All right guys I know this may be tough online, but I'm gonna give it a shot.  I'm trying to find the bass in my pond.  I'm up in Northeast Connecticut, and the pond I fish at most often is an area roughly 15 to 20 football fields of space.  The bottom of this pond is FULL of muck.  Anywhere you go, it's all weeds that are long, feathery, and limp.  These things just crowd the bottom.   On top of this, most of this entire area is no more than 2 ft down to these weeds, honestly closer to 1ft or less much of the time.  There are some spots where it gets deeper, but never more than about 7-8 feet.  On one end of this pond there is a dam (creating the pond) and the other side is fed by a river you can travel up a long ways, several hours in fact.  As you go upstream there are no more pond-like areas, it's all river all the way, but it does get deeper.  I generally just stay in the initial open area to do my fishing, and that was the space I'm most interested in trying to find bass.  The edges of the pond are generally tree covered, and there are trees in the water, all these places you'd think fish would be hiding.  But I'll throw baits in there to no avail.  I know I probably haven't given you all the information you need to answer my question, but I'm not sure what else to tell without just writing pointlessly, so if you need any extra info, let me know, I'll post it.  Thanks a ton

What kind of baits have you been throwing?

Ah yes, well I've been using quite a variety. I've been fishing this pond many years and had the most success with a 3" blue floating rapala minnow. For whatever reason, that's the lure in this pond. But I've also caught fish with everything from jitterbugs to spoons. Lately it's been mostly plastics, 4" worms and lizards, a jig, banjo minnows, and spinnerbaits. Now I do know there are bass in here or at least there have been, because I have caught bass. It's just rather infrequent. If you hook a fish here, it's usually a pickrel or a perch.

Try throwing something like a Zoom Horny Toad or a weightless worm, floating or sinking. If the water is mostly only 1ft to 2ft deep until you hit weeds, I would use a very light weight.

you might also try throwing some Zoom Trick Worms weightless... they float on the top and have got some unreal action.. .i would throw it in the same places you are catching them off the rapala floaters...

as for location, i would try the area where the river runs in/out of the pond. thats generally a good place to locate the bass waiting to ambush prey in the current.

if you have perch, try to find where they have been bedding, and throw some swimbaits that resemble them and work them maybe 3-15 yards off the bank - bass love eating the little ones that wander too far away

if its mossy and all that on the bottom, throw a c-rig 4" lizard about 18" back from the weight. It will tell you where the open spots are, like where the fish have sort of "cleaned" them a place out to hang tight.

i have caught a lot of fish in this type of vegetaion with the C-Rig. It lets the lure work up and down in them, and most times the worm/lizard will stay weedless because it has no weight

hope this helps a little

I'm gonna give it all a go and let you guys know how it went, thanks a lot

Does it have any lily pads? I have a similar pond very near me (in eastern Mass.) that I like to sneak out to after work for an hour or so, where I have found t-rigged Sluggos very effective when worked around vegetation, especially lilly pads. I also agree that the area around the river inlet is a good place to concentrate. Maybe work that water with a spinnerbait until you find where the bass are and then switch over to a t-rigged Senko or Sluggo or something similar.

Let us know how you do!

Well I have nothing but good news.  The advice you guys gave me was killer.  I went out with 3 poles, one spinnerbait, one c-rigged lizard with about a 2 foot leader, and a weightless t-rigged senko.  I immediately went to where the pond empties over the dam, and threw out the lizard.  First cast before it hit the bottom, fish on!  It was actually a rainbow trout, but still fun.  By the end of the day I'd caught 2 other trout and 4 bass.  2 bass were on the senko and the rest on the lizard along the bottom.  One of the best days on the pond to my memory, thanks a ton!  ;D

WAY TO GO!! now if i could only use my own advice and it work! did you work any around where the pond if fed by the rivers/creek? and did you throw out off the bank and find any holes?

only reason i ask is becasue i keep a log, and i fish some places like  you do and i want to put it in there that it worked for you

Smuggle a few nutrea rats in from Louisiana and turn them loose.  They will eat all the grass!  

Yeah...don't do that.  The game warden will take your entire life from you lol.  Those things SUCK, though they do tear up grass.

I fish a lot of scummy, grassy, nasty ponds.  If the water is moderately clear then you might have luck using the exact same baits that I do.  Try a popper, buzzbait, or walk-the-dog bait early in the morning.  As the sun comes up, switch to a watermelonseed or green pumpkin super fluke or fat ika.  A spidergrub works well if you wanna fight T-Rigging or jigging one with light weight.  

The Fluke imitates some swimming bait.  In that color, I'd have to say perch of some kind.  Use a dye pen if there is a lot of chartruse or yellow in your native baitfish.  If it is shad or minnows, some sort of grey would probably work better.  

The Fat Ika has a perch/minnow look when your pulling it, but more like a darting crawfish when you let it out on semi-slack line.  (Rig them with the skirt up, opposite of a tube and it will swim away from you.)  This is a good cover-harrassing bait as well as a pretty decent search tool since it imitates many types of forage.  

The spidergrub imitates everything in general and nothing in particular.  That's why it's becomming my favorite bait.  You can make it minnow/perch ish or you can crawdad it.  Using different retrieves it can really do it all so long as you get a little creative with what you are wanting to do with it.  I'd say t-rig it with a 1/8 weight or put it on a 1/4 jighead and kinda hop/swim it around like a perch feeding.  Anytime you see or feel a drop, let it parachute to the bottem and do the whole crawfish thing.  The way the bass hits that lure will tell you a lot about their feeding preferences and you can adjust from there.

Hope this helps.  

Actually Russ, I never made it there.  I was having so much success where I was that I didn't move too far away.  I'm planning on heading up the river in a day or two and trying the lures out up there, so I'll be sure to let you know the type of location any fish come in at.

Nice work, Mase! Catching a fish on first cast is usually a sign that I'm not going to catch anything else for a while, but you even beat that jinx . . .

i fish a pond similar to what you are describing and the senko is hands down the way to go (in my pond at least).  if you are targeting larger bass then the fat ika is a great bait.  you will catch less bass but larger.  these baits have far outproduced anything else for me under these conditions.  i think the slow fall gives them plenty of time to either get it before the muck or follow it in.

matty

sounds kind of like the water i fish.  i've been having sucess with 5inch senkos and yum dingers

When I don't know what the heck to throw, I go to the senko and start fan casting.  It seems to work everywhere, you just have to adjust how you rig it.  In a shallow pond like that, I would be fishing before the sun comes up and toss the senko weightless.  It may be different where you are, but in California, we are well into the hot weather and the bass go deep as soon as the sun hits the water.

I have this one pond thats just amazing by my house it has produced so many bass over the years and now the bass that i was once catching that were 2 to 3 pounds are now getting up to 6 and 8 pounds. As to how I work the pond I typically choose i spot where I have had success to start out with and see how the fish are biting. Occasionally I will have days where the fish, like you said mase, bite on the first cast before it hits the bottom. On a day like this, I like to explore and see where the other fish are located and maybe use some different baits.

My favotite baits to fish in a pond would have to be hands down a senko but recently I made a run to the bait shop and picked up some YUM crawbugs and those are just amazing the fish absouletly nail them and it is easier to set the hook because the fish will actually eat it and you can see the line getting taken away.

This pond sounds a little tougher to fish than mine but as for baits you cant go wrong with any senko or crawfish imatation.

Also remember to always be aware in a pond because a lot of times the fish will be up on the edges of even a bank you are fishing from when you least expect it and if you move quietly you will have a good chance to sitefish and catch a nice one.

Take care,

Bassassasin

I have this one pond thats just amazing by my house it has produced so many bass over the years and now the bass that i was once catching that were 2 to 3 pounds are now getting up to 6 and 8 pounds. As to how I work the pond I typically choose i spot where I have had success to start out with and see how the fish are biting. Occasionally I will have days where the fish, like you said mase, bite on the first cast before it hits the bottom. On a day like this, I like to explore and see where the other fish are located and maybe use some different baits.

My favotite baits to fish in a pond would have to be hands down a senko but recently I made a run to the bait shop and picked up some YUM crawbugs and those are just amazing the fish absouletly nail them and it is easier to set the hook because the fish will actually eat it and you can see the line getting taken away.

This pond sounds a little tougher to fish than mine but as for baits you cant go wrong with any senko or crawfish imatation.

Also remember to always be aware in a pond because a lot of times the fish will be up on the edges of even a bank you are fishing from when you least expect it and if you move quietly you will have a good chance to sitefish and catch a nice one.

Take care,

Bassassasin

just make sure you take out a couple of the big ones or else within a few years you could lose your populations....i have seen it happen a lot....

How would taking out the big ones help?

less competition for food so some of the smaller ones can begin to grow instead of being eaten or starved