Hi,

 

So I fish in southwest ohio and I normally fish ponds around my house. The pond I normally fish doesn't have a lot of people that fish it and they have a lot of big bass in them. We catch a lot of bass on live blue gills but when I throw out a artificial the bite slows down. If I fish for an hour I usually catch 0-2 fish. Not the big ones but little 1 pounders. So now on to what I use, What I catch most of my fish on is a 5-6" rubber worm. However I have tried a lot of different things like spinners, top water frogs, crank baits (all depths), jigs, and rubber lizards. The water is not very murky but not really clear. So kind of inbetween. Is there any tips someone can give me for this type of pond?

What is the layout of the pond? Depth? Is it weedy or clean bottom?

Hello and Welcome to Bass Resource ~

 

Perhaps use lures that look like the live bait you do have success with - Bluegill.

 

Like swimbaits, swim jigs, spinnerbaits, Chatterbaits, & Rattlebaits 

 

A-Jay

If you want to learn artificial, stop using live bait for awhile for freshwater bass fishing. Read what you can on the topic and begin to master the what and when for artificial lures. I've been doing it for 35 years and I'm still learning. I probably love this sport because its a never ending challenge.

I went to a private pond yesterday that's just a bass fishing postcard. I know there are bass there because I got a bite from a tiny bass that shook off. And I spooked a few while paddling the kayak. But that was the only bite. They just weren't doing it. Tried the T rig, jig, topwater and frog. Even the can't-miss Trick Worm missed.

 

Sometimes there's nothing you can do except experiment. 

I am landlocked on old hickory lake, and the only places with shore access are heavily fished. I usually do better than everyone else around me, but am averaging one per hour. Lipless cranks have worked the best for me so far, and I just started having some success with the Rapala floating minnow. I feel like you aren't going to trick fish into eating very easily so you have to go for reaction strikes.

While soft plastics have always been my specialty I have not had much luck with them so far although I recently started using the drop shot, and have caught my first fish on that rig.

I would be curious to hear any critiques/advice to what I have been doing.

I have a 2 acre pond with very finicky fish.  When all else fails, I wacky fish.  Seems this works most of the time.  I use Senko, BP stiko and Zman ZingerZ.  I use an o ring with a 4/0 EWG hook and no weight.

Read the articles here. Watch the videos here. Hammer them over and over all winter long. Watch what they do with there hands besides what they say. Do that with Bill dance too.

Now get some bomber model A crankbaits size 05.

Redapplecraw, browncraw, green craw, fire craw.

Get some scent. Reel slow, just fast enough for a even steady wiggle.

Make a perfect circle on your reel handle not a egg shape. A perfect flawless presentation will catch fish. Anything but perfect catches nothing.

U need

Topwater popper rebel pop R, 1-2-3 pop n pause.

Crankbaits (bomber)

Rapala f7 blue. Slow reel or twitch it.

Mepps Anglia #3 silver / gray dressed

Joesfly #1/4oz bass size firetiger apache.

With spinners just reel fast enough so the blades spin not too fast.

You need to up your skills to the next level. We all never stop learning. Bill

Ned.

I live in sw Ohio also and I've had my best luck this year on berkley flat dawg worms in green pumpkin candy. It's like a senko but looks like it was stepped on. I fish a highly pressured lake that see's a lot of pleasure boaters and have caught some nice bass on those worms.