Hi, I'm new to the board and also to bass fishing with lures.  I usually fish lakes with shiners but recently started using lures on local ponds by my home.  I live in New Jersey and am wondering what are some lures that I can use to catch fish consistently.  I've been using Rapala floating minnows and Poppers.  Any info would be gretly appreciated.  Thank you....Also any advice on how to approach fishing ponds would be great.  Thank you again.    

In ponds you should really concentrate on the banks(10-15ft out and back in).  The good thing about small ponds is that if there is bass there they will eat almost anything.  Good choices for consistently catching bass are senko's, or knockoff's such as zero's, tiki sticks and dingers.  Spinnerbaits are also a really good pond bait.  Depending on the size of the pond's your fishing bass seem to learn really quick in them.  So don't be suprised if you kill them on a particular creature bait, or something, for a week or two and then it seems to become very hard to catch them on that bait all of a sudden.

welcome to a new world of fishing. I started bass fishing with shiners too, and still occaisionally use them when I want to have a fun day of fishing with my brother who isn't as into fishing as I am. When fishing with lures you have to get in the zone. Really concentrate on what you are doing and what the lure is doing. My best advice to you is to just do your homework...watching fishing shows on TV is where I learned most of what I know from fishing. Its much better than just reading articles on line or in magizines(which are also good tools you should use) but watching the host of the show actually fish a specific technique is much more usefukl than just reading about how to do it from text.

Check out the channel Versus, Sat/Sun mornings are when most of the new shows come on, also on weekday mornings/ Also espn2 has some shows on the weekends, as does Fox Sports Network. So...watch the shows, subscribe to some magizines, and read the articles on bassresource and you will learn ALOT. The second best thing you can do is fish as much as possible and practice with different lures. I once read a Bill Dance article that talked about all the different types of bass lures on the market. He said out of all of them, you only need a few to consistently catch bass.

Those 4 were, Jigs, spinnerbaits, Topwaters, and plastic worms. SInce your new to lures, I'd suggest going to a Dick's Sporting goods, if theres not one around go to Wal-Mart but there selection will be less, and get a few topwaters(Poppers, walkers like a "Zara Spook", and weedless frogs) some jigs get 3/8 oz. for a happy medium instead of buying a few of wevery weight. a couple spinnerbaits, and a package of plastic worms the ribbon tail kind 4"-7", you'll need some worm hooks too 2/0 Gamakatsu will be good, and get a package of Yamamoto Senkos with a number 1 (not 1/0) livebait hook the smaller hook just presents a more natural presntation instead of a huge worm hook. Try these lures out and catch some fish. Good Luck.