cold water pond bassin'

[bluebasser86]

A friend and I decided to brave the 30mph winds and rains today to try to get one last afternoon of fishing in at his uncle's ponds before they freeze up. Both of us were saying we'd be surprised if we catch anything on the way there but thankfully we were wrong I was fishing a new color Erratic shad while my friend was fishing a spinnerbait and redeye shad. I started catching dinks almost right away on my jerkbait and never really slowed down. There is 6 ponds all connected so were were just walking between all of them. My friend was telling me the south pond has the biggest fish so we made the short walk and I quickly caught a healthy 14 incher.

One of my first cast into the big, south pond I felt like my jerkbait was hanging on a branch. I leaned into it a little bit to try to pull the "branch" in when it started swimming slowly. I thought I'd hooked a monster bass when it streaked off and broke surface. After a 10 minute tug of war I managed to see the big grass carp I'd snagged in the fin. Right as it was getting tired and looking like I might actually land it she made a last lunge after a big branch and my hooks caught and pulled out. We each started walking opposite directions around the pond, fancasting and not catching much. Then I got a good "tick" on my jerkbait and set into a solid fish. After a pretty good fight I managed to get ahold of my biggest of the day. Didn't have a scale but I'm guessing around 19-20 inches and 4-4.5 pounds. Had to try to take my own picture so it didn't turn out great.



A couple minutes after I turned my fish loose my buddy hooked a good fish on the jerkbait I finally talked him into using since his spinnerbait and trap weren't doing it.

I ended with 19 and my friend got 3 and we each got a solid fish. Turned out to be a great day despite the weather and a great way to spend a few hours before work

[kennethdaysale]

Excellent...those fish looked like they still had good color. Except in the clearest ponds the fish down here start to look all bleached out and pale during the winter. Ps I love jerkbaits in cold water...is that an LC?
Water temp? Depth of fish?

[Jrob78]

Nice fish, I like those XCalibur jerkbaits a lot. They seem to dive a little deeper than a lot of other shallow jerkbaits.

[keithdog]

Definately a nice way to spend a cold day. You can't neat a jerk bait for cold water bassin! Nice lookin bass you have there. Way to go!

[bluebasser86]

Originally Posted by kennethdaysale

Excellent...those fish looked like they still had good color. Except in the clearest ponds the fish down here start to look all bleached out and pale during the winter. Ps I love jerkbaits in cold water...is that an LC?
Water temp? Depth of fish?

These ponds are pretty clear and have a lot of vegetation in them, even in the winter so they stay pretty well colored. I was using an Excalibur Erratic shad. Not positive on the water temp but a couple of the smaller ponds were skimmed over with ice in the morning so probably mid to lower 40's at best. We were having to hold our rodtips up to keep our baits from hitting bottom after the first couple twitchs so no deeper than 6 or 7 feet. Very small twitches and long pauses was the only way to get a bite.

[bamabassman]

good lord guys!!! nice catches!!! with the weather the way it has been this week, i am sorta sad i wrapped my rig up. told lisa i should call in and hit the mudhole...she said "with what? ain't none of your reels got any line on them!" hahahaha!