ill give a report before asking my question :)
fished a private pond by my school for a few hours this morning. ended up catching 3 bedding bass and one fish on a blind cast. the fish were between 1-1.5 pounds and all were released, though unfortunatly one of them took a liking to my roboworm and swollowed it along with my jighead before i could set the hook. the water was very clear and it made sneaking up on the bass very hard.


i go to school next to this small pond. the water is crystal clear and weeds cover the whole bottom. Ive mostly been fishing senkos and texas rigged roboworms but it is hard to fish the roboworms without dragging it through the weeds. i also tried jerkbaits for one fish and drop shotting but the bass show no interest in that. my question is, what other options do i have?

the roboworms stay fairly weedless through the "pond grass" (thats what a local called it...) but i dont think a bass would be able to see it since it is under all that grass. the main forage is bluegills and crawdads.

If the bass are bedding a good thing to try is trick worms in white or methiolite. try split shotting those robo worms w/ very little weight so the dont fall into the grass, you can also do that w/ other plastics as well. You may also want to try a missionfish swimbait they get through the weeds pretty well.
Hope this helps

Hey let that Bass go I wanna catch her some day
http://www.calfishing.com/gallery/v/members/tmcustoms/

alot of times you can throw a texas rigged brush hog or creature bait and all that the bass will see is the long tentical like part of the bait and it can produce a strike..makes them interested to check out what it is...

Peace

you think small shallow diving crankbaits would work?

i have some creature baits that i'll try out and i would try the mission fish but i dont want to buy another swimbait right now. i do have a 9" rainbow trout ms slammer, a 6" castaic soft trout and big hammers though...

If you wwanted to just slide right throigh the weeds you can get some Mojo Finesse wieghts.

If the weeds are very heavy just dont use heavy weights creature baits Brush hogs or beavers will more than likley work. For crankbaits you would want to use rattletrap type baits since they cut through weeds real well others just get weeds jammed on the lips.

Hey let that Bass go I wanna catch her some day
http://www.calfishing.com/gallery/v/members/tmcustoms/

what about something like a floating or nuetral worm on a three way setup.



OOO--------------=====
|
|
Q

==== being the worm
ooo would be the 3 way swivel
and the Q is a weight

anyway, ill try out the creature bait tommorow! and thanks a lot you guys have been helpful.

In those conditions I would try a topwater and also a fluke...

yeah topwater poppers are great also try spinner baits..those have been hot right now in the pond i fish in concord. just keep your rod tip up...and youll be ok..just not to high so you can still set the hook. im acually trying out new things..like this bird lure... i got a huge hit on it at ellis lake. but i was so SHOCKED that some thing would hit this...i forgot to set the hook...LOL DUH!!! http://thornwoodlures.com/index.html

i think theses are great baits..because you see birds all over lakes and pond in the tules...also because ive seen a bass attack a bird before...

creature baits are AWSOME but also keep some brush hogs around too becasue ive found that they pull throught the weeds better...i use 1/4 bullet weight with 3/0 or 4/0 gammie ewg

if you throw cranks make sure they run shallow or get a shallow suspending and try deadsticking with little twiches...throw that castaic you have even though there probably isnt any trout in the ponds..but they will hit it anyways...keep it on the surface or just below

:+

The pond that I learned to fis at sounds very similar to what you are fishing. In the warmer months of summer I used a lot of top water bauts with Pop-Rs and Tiny-Torpedos wroking the best. Try buzzbaits as well. In the spring before the weed growth was too bad I would also do very well on Rattle Traps and spinnerbaits. As for worms split shot/drop shot seems like your best bet.

Lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what have-yous

Minnow...http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpageHDRDAIWA-TDMIN3.html#

these minnows ROCK right now because the ponds should have baby bass right now. there is still a spawn going on but there was one that was a month ago and the babys have hatched...if you throw these baits.. you WILL get BASS trust me. last night i nailed 15 bass all of them were 2.5 - 4.5 in size and 9 of them were on that bait. the rest were on a sweet beaver working up close beds.. i even caught 3 bed fish twice!!! once on the minnow and once on the Beav...the night before i got 12!! all about the same size...around 4-6pm after that its been not as productive

the minnows imitate with great detail a feeding fish... so if you see a cloud of babys... then run that minnow through the middle of them and the big mama will instinctively attack it...because they will be protecting their young for next month before they start eating them...

a pro once told me that (at a seminar) that the problem with bass fisherman is that they are a month or two behind the bite. because they wait for some one to tell them what is working...or read it on theses forums for instance...right now you should be throwing spinner baits, jerk baits and anything practically texas rigged, and or dropshoted..but i only DS when i sight otherwise i feel its not necessary...if you havnet been using these techniques you've missed a BIG boat, for the last MONTH, now! but its not too late.
hope that puts it in perspective.

Peace

ps ..sounds crazy..but take your froggin rod too...I know.. i KNOW.. you all are saying not untill this summer or fall...but frogs are out now people...and bass will be eating them...

they wouldnt bite the drop shot.
but minnows and jerkbaits are so good. i used to slay them on a bass colored mira shad during june/july. i think the main forage for big bass in small ponds is other bass...

i went back and it was WFO on weightless tube jigs. they would bite it while it was sinking about 80% of the time. the rest of the time i was "walking the tube(or dog)" and they would explode on it :) had a great time but lost all fish over 2 pounds when they would jump(a 3, four 4#ers and a 6#er). saw a pair of fish on beds and two fish guarding fry.