hey guys im a new member and am looking for a little help..im from a little town south of St. Louis, Missouri and a buddy of mine lets me use his farm pond to fish at.  i realize its still early in the year but ive gone fishing there 3 or 4 times in the past weekends and only managed to catch a couple of fish here and there swimming a lizard and other plastic baits.  Some things ive noticed though is the pond is full of dead lillies all along the bank sides and it seems like the pond is just dead.  we had a fairly cold winter and don't know if that is playing a part in my troubles.  and how would you reccomend fishing those dead lilies..throwing a crankbait or any bait with exsposed hooks is getting me hung up almost every time.  If anyone could share some advice it would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you

I would say try downsizing your bait and work through those dead lily pads and work them slow

thanks for the tip...i was also thinking a winter kill could have occured but im not an expert on that sort of stuff

Don't get pysched out. Veges die in winter -that's probably the way it'll look until they start to grow again. Winterkill that far south would be darn rare. Here, ponds winterkill if they are <5ft deep and have a lot of vegetation, then get lots of snow on the ice for a long duration; While deeper ponds and those with less veges do not kill.

I highly doubt your pond is dead. Don't get psyched out -find those fish and figure out ways to catch 'em.

the deepest that pond gets i would say is probably 20 ft. and veges are growing pretty heavily along all the bank side..but just gotta find them lol

my pick would be a big  black plastic lizard rigged weedless with a very small bullet weight on it.

you could use a fluke fished slooooooowly or  dead stick a trickworm. I catch alot of fish this time of year on hard jerkbaits too.

Every body of water has its own characteristics as does your pond.

The depth, structure, cover, bottom, biatfish, crawfish, water temperatures and clarity all play a role in every body of water, but more pronounced in a pond.

I fish private ponds and it is still too early. I would think that you may have to wait another 30 to 60-days for the pond to come alive once again.

Watch for new grass growth and fish those areas, first.

Fish the areas where the sun hits the pond, usually the northwest corner, as the water will be a little warmer.

Fish any structure or stickups you can find.  Anything that could hold heat.

The bass are there. They are just waiting to move into warmer water and start to spawn. 

Remember, depending on the size of the baitfish that are eaten during the winter by a bass, it can take up to two weeks for that one bass to digest the baitfish and feed again and she is not eating that much.

I bet you will have a lot of fun this summer fishing this pond so please let us know and send pictures. 

the lily pads will grow back in the summer and you will have a blast fishing them!

thanks guys this is alot of help

About the only thing I throw this early in ponds is a jig. You wont get many bites but they are good ones when you do. I like a 1/4oz in ponds.

I vote Jig, worm, lipless crankbait, spinner bait, or jerkbait as all good options - oh I know you cannot wait till that water warms up  ;D

Try aproaching the pads with stealth and then try flipping. I'd pound the area with 4 baits and see what works.

1. 5'' Senko. Watermellon W/ BL Flake weightless and weedless.

2. A backwards rigged Fat Ika. Black with Blue Flake

3. Outcast tackel Pro Staff Jig 1/8 oz with a baby Peca Craw or Zoom Jr. Chunk

4. Texas Rigged Black W/ blue Flake Sweet Beaver. The added weight of the Texas rig might trigger a better reaction bite with that faster fall. When they aren't biting as much on a slower fall I like to add some weight.

It doesn't hurt to hit the area for 20-30 minutes and then let it cool down for a while before you hit it again.