Tips on Suspended bass in a farm pond

[Bass_HUnter 314]

Does anyone have any tips on suspended bass in a farm pond? The pond isn't really all that big about 4 acres, about 15-20 feet deep at the most. I've had a bunch of luck in this same pond in spring and summer. I was catching them on everything from buzz baits to cranks to soft plastics. I know there's a lot of bass in this pond but having A LOT of trouble lately!! Im Missouri so were past the fall transition period with all this rain and many cold nights! The average day is between 52 degrees and 60 degrees. There's not a lot of cover in this pond, the cover that is in the pond is about 5 feet deep at the most.... The cover consists of one laydown and 2 brush piles. Theres really no steep edges or drop offs, just gradual slopes. No points, just a circle pond The bottom structure is mostly clay and mud, very few rocks! There is a drain run-off coming into the pond with a flat around it. Any advice from this???? Thanks for reading and your advice will be GREATLY appreciated, and put to use!!!!

[WaffleJaw]

Welcome to the forum!
I would think the bass are going to be less active in that water temp and you need to put the lure/bait right on top of them..I would concentrate on the timber,brushpile,and the run-off.
The first thing that comes to mind is a jig ....I would pitch into those brushpiles and timber...let it fall,give it a few twitches....reel it up and do it again.
You may try a smaller finesse spinnerbait around the drain to mimic whatever runs off into the water.That just sounds like a likely food source
I would say sloooooooow down all your presentations.
You'll get some good advice on this.Thats just my first impression.
Im guessing with the clay and mud bottom,and drainage the water is pretty stained?

Question? Is this a private pond?...Would you be able to plant artifical homemade habitats?...Just curious cause I would be all over that.lol

[Bassboss]

Go with a suspending bomber long-A. Don't worry if your jerkbait is over the fish. They'll go up for a bait, but not down. Target the cover, in a lake barren of good cover, the bass are gonna hold to cover pretty well. And since it's a small farm pond, you can fish all the cover there once you catch a bass on some where, try to work out a pattern, this can be really important when fishing suspending bass

Go to myoutdoor tv.com, and click on bill dance. Their is a video of him fishing suspending bass, it's good video, check it out, it helped me out!

[Bass_Hunter314]

Yeah the water is pretty stained... about a foot to 2 foot visibility. It is not a private pond... its a pond in back of a neighborhood. All the fish were stocked by my next door neighbor about 4 years ago. He tossed about 30 bass and about 30 Hybrid bluegill so they wouldn't get outta control a couple catfish and some crappie. The fish on average are a pretty nice size. Its never fished besides me... So I know there not pressured.. I do fish it everyday though. Do you think thats pressure?? All the cover that is in the pond i put in.. I cut 2 down small trees, tossed them in as far as I could. Those are basically brush piles.. Then I dragged an old dead tree out of the woods. Its about 30 ft long, thats my lay down. I did all this at night so the neighbors couldn't see me a and complain about it... I really appreciate your advice!! Thanks so much!!

[BeaverIslander]

Large, minnow-colored suspending jerkbaits like the size #12-14 Rapala Husky Jerk or X-Rap.
Give it a series of about a 4'-6' length of rapid, short jerks followed by 5-15 second pauses. The colder the water the longer the pause, and sometimes a very fast and erratic retrieve is the trick, even in 45-50 degree water, so mix up the retrieve every few casts to see what they want.
Also, you can't use a lure thats too big this time of year. Those big bass want a big meal or else they won't even bother. They'll even hit a musky bucktail spinner in the fall.

This was just about the only thing that was working about 2 weeks ago when the fish were suspended in 8-12' of water as they made their way to their deep wintering areas.

[AUFred]

That is a fairly deep pond for 4 acres. Do you have an idea about what depth they are suspending? Are there any topwater minnows or shad in the pond?

[Bassboss]

Originally Posted by Bass_Hunter314

Yeah the water is pretty stained... about a foot to 2 foot visibility. It is not a private pond... its a pond in back of a neighborhood. All the fish were stocked by my next door neighbor about 4 years ago. He tossed about 30 bass and about 30 Hybrid bluegill so they wouldn't get outta control a couple catfish and some crappie. The fish on average are a pretty nice size. Its never fished besides me... So I know there not pressured.. I do fish it everyday though. Do you think thats pressure?? All the cover that is in the pond i put in.. I cut 2 down small trees, tossed them in as far as I could. Those are basically brush piles.. Then I dragged an old dead tree out of the woods. Its about 30 ft long, thats my lay down. I did all this at night so the neighbors couldn't see me a and complain about it... I really appreciate your advice!! Thanks so much!!

Not a problem! Sounds like a cool pond! If I ever get a nice hunk of land, I'm gonna give them the dirt for pay..... and maybe a little extra! I'm gonna have be like 4-5 acres, no deeper than 15 feet, It'll have points, drop offs and ditches like a real lake too! I'm also gonna sink a buch of trees, rocks and other good stuff around there - some thing I think the bass will like!

Here's the video I was talking about!

http://www.myoutdoortv.com/show-micr...-outdoors.html

[BigBassin144]

Get a deep diving suspending jerkbait. In stained water, I'd go with something bright. Some brands have a chartreuse w/ purple back one. I'd try that. Try to look for one that dives to 8-10' instead of the normal 3-5.

BB

[Bass_Hunter314]

There are topwater minnows in this pond.. they just wont hit topwater right now! Ill try goin with with a deep diving jerkbait.. I really appreciate all the help from every single one of you guys. Its really been helpful. You really cant know enough when it comes to these bucketmouths. I looked at that video Bassboy, it was very informative and supplied me with a lot of info regarding suspended bass! Good stuff!! Thanks again for everyones help

[Mac2]

Clip the tails off of some watermelon red zoom speedworms and texpose the body on a 2/0 hook weightless. Use a skipping cast and let fall to bottom, watching line very carefully. If fishing the wood you mentioned, make it weedless by pinching the hookpoint just under the skin of the lure. Slow falling and deadsticking the lure should still produce well in those temps.....patience should be the key...after waiting 30 seconds on bottom, lift slowly about two feet and then twitch....letting fall again and waiting 20 seconds....lift slowly to feel for fish once again, but this time if nothing on, reel in at a moderate pace and cast to another likely spot. Looks like a Senko type bait, but falls much more slowly....patience.

[rodnreel]

I think a good jerkbait would work well over and around the brush and laydown. I like using the Lucky Craft Pointer 78 suspending model in chartreuse shad color. Since the water temperature is cold, I would use single short twitches with long pauses in between. I've used this lure around some pretty gnarly stuff and never had it hang up, so don't be afraid to get right into the brush.

Don't know how many guys actually use them, but the Scroungers are VERY good baits to use when it starts getting cold. It's basically a jig head with a crankbait style bill added to it that was designed by Aaron Martens. You can rig up flukes, grubs, worms, any soft plastic and work it with a crankbait style or jigging style retrieve. They are very good around cover as well and this might be a more subtle approach if the bass are shy.

[aikenyounggun]

If you want to catch fish, I can almost guarantee that a wacky rigged finesse worm will catch those fish. All you have to do is throw it out there and let it sink, pick it up, let it sink; over and over. If there is grass or weeds that it gets hung on a lot throw a weightless senko just plained old texas rigged. I catch pond fish all the time on this, and my brother who isnt a big tourney fisher, throws this basically 100% of the time 'cause he catched soooooo many fish on it.

[Backwater Charlie]

I'd try a Rapala DT6 or DT10 to key on those suspended bass. Sometimes crankbaits will MAKE fish bite. Depending on water clarity, shad patterns work best. If you fail to catch any with one of those baits, I'd go with a 6" plastic worm, texas rigged.

[BassinID]

It may be a little off of what has been said here, but there may not be a large enough habitat to support many bait fish. If this is the case then my go to pond bait is a weightless senko. Get it out there over whatever structure you think you may have and count it down for about 10 or 15 seconds, then make a sweep with your rod, not too fast, and only a foot or two. This will make the bait surge up and then let it semi-slack line down. Strikes will usually come on the pause in my experience. Reaction strikes are still a possibility with cranks, but if the fish aren't accustomed to chasing minnows then they may not respond as well as river or lake bass. Just a thought.

[keithdog]

The thing I am wondeering is if perhaps there may be some cover for those fish in the deeper water closer to the center of the pond, such as large rocks or submerged stumps or logs. Might be worth investigating that with a depthfinder if you can get a boat on the pond.

[muddy]

If you can't work a boat on the pond, you can try a C rig from the shore, you will feel structure, or even better:
Look at the shore, if you see a point going into the water or a steep shore, going to deep water, I would hit those first, the point would be your structure, but a rock, or pile of rocks, anything like that would be cover. If there is enough oxygen in the water you may be in luck.
A c rig is good , because you can feel whats going on, deliver the bait painfully slow( which is sometime the key in cold water) and manipulate the leader length to figure out where they are in the water column in relation to the bottom.
I am relatively new to c rigging, my weakest part of the game, but last summer it really hepled me and a buddy on 2 small ( less than 25 acre ponds) that boats are absolutley forbidden on.

I forgot: most effectively fished deep to shallow.

[bassassasin]

I'd concentrate on the brush then the laydown.