Smallmouth Hunter

Justin rackley! I am a big fan of his and he seems like he'd be a lot of fun to fish with. If you don't know who Justin rackley is just search "lakeforkguy" on YouTube.

Thanks everyone for the great advice. Now time to answer some questions: Baitfish- there is mud minnows, blue gill and other bream species (sunfish,pumpkin seed). Depth changes/ledges- i do not think there is any holes out on the other side.(I know this cause I have fished alot there before but the people who moved in there dont allow fishing). The other side is just really shallow and carp infested. Lures- I have never used a drops hot in my life, but I will definitely give it a go. I have tried some finesse stuff though. I have used a 6-7 in. finesse curly tail worm (forgot the actual name) and had no luck. I fished it slow too. Cold fronts- I went the other day before a big storm and couldn't catch any on a jig. I tried both swimming it and slowly jigging it. I will try to use a drops hot or something finesse before and after the next storm. Pipe- there is no pipe on this one sadly.i too have ad great success at other small ponds with pipes. Local fisherman- there is no other bass fisherman on this pond. Just some kids who use earthworms, but they just catch bluegill. Crappie- there is no crappie or perch or white bass. I am going to release some in here next time I catch on at the lake. I should also release the largemouth this pond too.. Thanks for all the help! I will be testing out ultralights stuff and drops hits and I will tell how it goes

In the last part I meant "this pond" not "this nod".

I have a small pond in my neighborhood no larger than 3-4 acres and I can't seem to catch any lately. I cover over half the pond with different lures (SB,CB,jigs, bama rigs, chatt baits), different rods (different line on them), and different depths - all on different days. I have only got one hit from all this and the bass hit the blade on my SB (he followed it up and I watched him ht the blade). I can only fish half the pond due to limited access, but it is the deeper end. It is about 6-7 get at the deepest. How is it that I can fish a pond so thoroughly and get no fish on multiple days. This pond is a pretty old pond and has some large sized bass. I'm not sure how big the biggest is but I have caught this one 5lber twice. I knew it was him cause the first time I caught him I accidentally broke his jaw cause he crushed my spook while I wasn't paying attention and I laid the wood to em haha. Extra details: I live I the Carolina's so the bass are in summer behaviors right now. This nod has no structure in it, other than fallen trees that really don't seem to hold any fish.. The pond has bream bass and carp.

Wow this happened to me twice today.. Missed 2 solid 3+ lber cause I was talking. Gotta learn to focus the whole trip hahaha.

This may be mosquito larvae poisoning too. They do that In some ponds around where I live and I see dead bass.

All I can say is MATCH THE HATCH. Try swim baits, spinnerbaits that look like shiners and try varying your retrieve speed. Another technique is plastic worms or flukes with a very light weight and just let it fall slowly near them and thy should crush it! Good luck!

Well I don't have any great stories YET, or maybe I just can't remember them, but here Is an ok one. So I have this small pond in my neighborhood an it has grass carp, bream, bass, minnows (mud minnows I'm guessing) and lots of turtles. I decided to go fishing here one day after buying some new equipment. I believe it was a red eye shad I was trying out. Anyways, I ended up getting a snag on a fallen tree and was forced to break the line. About 3 weeks later I was talking to a neighbor of mine who said he caught a big carp with his cast net and that it had a lure snagged on it. He isn't a big bass fisherman so he had no use for it. Well, it turned out to be the exact red eye shad that I snagged earlier that month. Hahaha i was shocked. I guess the big carp swam past the log and got hooked and pulled it off the log/tree.

The other week I missed a 5+ lb bass on a frog cause I was drifting off while fishing.. (Not good to do while frog fishing cause you need to set the hook hard).. I heard the plop and felt the weight on my line but I didn't think fast enough and missed him.

"I just stuck him" "I'm gonna stick him" "Did you see how hard I stuck him" "stick him!"

Kinda late on this forum lol... Anyways how you guys been doing lately on Wylie? I went the other day and bass are shallow and hittin top waters in the morning and can be found deep schooling or under docks when the suns out.. Look for docks in large coves and they will be under them.

Docks are fish holders for sure so definitely fish those HARD. Atleast 20 casts IMO. Here are some techniques: 1. If its a floating dock (no pilings) then use a t-rig or something similar and drop it down on one side and then maneuver around the dock while letting out line so that when you reel it in it goes under the floating parts of the dock. This is where the bass will hang out during the summer to be in the shade. Also, the bass will not always come out from under those docks to get a bait just outside of being directly under the floating parts, so this is a great strategy. Do this for each corner of the floating docks. Try putting your rod tip in the water if you are having trouble getting it to go directly under the docks. 2. If it is a dock with pilings then drop your lure right next to them and jig it around for a few seconds and pause it occasionally. The bass may be suspended or right on the bottom, it varies. 3. Try casting up next to the dock, but parallel to it. (this is hard to explain lol) Try to bring lure all the way down the side of the dock. A good lure for this is a spinnerbait or just a jig or t-rig. I do these casts multiple times on each side of the dock. For the lakes I fish here in Carolina, fishing the docks can be very effective if you fish them thoroughly. Remember that there can be 5+ bass on one dock (and even other species like catfish or crappie too). Oh and for choosing the docks too fish: 1. Look for docks in large coves or on the main lake. 2. Docks at the back of coves usually have shallow water so if its a hot summer day, there usually won't be bass there. Hope this helps. EDIT: I forgot another important technique- skipping. If you can skip a bait then this is a great technique to use. Wacky rigs are great for getting your bait way back under the docks. Just remember to use a bait that fall pretty slowly so that your bait can stay in the strike zone for a long time to entice those bass that may not be as aggressive (usually the larger ones). Also, Sam's post above is great so definitely read that.

I fish a small, 4-ish sq. acre pond that's real close to where I live and I have a few questions about it. First ill describe it though: It has a deep half and a shallow half. The deepest part is maybe 6 feet. The shallow part has lots of fallen trees and sunken trees = snag city! The deep end of the one has a lot of trees leaning high over the water and lots of leaves fall in the water. It is sandy, but has pretty much a layer of dead leaves. The shallow end just is pretty sandy but still has some leaves on the bottom.. My main question is are the leaves of any concern? Do bass tend to stay away from places with lots of dead leaves like this? I know bass can often be found on rocky and sand bottoms. Also, how do you fish a place like this? Another question is do the carp that hang out in the corner of the lake in the deep end affect the bass? There is a lot of carp in that pond (grass) by the way.