Just have a quick question here. My dad and I went fishing today. We fished a four acre pond that we traditionally fish in the summer. We normally catch between 35 and 50 bass, crappie, bluegill, and redear in the summer over about an hour or two time frame. The pond is healthy and a blast to fish. We got this great idea to go fish today before the ice set in. We fished several depths from 5-10 feet but only caught one bluegill and one bass. I was just curious if there is something we missed or were doing wrong fishing when it was this cold. I thought we would have caught at least 10-12 but I havent fish the cold that much, usually reserve all this time for deer hunting. Just hoping maybe someone can give us some pointers in case we get to go out one more time before his vacation is over. Thanks guys.

As the water cools, the reaction or the metabolism of fish slows down so there is not a need to eat as much. Most likely you were fishing too fast. Think slow and large baits. You want to fish so slowly you are almost bored of it.

One small quick meal is a waste of energy. One large meal is much better. Remember bass are very lazy, but even more lazy in the winter.

What were using live bait or artificial? During the colder months, I usually do best either early morning, or evening. The fish are sluggish, the BG especially will feed very light. If you're float fishing, the float had better be extremely sensitive, or you'll miss the take. It was windy here this afternoon, if you had that also it would play havoc with trying to detect a bite.

You say you fished from 5-10', what is the max depth of the pond? I've been catching a few BG, but they've been deeper than that.

For the gills' downsize your bait... I'm using #14 and #16 ice jigs tipped with a couple spikes. Use fresh bait, in the winter the gills' will look your presentation over pretty close, a little wiggle from the spikes goes a long way toward success.

Live minnows fished vertical would be my choice for the body of water you described.

"Before the ice set in"

I love your optimism! It was 53 degrees here today.....

C'mon baby freeze....

It was very windy here today also and they did bite very softly. We were using crawlers and grubs. The pond is 17 ft at the deepest part by the dam and thats where we fished. The two that we did catch were right off the dam in 9 ft of water. So should we have used a bigger piece of the crawler than we do in the summer? I really wanted to use minnows but the bait shop was sold out.

i see your from freedom indiana, is that close to greensburg or shelbyville by chance? I am from greensburg now. I use to live in osgood, thats why my profile says ripley county.

Are you targeting BG, or some of those "other" fish you mentioned?

I think minnows would work great on the Crappie and the Bass.

I'm still sticking with my recommendation for tiny jigs on the BG, though. I like horizontal tungsten jigs, and I have good luck with the color red.

To be honest, we were going after whatever would get on our line. We usually catch a mix of all those fish, the bluegill ofcourse take up most of the cooler space.

In between Terre Haute and Bloomington. Huge place. We do have our own post office, though. It has one employee, and one mail carrier. I think there are four parking spots out front.

For fishing in general, you would want to downsize your baits this time of year in your zone. Only if you were after that one huge big monster trophy bass would you use a big pig and jig this time of year.

How about the depth we were fishing? My dad thought I was crazy when I went to 10 ft but I tried to explain to him how the fish move down in the water as it gets colder. He just thought I was nuts, maybe I am. What do you think, should I have went deeper, Im wondering now if that is where we went wrong.

fish do tend to seek warmer water in cold months.

active large fish will sometimes patrol the shallowsunder ice, like nothern and bass. I will often set a large minnow on a tip up 6 inches under the ice in four foot of water for such.

They are spooky in shallow water, whether on ice or open.

good luck.

I would have tried even deeper.

I've fished 2# test with ice fishing bobbers and ice jigs on regular UL spinning gear this time of the year.

The water temp isn't that much difference from when there's ice on the BOW, so think of ice fishing without having to drill holes. Even the chop on the water might move the bait too much for the fish to be interested.