Pond Fishing Patterns

[RyanScheu]

I fish a largish pond/lake in Darmstadt from time to time. Its no deeper than 10 feet in the middle.

2 years ago, some knuckle-headed kid threw an M80 into the overflow pipe which ended up causing a rupture in the retaining wall. The lake dropped 4 feet within a month, with bare earth showing out to 30 feet away from the normal "bank". This caused many new weedbeds to sprout, and let homeowners on the lake "clean up their shoreline". Some actually did provide a little more cover by anchoring trees or habitats in the now bare lake bottom.

Point to that story is: I have been learning all over again how to fish it. Spots where we could hammer fish all day are now drawing blanks. Spots that used to do nothing at all will load the stringer. It's pretty darn bizarre, but lots of fun. The lesson I've learned here: things change, and be ready to adjust no matter what.

My favorites on this lake are inline spinners - preferably Panther Martins in yellow with brown hair. This lake holds MONSTER bluegill and redear - it's nothing to catch 10-15 10-12" gills within an hour or so, and they are mad as hell about the whole situation once you get them on the hook. Pound for pound, the little snots fight better than many of the bass I have caught. Speaking of bass, this lake is starting to come back for them. We were out just last weekend and caught about a dozen bass - all 10-12" again, on inline spinners- which is a very good sign. Most of the bass were 6 inches to 3 feet off of the bank..

[SteveM4A1]

For bass, I love to use monster 10" weightless worms in small ponds. This keeps the bluegill from picking up my worm and tearing it up. For gills, redear, or crappie, you can't beat a rooster tail anytime of the year imo. Small ponds with decent sized fish can be the most fun fishing you can have.

[ClarkIR]

I went out yesterday and tried for 2 hours to catch a nice 20in (probably 4-5 pounds) on her nest. Shed move away and come back. The only thing she touched was an 8 in Jelly worm, just enough to move it.

Switched to a jerk bait and out of nowhere a 3 pounder comes up and gets within inches of it to investigate. Then leaves.

So that sucked.

[SteveM4A1]

I went out yesterday and tried for 2 hours to catch a nice 20in (probably 4-5 pounds) on her nest. Shed move away and come back. The only thing she touched was an 8 in Jelly worm, just enough to move it.

Switched to a jerk bait and out of nowhere a 3 pounder comes up and gets within inches of it to investigate. Then leaves.

So that sucked.

yea they can be picky. sometimes you have to plop it on their head to make them mad, other times you have to let it sit in their nest for a while. and then of course there are those times where you try every trick imagineable and they won't even so much as look at it. or they bump it with the top outside part of their mouth so they won't get hooked.