Best Ways To Fish Small Ponds

I always get excited when one of my buddies invites me to his private ranch and lets me fish on some of those government-subsidized impoundments filled with Florida-strain bass. That is a huge treat.

After all, large waters require significant lake knowledge, a lot of guesswork and some time-consuming hit-and-miss fishing. The smaller waters allow you to do one very important thing that the larger lakes do not — fish the whole water several times in one day. That makes for some really nice fishing — and catching, too.

On a small pond, it usually only takes an hour or so of moving around the water to find the key areas. There’s no need for the big motor. Just use the electric motor and have a good locator running at your feet.

You might also make a little sketch of the pond and diagram where you found the shallows, channels, drop-offs and feeder creeks. You can even make a few notes and clip them together with the sketch you made. That way, if you visit that pond again, you will know where to go and which lures you will need.

There are a few other things that you must do a little differently when you are fishing a small pond. Large lakes require you to assume that all types of forage are available. In small ponds, not all kinds of forage will be found there. Frogs or snakes normally are the dominant forage. The least found in these small waters will be crayfish. While abundant in large reservoirs, crayfish can be a scarcity in a pond.

In most ponds, the forage is not allowed to mature because it is eaten first. There are exceptions, but the rule is that when a school of shad hatches on a small pond, very few will reach full-grown maturity. The same goes for certain species of bream, frogs, snakes, eels, crawfish, etc.

If the dominant forage in a pond is sunfish or frogs, then you don’t have to worry about those crawfish-patterned crankbaits. Frog patterns and baby-bass patterns will be the order of the day.

For soft plastics, use black and choose as soft a plastic bait as you can find. The bass will hang onto a soft plastic longer than they will the normal plastics. Lizards in a chartreuse/green combination are also excellent.

If the water is warm enough, I use topwaters in frog patterns or chrome colors. Also, don’t forget bluegill and sunfish patterns for jerkbaits and minnow-like lures such as the Redfin or Rattlin’ Rogue.

Spinnerbaits are good as well. They will allow you to cover a lot of water fast and effectively.

In addition, be sure to take your ultralight rig. When you come across some shallow-water brush, flooded trees or even some cattail stands, flip that little crappie jig. I use a Blakemore Road Runner in and around this type of cover. More than likely, you will go home with some nice crappie along with the bass you catch.

Finally, remember to be quiet. Pond fish are not used to boats motoring around them. Dropping your tackle box or even lightly walking around the boat is not a good idea. Any noise that is not natural to these fish will be disturbing and will put them in a very protective mode.

While many anglers look forward to running their boat on the weekends, it can ruin the fishing for several hours or perhaps even most of the day on a small pond. So choose your lures wisely, be quiet and enjoy your time fishing those small ponds.