10 feet. Most lures should be topwaters or shallow to medium divers. Also reduce the size of lures you are using and use search lures to find the fish in new places, as well as actively feeding ones. Also alter your colors and patterns in order to match the given conditions. Keep in mind that smaller ponds most likely will not have shad, so you must select your lures for the forage present. Such species present can be frogs, mice, crayfish, grasshoppers, worms, lizards, salamanders, or other prey such as bluegill and juvenile panfish. Also while navigating around the pond, be as stealthy as possible. Prevent your silhouette from being seen by the fish as well as walking softly to prevent vibrations. Also walk ahead of where you will be fishing and stir up the grass with the tip of your rod and scare up insects into the water. This will attract bass into the area, and use the right lures accordingly.

 

Never overlook discharges leading into ponds as they often provide an influx of baitfish to the pond
 

 

Edge Habitats

 

In my sophomore year of college I took a course in Ecology. My professor, who happens to be an aquatic ecologist, stressed the importance of edge habitats and the fact that species density and diversity is always at the maximum in edge habitats. This can be applied to fishing as well. This can apply to many different transitions such as depths, vegetation type, bottom type, and so-forth. My favorite transition to attack is any bottom transition that I can find. If I see an area of sand or silt transition to rock, I will be working that area with many baits including crayfish imitators such as Yum’s Craw Papi. Also weed transitions are another indicator of the presence of fish. Bass are predators and they ambush their prey from cover. Therefore, Bass will be stalking their prey from edges of weeds and attack when unsuspecting prey goes by. Another example is reeds to moss. This situation calls for topwaters, most namely frogs. Many times, the fish will be sitting in the reeds and at the first sign of activity on top of the moss it will investigate.

 

19.5” 4lber caught on a Crème plastic lizard Texas Rigged                                                          

 

I like to keep the fishing simple with my equipment. My favorite small pond bass rod and reel set-up is my Quantum Tenacity medium action spinning combo with 8lb Trilene for crankbaits, spinner baits, and soft plastics. I also use a Mitchell Esprit medium action combo with 6lb Stren Magnaflex for smaller jigs as well as inline spinners such as Rooster Tails or Mepps. I have also recently employed a Quantum Tour Edition baitcaster with a St. Croix Premier medium heavy action for flipping and pitching as well as spinner baits and crankbaits. I will lighten up the tackle load if I am walking great distances and take my favorite lures with to reduce loads so I don’t wear myself out carrying a bunch of tackle that I will not be using.

 

 

My 10 mainstays in small pond bass fishing

 

I have many lures I like to keep with me when fishing smaller ponds, but these are the 10 that you should consider carrying when fishing smaller ponds.

 

 

Stick Baits (Yamamoto Senkos, Bearpaw Hippie Sticks, YUM Dingers, ect.)

 

 

These are among my all-time favorite bass lures. They are effective year-round, in any conditions, and at any time of the day. There are many color selections to match forage or different visibility conditions. Also many of these stickbaits such as Bearpaw Hippie Sticks with Mega Strike are enriched with fish attracting formulas to help fish zero in on the bait. I prefer Swim Senkos in Mardi Gras or Christmas Tree patterns. I prefer these over other stick baits because of the paddle tail on these baits that is characteristic of the newest craze to bass fishing in swim baits. It combines the best of two worlds into one great bait.

 

 

 

Mepps Inline Spinners

 

These are another favorite lure of mine. I like to work these near weed edges and lily pads. I like the natural brown colored fur on them, but also like the white as well. I also like the Mepps Comet which has a minnow attached instead of the buck tail. I prefer the blade sizes to be between 2-5 usually like the silver blades.

 

 

 

Rapala DT-4, DT-6, and DT-Flat Cranks

 

 

 

I like working these lures on steep dropoffs near shore or if there is a dock on the lake, I use them off of the docks. I use varying retrieves based on what the fish are giving me (or not giving me). I like mimicking the forage with these and my favorite patterns are Baby Bass, Bluegill, or Firetiger. These are great search lures because they can cover a lot of water in a short period of time.

 

 

 

Buzzbaits

 

 

I use these almost exclusively in the waning hours of the day up until dark. I usually don’t switch colors or styles very much, but I have found that black, chartreuse, or white work best for me. I cast parallel to shore and work the shoreline to work the bass that come in shallow in the evening to feed. I prefer using buzzbaits made by Strike King as well as the lineup from BOOYAH. I like to make sure the hooks are sharp before every time I use these to increase hook up percentages because I have found bass can be hard to hook in low light conditions, especially bigger ones.

 

 

 

Chatterbaits

 

 

These are great lures to use in weedy lakes as they are nearly virtually weedless. They are a relatively new lure on the market and are very versatile as far as usage goes such as jigging, but my favorite way to use them is flat out cranking them. I like the plain white, red and white, and chartreuse colors the best. You can also modify the trailers on them by using plastic crayfish, twister tails, or other plastics. These lures are more effectively used early in the late spring and early summer when a fishes metabolism is at its highest.

 

 

 

Plastic Lizards

 

 

These are never out of my tackle box when fishing for bass. They are another one of my favorite bass baits and have produced many fine fish for me. I like them Texas or Carolina rigged and in many varying colors, but a natural brown color is my favorite. Creme's lizard rig is my favorite lizard to use because of the small spinning silver blade in the front of the lizard. Lizards and salamanders are natural enemies of bass nests and bass may hit lizards out of anger rather than out of hunger. For instance I was fishing a small strip mine in August and nothing seemed to be biting that day and I only had one bass that day in two hours. I threw on a Carolina rigged lizard and it was not in the water for more than 10 seconds and I had a hit and hooked the fish. It turned out to be a 17” fish. I caught 4 other bass that day in the last 40 minutes of fishing including another 17” fish to turn a terrible day into a decent one. I like to fish lizards slowly and close to the bottom. I will sometimes pause the lizard for long periods of time and let it sink completely to the bottom and twitch it along.

 

 

Spinner Baits

I prefer to use these during the warmer months of the summer and use them parallel to shoreline or structure, or casting at shore if I am fishing from a boat. There is much variability in spinner baits nowadays in color of blades (silver or gold), color(s) of the skirt, size, number of blades, size of the blades, and type of blades. The number of combinations is unfathomable. Sometimes anglers spend too much time deciding between different spinner baits and deciding on little things such as the number of green strings to have on the skirt and overcomplicate things. I keep things simple and match forage once again with the colors and like to have at least at least one willow blade and prefer it to be silver. My favorite lineup of spinner baits is Strike King, but Terminator has a good class as well.

 

 

 

Small Panfish Jigs

Some of you may be scratching your heads at this one. Yes you will catch a lot of undesirable species on these lures such as panfish, but sometimes it is a necessity to go small. Plus if you find a pod of bluegill, there probably isn’t a Bass too far away. I like to use small jigs that mimic minnows, small fry, or insects. You can still catch decent sized bass on these lures as I have caught many 15”+ bass on these lures. My favorite lures to use are Charlie Brewers 1.5” Crappie Sliders or Berkley’s Power Minnow. There are other effective baits out there such as nymphs and small tubes as well. They also are great search lures.

 

 

 

Jerkbaits

Besides being my favorite early season bass bait, they are also a great bait to use at anytime of the year, especially in lethargic conditions, when I use suspending jerkbaits. I will let them sit for long periods of time and give them jerks to model baitfish movements. I like to use Baby Bass and Perch in Rapala’s Husky Jerks, and Silver in Strike King’s jerkbaits. I like to use these near timber or near drainage pipes, as well as around vertical structure such as concrete walls. They also generally don’t dive down very far (~6ft.), so they can be used in most small ponds.

 

 

Frogs

   

I was never a big frog user until this summer in Wisconsin while fishing with Andrew Ragas. But after that trip, I am a big believer in them. There are many different varieties of frogs out there but I prefer the big frogs that “plop” along on the surface such as Scum Frogs. But I also like plastic frogs that are burnt across the surface near weeds during the dog days of summer. I prefer Zoom’s Horny Toads or Strike King’s Rage Toads. It is essential to have a rod with backbone to increase hookup percentages and my rod of choice for this kind of fishing this season is my St. Croix Premier medium heavy action rod.

 

 

Bass fishing in small ponds is a very rewarding experience. No matter the experience level, you can catch fish using these tactics. You never know what sized fish you can pull out of these small and rather inconspicuous looking ponds. The only way to find out is to go out there and wet a line for a while.

 

 

 

* Kenny Lookingbill is an FHQ Commodore and Moderator of the Discussion Forums.

More of his publications can be viewed at our on-line discussion forums.