attached are some pics at said pond-type spots. i fish in central upstate NY in what i guess is the upper Susquahanna watershed. i’ve been doing well fishing the river (lots of fallfish, perch, sunfish) but haven’t catching as many bass as i’d like. theres some nice weedy pondy spots around i’ve been trying that seem like they’d hold large largemouths, but haven’t had much success. i know soft plastics are good for targeting bass, but i feel like anything i throw like a stick worm or ribbontail either stays right at the surface if weightless or just collects a ton of weeds on the retrieve if weighted. i’ve also tried buzzbaits and frogs but i feel like im not using them 100% right.
any tips on what to throw, how to use it, or anything else you think wld be helpful i’d greatly appreciate !!!
Posted by ParticularDream9483
1 Comment
In places like that I almost always throw a weightless 10” worm of some sort. Typically black/blue unless the water is real clear. They fall pretty darn slow so even in a couple inches of water they still have a couple seconds to flutter. Once it hits the bottom I just slowly lift my rod tip straight up in one motion and then back down letting it fall again. Reel up most of the slack but not all of it so it can naturally fall vertically and keep an eye on the line. You’ll see the line start to twitch once the fish is working it around to get it in its mouth. Reel the rest of your slack in once you see this and if it tugs hard, set the hook. Use big hooks like a 5/0 ewg. there’s a fine line between it not having the bait in its mouth and the bait being in its gut so the bigger the hook the better. You’ll probably miss a lot of hooksets because they don’t always have the whole thing in their mouth but it does produce bites. Throw a whopper plopper (or buzzbait if the grass gets in the hooks of the plopper) in the areas that don’t have surface vegetation. Ponds that are completely grass bottom give the bass a very large area to hide in so they aren’t always in the usual fishy looking spots