Bass that live in ponds and bass that live in big reservoirs don’t act the same, and any angler who plans to spend time pond fishing is wise to keep those differences in mind when he picks his lures.
The most significant difference between most ponds and larger waters is in the forage base. Ponds typically do not contain populations of shad, herring or other open-water baitfish species, which tend to make up a very important part of the menu for bass in bigger waters. Therefore, bass rely on minnows, bluegills, small critters such as frogs and various invertebrates, including crawfish and aquatic insects.
That distinction affects lure selections and fishing strategies in a couple important ways. First, it makes shad-imitating color patterns and shapes less important in ponds than they are in most other waters. Small creature-imitating baits like Rebel Wee Frogs and traditional crankbaits like Bomber Model As in colors like oxbow bream and dark green crawdad tend to outproduce shad baits
Beyond affecting the “looks” of the lures that work best, a non-shad forage base tends to hold a lot of the bass shallow and keeps them oriented to shoreline cover, stumps on flats and weedbeds. An angler often will catch plenty of bass by simply casting to visible cover along a pond’s edges with a Texas-rigged YUM Ribbontail, Zellamander or YUM Dinger.
Another important difference between most ponds and their bigger counterparts is that the bass see far less anglers’ lures overall. Therefore, they tend to feed quite aggressively and often will react readily to lures that churn the top or wobble erratically through the shallow water.
While big-water fish generally do the bulk of their surface feeding at first or last light during the summer, pond bass are apt to nab a BOOYAH Pond Magic Buzz, a Rebel Buzz’n Frog or a Heddon Dying Flutter any time of the day.
Beyond topwater plugs, floating minnow baits like Rebel Minnows and Bomber Long As will draw explosive strikes in ponds when they are worked on or near the surface. These baits can be twitched across the top or worked with various combinations of jerks, pulls, twitches and pauses.
Not to be forgotten among great pond bass producers is a Rebel Jointed Minnow. Jointed minnows can be worked with twitches and pauses, much like their solid-bodied counterparts. However, often the best way to fire up bass in a pond is with a simple cast-and-crank approach. Rebel Jointed Minnows swim very erratically and create a lot of commotion – and pond bass have a tough time resisting them.
A final distinction among many ponds is that they produce a disproportionate number of extra-large bass. For ponds that have earned a big-bass particular reputation, a terrific strategy is to string rig a 7-inch watermelon pearl laminate YUM Dinger weightless and weedless on a 5/O Excalibur Tx3 Point X-Strong Wide Gap Hook, cast it around cover, let it fall and wait for the line to take off running!
Image provided by Rich Johnson of The Fishing Line.