The pond I fish has only bream as the forage fish for the bass. There are tons of healhty bass in this 4acre pond, but i've only seen a handful of bream and one corner full of beds. How would you match the bream? I always use soft plastics to cope with the weeds and slop on bottom.

Catch a bream, take a picture, then go to nearest bait shop and find a crankbait of similar color.

Check out KaRu lures.  They have some really kick butt colors and offer then in a VibraShock which has produced awesome results and they also offer the colors in their swimming jigs that do pretty well also.  

For bream, check out their Extreme Blue Gill color, its a producer.  If they have any crawfish, which they probably do, check out the Crigger Craw color in their Jig section.  

Best of Luck!

what do you mean how? you already know the forage base so just find (or make) lures to match it......

I don't worry about it.  I mainly fish with greens and browns.  If a certain "shade" of green or brown is on sale, then I buy that one.

Fingerling bass are probably another significant forage item.

Watermelon with red,blue, or orange flakes.

Watermelon with red,blue, or orange flakes.

Perfect!!!

Watermelon is just a great color no matter what.  Like bigtimefish said, you can pretty much put any color flake into the watermelon & catch fish.  However I prefer watermelon with red flake most of the time.

I match the hatch 100 % of the time..

The pond I fish has only bream as the forage fish for the bass. There are tons of healhty bass in this 4acre pond, but i've only seen a handful of bream and one corner full of beds. How would you match the bream? I always use soft plastics to cope with the weeds and slop on bottom.

well in rapala's dt series the make an awesome bluegill pattern... two watermelon candy by zoom is a great bluegille color and if the water is really staned then anything in fire tiger...

"Match the hatch" is a concept better suited to trout fishing.

Bass are far more opportunistic. As Catt and Rick Clunn say

over and over again, it's all about finding the fish. Focus on

structure and cover, then depth and presentation. The right

color sometimes helps, but it is the last factor to consider.

8-)

"Match the hatch" is a concept better suited to trout fishing.

Bass are far more opportunistic. As Catt and Rick Clunn say

over and over again, it's all about finding the fish. Focus on

structure and cover, then depth and presentation. The right

color sometimes helps, but it is the last factor to consider.

8-)

Thats pretty sound advice.

"Match the hatch" is a concept better suited to trout fishing.

Bass are far more opportunistic. As Catt and Rick Clunn say

over and over again, it's all about finding the fish. Focus on

structure and cover, then depth and presentation. The right

color sometimes helps, but it is the last factor to consider.

8-)

Thats pretty sound advice.

I have found an exception to this. It is true that you must find the fish. I have experienced bass busting on shad. Both LMB and Stripers in Power Plant Lakes. You will see huge pods of shad just busting the surface. You can throw topwater baits at it and maybe get a few. For some reason without exception a Rattletrap in a Shad pattern will only catch numbers and usually the largest of the bass present. In my mind that is a perfect example of matching the hatch.

"Match the hatch" is a concept better suited to trout fishing.

Bass are far more opportunistic. As Catt and Rick Clunn say

over and over again, it's all about finding the fish. Focus on

structure and cover, then depth and presentation. The right

color sometimes helps, but it is the last factor to consider.

8-)

Thats pretty sound advice.

I have found an exception to this. It is true that you must find the fish. I have experienced bass busting on shad. Both LMB and Stripers in Power Plant Lakes. You will see huge pods of shad just busting the surface. You can throw topwater baits at it and maybe get a few. For some reason without exception a Rattletrap in a Shad pattern will only catch numbers and usually the largest of the bass present. In my mind that is a perfect example of matching the hatch.

That's because the lipless crank swims below the school of shad and gives the bass a different thing to look at. Wheter it be sound,vibration or color. That trap stands out

I don 't care about matching my baits to what the fish may eat.