Ok, I have a small tournament (18 people) next tuesday at the 3 ponds by my house and need some suggestions on what to throw. Here is some info on the ponds:

- Matted Duckweed and surface algae are the main types of cover

- The ponds reach up to 5.5 feet deep and can get as shallow as a few inches

- They all have a silt bottom, but there are rare patches of gravel

- The duckweed and algae mats up tight against the shore

- There are cattails

- There is a spillway

- The water is very stained

- Lots of submerged grass growing off the bottom

- One of the ponds is 1 acre

- There are bluegill, bass, koi, and golden shiner

- The duckweed is fresh and very green

- Most of the bass are between 9 and 14 inches

- The parts that are very shallow are choked with duckweed and pond weed

- the bluegill just recently got done spawning (like 1.5 months ago)

- No current goes into the pond unless it rains

Any suggestions what to throw?

SWIMBAITS!!!!! 6" Hitch or Ayu Berkley Hollowbelly Swimbait fished slo-o-w-ly around the weeds.

I fish ponds extremely similar to these and have absolutely been slaying them recently.

Some baits I would throw:

Rage Craw in Bama Craw or Black Blue Flake

Yum Craw Papi in Black Blue Flake

Senkos in Junebug, Watermelon, and Pumpkinseed

White or White/Chart Spinnerbaits

Black Buzzbait (only in the early morning or around dusk)

rage tails: craws, baby craws, lizards and toads

ive been killing ponds this summer with rage tails...

Spinnerbait followed up by a weightless trick worm. A rage shad sounds like it would kick some butt in there too.

You just described the pond behind my house lol. I have been killing them using a weightless rage tail craw. I cant use spinnerbaits in the pond unless I am near the middle so I just stick with weightless plastics or maybe a t-rigged if I need to get past some of the algae... Also hollow body frogs have been a good producer for bigger bass...

I have thrown frogs A LOT here, but the bass aren't big enough to eat them....... And the only times I've had luck with a spinnerbait is the morning after a nightly thunderstorm. Usually I can get bit on a Strike king ocho thats wacky rigged or texas rigged. I have thrown a rage shad in there, but have only caught fish during the prespawn with it for some strange reason, I think i might try a swimbait because I've thrown a strike King Sexy shad hollow bodied swimbait in their and have caught a 1.5 pound bass. The thing about this pond and the two others is the bass aren't very big, the biggest one I've ever caught from the one pond weighed 3.25 pounds (18 inches long) last June (2010) during the bluegill spawn. I also tried a keel weighted rage craw in the Bama bug color, but got not a bite. On Tuesday, I was able to catch bass in this one grass bed flipping a 3 inch strike king rodent with JJ's magic and caught a bass around 2 pounds on my first flip, then caught a .5 pounder a few flips later, but when I switched to flipping a rage craw, they would ignore it. I've attached a picture of the grass thats growing in the pond. These ponds get absolutely no pressure, no one thinks there is bass in them.

I have thrown frogs A LOT here, but the bass aren't big enough to eat them....... And the only times I've had luck with a spinnerbait is the morning after a nightly thunderstorm. Usually I can get bit on a Strike king ocho thats wacky rigged or texas rigged. I have thrown a rage shad in there, but have only caught fish during the prespawn with it for some strange reason, I think i might try a swimbait because I've thrown a strike King Sexy shad hollow bodied swimbait in their and have caught a 1.5 pound bass. The thing about this pond and the two others is the bass aren't very big, the biggest one I've ever caught from the one pond weighed 3.25 pounds (18 inches long) last June (2010) during the bluegill spawn. I also tried a keel weighted rage craw in the Bama bug color, but got not a bite. On Tuesday, I was able to catch bass in this one grass bed flipping a 3 inch strike king rodent with JJ's magic and caught a bass around 2 pounds on my first flip, then caught a .5 pounder a few flips later, but when I switched to flipping a rage craw, they would ignore it. I've attached a picture of the grass thats growing in the pond. These ponds get absolutely no pressure, no one thinks there is bass in them.

Ponds like that are fun to fish with a fly rod. Large hair bugs slowly wiggled and twitched are deadly. They fall to the water like dead leaves, appear natural on the surface, and alive in a basses mouth. Purple rabbit fur strips that work, and act like plastic worms are effective also.

Those little ponds are like gems. I'm fishing a captive audience so I try to make it challenging. When I'm out on what we figure are fair size lakes around here (80 to 300) Large size (1000-3000) acre lakes I'm using casting gear with 50 pound test braid. So I'm no purest, little ponds are for "Communing With Nature" (God do you hate it when they use that expression...,I do!). If you don't use a fly rod give it a try. It's not really that hard to learn.

Well, I went out today practicing and went to one of the spots I think Is going to produce on tuesday to check on a few things, I shook a nice one off on a keel weighted baby rage craw, caught 1 on a 3/8 ounce Bama bug colored Hack attack jig with a Bama Craw colored Rage craw and missed one on that. Going back tommorrow to practice at the other pond