Small Water in the Cold

[cassidyta]

I have been having some tough days at my local small ponds and need some suggestions on what to throw.
The one's I frequent most often are about the size of a football field. There is some cover (stumps and tullies). The water is pretty shallow throughout most of it. (Maybe 10 foot at the deep points) Due to all of the rain in the past few weeks, visiability has gone down to a about foot. It is normally 6-8 foot. Water temp is in the low to mid 50's.
I have thrown just about everything in my arsenal without much luck. I have caught a couple, but no two on the same bait.
Any suggestions will be appreciated.

[Jigger]

The best advice I can give you is to pick your times to go if you can. Wait until you get several warm sunny days then fish the North bank, preferably a protected North West cove where the Winter sun shines directly on the bank all day and the bank protects the cove from the North wind. Fish a small jig and pig slowly would be where I'd start. Generally speaking, fish slower, deeper and smaller in the dead of Winter. I don't bass fish a whole lot in the dead of Winter. It's too tough for me. Take a look at this months Bassmaster magazine and FLW magazine if you can get your hands on them. They both have articles about winter bass fishing. There's a guide around here that has good success fishing big schools of bass located on deep humps on drop shots in the Winter. Good luck.

[BigBassin144]

Fish SLOW! Jigs, crawled on the bottom, jerkbaits, w/ long pauses, flukes, worked the same as jerkait.

BB

[Jim80]

If you can slow roll a spinnerbait painfully slow along the bottom make sure it is kicking a nice mud trail or a chatterbait would have the same effect fished about the same . or a shallow to medium diving crank would work bouncing it of whatever ya could . Or a jig


Jim

[wareagledc]

i use a tiny rattle trap and yo yo it back to me off the bottom. You might be suprised how many fish are up on the bank in the warmer water in a small pond. I hear alot of people say fish deep but i always catch more on or near small dropoffs that are not more than 5 or 6 feet deep. if this is not working i switch to a 5" tiki stick texas riged with a 1/8 ounce bullet weight and start the painful slow slow bouncing or dragging it back to me.
I have not tried the jerk baits much so i don't have confidence in them yet but plan on trying them more this winter.

[woody]

I agree with Jigger on this one, and in addition I would use a natural Bucktail skirt with pork.

[carolina-rig-01]

i go along with the jig and crankbait ideas, the jerkbait idea isn't a bad one either. since the pond is shallow then the fish could be deep but i would bet they could be found shallow as well. experiment with retrieve speeds but i would start slow and make sure you bump into the stumps with a crankbait and when you hit a stump with a jig then dead stick it around the stumps for a while.

slow rolling the spinnerbait could be a good deal too but i would bet that wind would help this and the crankbait bite a lot.

[jig fisherman]

Try a Mann's C4, they are medium sized and put out a lot of vibration and cast a mile
any big,rattling,noisy crankbait in bright colors like orange,chartruesse and many other will probably work too

[woody]

Originally Posted by carolina-rig-01

slow rolling the spinnerbait could be a good deal too but i would bet that wind would help this and the crankbait bite a lot.

Good point C-rig in noting those windy west coast conditions.

[roadrunner]

Originally Posted by BigBassin144

Fish SLOW! Jigs, crawled on the bottom, jerkbaits, w/ long pauses, flukes, worked the same as jerkait.

BB

i totally agree. i have recently been fishing similar situations in small ponds and the best pattern for me has been a senko style bait(i prefer a strike king zero) with a flutter hook. i work it real!!!!!! slow on the bottom; usually two or three twiches and then a five count, and repeat. i caught alot of em like this and a lot of big ones, even in the wind and rain. i didnt have much luck with moving baits like the spinnerbait or crankbaits, but they did hit the worm. and don't forget to watch your line very carefully because the bite will be very subtle. also caught a few on jig, but mostly Zero.

[cassidyta]

I have tried the cranks, but in San Diego, I still have hydrilla in the water. Jigs have been okay, but now great. I have watched them approach flukes with interest, but not much.
the best has been a buzz bait slowly worked on the bottom, but saying it was the best means a fish a day

[S4il]

Buzz baits on the bottom? wow never heard of that...must try it

I'd try a small single tail grub, berkley power bait. natural colors if the waters clear, brighter colors if its dirty, You said it has rained alot, so u might wanna go with something more visible, if its made the water stained.

You can even tie the single tail grub to the back of a large Pop-R, Or (my favorite) a zara spook, Right onto the back treble hook, take 2ft of line off your rod, and tie it too the back of the 2nd treble hook on your plug, Depending on the depth of water your fishing, retrieve style may be different, I've found this action works great for suspended bass in Illinois.

[Frogman51]

I think if I lived in San Diego I'd be fishing some of those resivoirs out there for some of those giant bass. Maybe even a world record.

[cassidyta]

I fish those as well Frogman. The ponds are walking distance from the house and work when I have only an hour or so to fish.

[cassidyta]

Originally Posted by S4il

Buzz baits on the bottom? wow never heard of that...must try it

It was a combination of a desperation and a mistake. The first time I had tossed out the buzz bait since nothing else was working. I had backlashed and was forced to let it sit low before I started reeling.

Since then I have tried it a couple of times with some good results.

[rrw4258]

I was at a private lake in the boat with a friend of mine, and the same thing happend to him... he backlashed, then picked it out, and got a bass right around dark on a Strike King buzzbait just slowly bringing it in ... little to say, but he did not land it it jumped near the boat and threw the hook...

Ryan

[TRUMAN BASSER]

On small lakes like this in the wintertime almost nothing works as good as a wacky rigged senko with a small split shot up the line. I used to do a lot of fishing from the bank growing up and this rig always worked in the cold water. Fish it on 8lb test line and just twitch it a couple of times and let it sit. A lot of times the bass like a really slow fall in the wintertime. Another thing to try is a small worm on a dropshot rig. You don't have to move it very far or fast so it works well on cold bass.