Looking for some advice for fishing small ponds, like those found on golf courses, city parks, and such.  The majority of the ponds around me (besides the spillway I fish for crappie) are pretty small in size and have stained, shallow water and a lot of weeds and lilly pads.  How would you recommend I go about fishing them for bass?  What techniques (flipping and pitching, hopping along the bottom, swimming the lure, etc.) do you like for such situations?

Lots of finess baits. 

I have a lot of the same around me and wacky rigged/shaky head is the way to go. Have had some luck with spinner baits also.

If you are fishing around grass and pads, then a frog would be an essential tool. Fish it up in all the grass and pads. When fishing these ponds, they are usually pretty devoid of any real meaningful cover or structure, then paralleling the bank is a must as well. 

I use a T rigged Craw about half my fishing time lately. I'd start with that or a 6" worm and branch out. Small pond fish will bite most of the same stuff they'll bite in bigger ponds or lakes. I also like topwaters and frogs, though those are out of season here. Often the small pond fish are "dumber" because they're overpopulated. Too many bass for a limited amount of food. On the other hand, a public place can be quite the opposite. In that case, it really pays to go finesse. But try those typical reaction baits to be certain. You never know. And, since most small pond bass are smallish, upsizing baits can put you on the largest in the pond at the expense of number of bites.

 

Good luck and Merry Christmas!

If it were me, I'd go very early in the morning or at dusk and throw poppers. You can't beat the topwater action and a lot of times the fish aren't use to pressure early in the day. Sometimes In these small ponds the algae gets out of control which is who I avoid lures that go in the algae. Also you'll never lose s topwater lure. The other suggestions were good too. Frogs are great to fish in the surface slop or lily pads, but you might miss a good number of fish. Experiment with a few of these techniques and see what works best and what you like to throw.

I regularly fish several small ponds in area usually in 1 - 2 hr allotments and I really focus on being efficient due to limited time on water. Because I do not know underwater ground contours, experience and keeping a diary have help determine where bites have been and rough guesses on depth.

In my ponds I have caught fish on everything from plastics on floor to topwater lures and frogs. There are a lot of variables but as I learn more about bass fishing I have increased my odds.

Fish parallel to banks and close to shore and around overgrowth in shaded areas. I usually start with poppers then work on down water levels, 0-3, 3-5, 6+, then drag bottom. What I do depends on time of day, weather before, during and after fishing, temperature, etc.

Topwaters and jerk baits are my favorite, cranks were great in summer but died off. Finesse worms and chuck baits slowly fished, especially in cold weather, has worked well but it bores me quickly. Because my bottoms are very soft shakeyheads do not work and drop shots bore me as well.

Jigs are what I really plan to focus on next. After a cold spell topwaters parrellel to bank in sunny shallows has really done well for me. 

I fish the same conditions as you. Around 30% of the fish I catch are off of walking baits and buzzbaits, the other 70% on weightless flukes and worms. I've tried everything else out there, but for some reason or another (probably working them wrong), they don't produce.

Not sure where you are located, but I had my best day this morning in central Florida.  This is a shallow retention pond with little weeds except what is matted on the bottom.

The lake still has a great ecosystem and is healthy.  There are tons of clams and baitfish.  The baitfish right now are loaded along  the shore in 6" - 1ft of water. The bass must be schooling or very concentrated.  I fished at sunrise and the fog extended the low light conditions.  

I caught 4 bass in 10 minutes, literally every cast, using a buzzbait right next to shore in 1ft of water.  I had a couple more short strikes after that and then it shut off.

I almost want to throw that buzzbait in the dark now after this trip.

Thanks for the advice, everyone.  Sounds like topwater is the way to go.  But has anyone ever tried creature baits like the baby bush hog?  They're supposed to be pretty good in my area (from what I hear from some buddies, anyway.  They fish in different ponds than me though...). 

The retention ponds (local housing ponds) down here
tend to have a lot of crud on the bottom so fishing 
weightless wacky/TX has been the go to ticket.

Have had some luck on mojo, but a lot of crud comes
in on the weight. Drop shot has worked some too.

I'm disabled sometimes my time fishing can be limited from 20minutes to 5 hours. Trust me I'm in hammer mode.

Weeds 

Weedless

Mepps timber doodle in silver n white trailer

Weedless topwater

Mouse

Frog

Mister Twister top prop

 

Try plastic swim baits, I don't think anyone mentioned soft swim baits.  The beauty is you can pull a swim bait through cover as it can be weedless, and you can run it fast or slow. You can jiggle it on the bottom. You can hop it along the bottom or run it on top sort of like a buzz bait or frog. Or just under the surface so it makes a subtle wake. You can cover a lot of water, find the fish, then slow it down and catch all of them in that area that'll eat that bait. I use a Keitech Swing FAT 4.8" on #20 fluoro. Use #50 braid if vegetation is heavy. The Keitech is a very versatile bait. Use a 4-0 swimbait hook with a spring lock keeper and a 1/8 or 1/16 belly weight. My favorite color is bluegill flash. A plastic frog pulled over the surface might also work well in your area. Whatever works!

Good thoughts, Hawgenvy.  I have some 3.5" Keitechs in my box.  I'll try them sometime. 

On 12/26/2015 at 5:51 PM, Outdoor Zack said:

 Sounds like topwater is the way to go.  But has anyone ever tried creature baits like the baby bush hog?

Topwater works great in the two small ponds near me.  For creature baits, my go-to is a Crazy Legs Chigger Craw in green pumpkin color, texas rigged on a 3/0 wide gap hook with a 1/16oz bullet weight.  They nail that thing like crazy all year long.