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.
