I was about to suggest a swim jig! It's currently my favorite pond lure because I can keep it off the bottom muck, vary the presentation, and it catches Biggins 

Pretty cool how that all worked out to fish that private pond. Reminds me of Pat Cullen. He used to fly around with a pilot friend to scope out ponds to fish. Then he'd go visit the land owners to get permission, often offering his services as an accountant to do favors for them, bartering and so forth. He only fished at night so it was no big deal to the land owners. The rest, as they say, is history. 

Well, I fished this pond all last year, with my biggest catch being about 2.5 pounds. Starting this year, I have a few small ones, but today, I had a few minutes.

It'd been raining for several days and the water was over a foot high. Well, a Shadrap produced a 4lb11oz largemouth! My new PB. I didn't have the phone with me for pictures, but I did have the scale. Glad it wasn't reversed.

I would keep that lake very quiet and use a number of techniques at various time of the day.@.  I would go back and tell the owner how much you appreciate his generosity!  Then I would get a gift certificate to a nice restaurant in the area for him and his wife.  Enjoy the serenity  of the situation.  

On 5/2/2024 at 10:23 PM, Bazoo said:

hybrid bluegill

Have a pic?

 

Nvm, went back and kept scrolling haha. 

 

Sounds like a sweet little spot bro, praise God indeed

On 4/17/2025 at 5:49 PM, geo g said:

Then I would get a gift certificate to a nice restaurant in the area for him and his wife.

 

Agree. I take good care of the landowners who let me cross their land. I bought one a $150 net, as well as cashews, beef jerky, and chocolates. 

I would gravitate towards the styles of fishing you prefer. I saw a log laying in the water the other day at a pond. I said If I can get a good cast over that log, ill catch a bass. I was using a weightless Roboworm fat, sure enough I caught a bass. So the question often arises, was it the lure, or my precise cast, that caught the fish?? So play to your strengths, get really good at those, then play with other stuff. There's just too many lures, too many ways to catch bass nowadays, you simply don't need it all. Go with what you like to fish with and catches fish

12 hours ago, Harold H said:

There's just too many lures, too many ways to catch bass nowadays, you simply don't need it all. Go with what you like to fish with and catches fish

 

So true. We don't need all the lures. Plus, I believe that bass in different places prefer different lures. The game is discovering which lures your local bass prefer.