All - I am taking some 9-11 year old's fishing this coming Sunday afternoon. We will be going to a small pond that I have never fished, but I know there are fish in it. Bass, bluegill, etc.

I rarely fish at this time of the year, preferring to hunt. I just want the kids to get some fish and I assume that the fish will off the banks, in deeper water. What is the best way to "guarantee" some catches? Worms and slip bobbers? TIA.

This is in east-central Iowa.

My go-to lures for Bass in ponds anytime of year to ensure high catch rate are small square-bill crank baits and spinners (no treble hooks so much safer for kids).

For the bluegill worms always work really well. Play with the depth to figure out where they are. Maybe set one kid shallow and one deeper to see who is catching more.

I would say if you are getting worms from a bait store then maybe grab a thing of waxworms too. Sometimes when standard worms fail the BG will be interested in the grub form of the waxworm.

I'm told that for LMB this time of year it is to go deep and go very slow. Switching from fast moving crankbaits that trigger an aggression response to smaller swim baits, smaller jigs with paddle tail shad like bodies or curly tail. You go a little smaller and a little slower.

I haven't browsed tackle stores in a while but I"m seeing online that the rage now is a million different jig head variations that all look exactly like the head of a bait fish right down to ear dimples, eyes, mouth and different colors and shapes. It gets complicated trying to decide when browsing online!

One suggestion is to have the kids move around the pond. Don't let them catch one fish on a spot and then spend an hour trying to get another bite!

Update - we took the kiddos fishing yesterday and caught nothing on worms under a slip bobber, although there are reportedly nice bluegills in the pond. I had one young fisherman throw a Sluggo and he was able to take a nice bass with that...so he was happy.

But the real story was the three really nice channel cats that we caught. All on stinkbait/worms. So although we only caught 4 fish total, we had a lot of fun and good memories were made. The pond owner was quite surprised by the catfish catches, as he wasn't even sure there were cats in the pond.

My go to bass/catfish bait in ponds is a 3 to 4 inch free swimming BG.

Same here.
Slays em'. Works best late evening in the shallows when the bass are cruising the shoreline.