I am from Rhode island and do all my fishing from a kayak or canoe.  I live in the western part of the state And most of spots I fish are small kettle ponds that are ~10 feet in depth at the deepest point.  Most of the stuff you read about is in larger lakes that doesn't translate to these types of areas because there really isn't much depth stratification.

 

I was wondering what strategies and baits you are using in areas like this.  As you can imagine once early summer rolls around the ponds are very weedy and you will often be pulling some crud off your spinner bait every cast.  These ponds are also fairly heavily fished especially a place like Johnson pond so getting a decent bite is tricky.  Any advice would be welcomed.

i fish in SE MA and fish a lot of ponds like this. i  love big topwaters,  working visible structure, jigs, chatterbaits worked like a jig,weedless soft plastics , are my confidence baits

if they are heavily fished go at night with topwaters

2 hours ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

i fish in SE MA and fish a lot of ponds like this. i  love big topwaters,  working visible structure, jigs, chatterbaits worked like a jig,weedless soft plastics , are my confidence baits

if they are heavily fished go at night with topwaters

Thanks for the tips.  Johnson's pond is very heavily fished but the state record bass was caught there on a black jitterbug at night.  I've never been night fishing I might need to try it out.  I usually use a spinner bait, slipshot with a fluke or a senko worm.  My biggest fish last year was before the spawn on a senko.  Gonna try to get a z man chatter bait and a ned rig this year I think.

all great choices. i love fluke baits, catch alot of fish on them. ned rig is more of a deep clean bottom pond  and cold water trick, its almost like a shakey head, i personally havent used them so they may work for you. 

i dont fish spinner baits or hardbaits much cuz of pickerel. pain in the butt. plus the weeds are glued to em.  

I have a pond in Maine that sounds nearly 100% identical. Nobody really even knows its there because its out in the middle of the woods. The deepest spot is about 8 feet, and the lake bottom is 100% grass. Not a rock, stump, or any other cover for fish to use. I dont fish the pond when it gets choked up with the emerging weeds, but from April until June, the lake is on fire. Strike King KVD 1.5 shallow is my best producer out there. It only runs 1-3ft deep so it stays just above the grass for a majority of the areas I cover on the pond. If you do seek out the KVD crankbait, pay attention to the model because they make a 1.5 and a 1.5 shallow version. The shallow version has 2 advantages. The obvious is its ability to be fished above shallow grass and the second is the tight wobble that it has. The tight wobble is great for cold water because it looks more natural. My color choice is chartreuse with black back for stained water. When the crankbait is ineffective in spring, ill switch to a double colorado spinnerbait and work that slow above the grass. The other baits I have done well with on this type of lake is chatterbaits. With cold, stained, shallow, grassy water, the chatterbait makes so much sense. When the water worms up, there are a lot more lures that can be implemented on shallow grassy lakes. Senkos, topwater, swimjigs, frogs, and many more.

Thanks for the advice 

 

A couple questions 

 

1) what topwater lures do you normally use? I have a jerkbait but once the weeds come in its pretty much useless.  I like to fish a cheap Wal-Mart buzz bait but I haven't had much success. Mostly pickeral and one small bass last year.  I also have a hollow body frog but I find it tough to walk from a sitting position and have never caught anything despite many attempts.

 

2) what color lures do you like to use? I usually use a smaller size white spinner bait but never with two Colorado blades. For senkos I have had the most success with watermelon/black specks but I haven't tried many colors.  My other plastics I try to use natural colors.  Do you find more success with colorful plastics or natural colors?

 

I tried some lipless crank baits and didn't have much success.  I'll look into the kvd 1.5 shallow.

Keep an eye on this thread:  

It covers mostly eastern MA, but it's updated regularly.

Here is the best topo that i can find of the pond i fish most often.  Im not sure how good it is to be honest but this is what the department of environmental management put out.  I think it's deeper in the middle than 6 feet but what do I know. Where would you start fishing during the early spring given this info?

Here’s a map I took off the Navionics chart viewer:

 

 

 

Not much different, but a little more detail

Thanks for the map.  I am just wondering where people think fish are hiding around here.  I end up just throwing a line everywhere till I hit something.  There is a lot of emergent wood coming out on the north side of the pond that is pickerel heaven but other than that its hit or miss.

 

Also please don't steal my fishing spot 

Welcome! That's the nice thing about these smaller ponds is you can actually thoroughly fish most of the pond in an outing and be confident fish at least saw your lure. I always kind of hate those low detail topo maps. They are nice for a general overview but we all know that the middle there isn't a smooth 6 foot deep football field, it has dips and troughs and other structural features, however small. For all I know there is a 20 foot hole that was missed in the mapping process. I have lakes near me that I know d**n well are 12 feet in spots the town maps say 4. And while Navionics is nice, it too can miss things. In one of the larger lakes in central MA (quinsig) there is a spot where Navionics says it's 30 feet deep...it's actually 4 feet with rocks. Not only suprising....but downright dangerous. We had a pretty close call last year in that spot while tubing. 

4 hours ago, BillNye said:

Thanks for the map.  I am just wondering where people think fish are hiding around here.  I end up just throwing a line everywhere till I hit something.  There is a lot of emergent wood coming out on the north side of the pond that is pickerel heaven but other than that its hit or miss.

 

Also please don't steal my fishing spot 

North plus wood= bass.

Fish the hell out of that wood. Especially spring time! North end warms faster and they’ll hangout around that warm wood! Fish a jig! 

Topwaters! Wake baits! And whopper plopper!  I fish giant baits a lot like 8-15 Inches! But for you I’d stick to whopper ploppers! Wake baits(Mann’s minus 1) and spook 

(fishin magician skid stick)