So I've been trying to find the key to unlocking this pond near my house. It's a medium size pond hidden in the woods near my house. My neighbor used to maintain it and stock it, and back then you could shore fish the whole thing. Now it's flooded and over grown years later, but I've still been lucky enough to pull some big fish out of there. We've caught.
- a ton of small yellow perch. 1 borderline pin sized YP.
- a fair amount of Large Mouth, around 1-1.5 lb
- 1 3lber and another 4lber.
The thing is I still have no idea what to use in there. I've caught a handful on jerkbaits, nothing on topwater, nothing on spinnerbaits, and the majority of my fish on Senkos. I thought I found the key the other day, pulled up 2 good sized bass in 10 minutes on a jig with a craw trailer.
The pond is LOADED with weeds bordering the whole outsides, and that's where you always catch the fish. These weeds are thick, and occasionally you'll find a nice big hole/clearing in them, which I'm assuming is a feeding area? It's probably 10 feet deep at a lot of points maybe a little deeper, and muddy at the bottom. I've seen muskrats and snappers in there, but nothing too devastating to a fish population.
The latest discovery I've found in there, is Leeches, and there are a lot of them in these huge thick beds of weeds. I have 2 questions regarding this.
1. Is that many leeches a sign of poor fish population or...
2. is this why stick baits work best, and is difficult to get them to eat much else? if so what's the best approach, and what's the best imitator?
Seriously any help is greatly appreciated. a 3lber and a 4lber taken from here is a good sign for me, I'm looking for a few monsters in here. About 10 years ago my cousin caught a monster out of there when it was stocked, so I'm hoping they've been able to flourish in there. I also vaguely remember catfish being in there... are there any tell tale signs/tests of catfish?
- a ton of small yellow perch. 1 borderline pin sized YP.
- a fair amount of Large Mouth, around 1-1.5 lb
- 1 3lber and another 4lber.
The thing is I still have no idea what to use in there. I've caught a handful on jerkbaits, nothing on topwater, nothing on spinnerbaits, and the majority of my fish on Senkos. I thought I found the key the other day, pulled up 2 good sized bass in 10 minutes on a jig with a craw trailer.
The pond is LOADED with weeds bordering the whole outsides, and that's where you always catch the fish. These weeds are thick, and occasionally you'll find a nice big hole/clearing in them, which I'm assuming is a feeding area? It's probably 10 feet deep at a lot of points maybe a little deeper, and muddy at the bottom. I've seen muskrats and snappers in there, but nothing too devastating to a fish population.
The latest discovery I've found in there, is Leeches, and there are a lot of them in these huge thick beds of weeds. I have 2 questions regarding this.
1. Is that many leeches a sign of poor fish population or...
2. is this why stick baits work best, and is difficult to get them to eat much else? if so what's the best approach, and what's the best imitator?
Seriously any help is greatly appreciated. a 3lber and a 4lber taken from here is a good sign for me, I'm looking for a few monsters in here. About 10 years ago my cousin caught a monster out of there when it was stocked, so I'm hoping they've been able to flourish in there. I also vaguely remember catfish being in there... are there any tell tale signs/tests of catfish?
It would help if we knew where you lived
I live on the north shore.
I was just joking around. If the place has heavy weeds, thats where the bass are this time of year. teas rigged soft plastics with bullet weights pegged to the bait. Short flips and pitches, not long casts. Buzzbaits and frogs over the weeds.
It would help if we knew where you lived
I live on the north shore.
I was just joking around. If the place has heavy weeds, thats where the bass are this time of year. teas rigged soft plastics with bullet weights pegged to the bait. Short flips and pitches, not long casts. Buzzbaits and frogs over the weeds.
Would the abundance of food make the fish more finnicky? I'll have to get some shots of the thickness of these weedbeds. They pour out from the land sort of, and form an outline of the pond into the water. Let's say the waters 6 feet deep, there's pretty much a wall of weeds that go down to around the 3 feet mark or so, maybe even deeper. They suspend just off the bottom.
Like I said the texas rigged senkos have been giving me the most success, the frogs nothing really much so far, but what will the weight add to the senko? Still new at trying different rigs on soft plastics. Also the pitching/flipping, is that to not spook the fish? Or hope to catch them for reaction.
Also the pond is not polluted, and they're the black/orange leeches, which are not invasive, my only concern is that since there are so many, are the fish more finnicky? I'm thinking about just grabbing some and livelining them.
Leech live in good quality water. But, I wonder the water temp is too high for them?
Didn't see this post originally. Yeah the water back there is VERY warm. Is there any way to control this within my power? Also like I said the water is actually very clean, it's basically untouched since it was maintained and cleaned in the past, so there's really no concerns out in the woods as far as I know.