Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations I'M NEW SO BEAR WITH ME

I saw a YouTube video where Bob Lusk was giving a seminar on myths about Bass. After watching it I knew he was the person I wanted to talk to about pond bass fishing. Not from a lure standpoint, but pond bass habits, actions and if pond bass are different from big lake, river, or creek bass. I don't have the luxury of owning a boat, especially continuing to own a boat after you buy it, so I bank fish local ponds. With the exception of one pond, all of them are cattle ponds or at one time was a cattle pond. One actually has cover, stumps, logs, limbs, overhanging trees, but thanks to that, walking around the pond is near impossible not to mention being able to cast once you get there. Of the 5 I fish, four are just open range ponds with no cover to speak of. No fallen trees, rock formations, no islands in the middle, sunken trees or coves, nope, just big and round and 8 feet if that.

My questions are as follows

Will a leak in a pond, based on severity, confuse a bass into thinking it needs to go deep for self preservation, and thus force it to stay there for no reason other than it feels the necessity to do so?

Does geographic location cause bass to act differently because water temps can't follow a "pattern"?

Here's why I ask.

Ponds leak around here. Kentucky. You can bulldoze, fill holes with concrete, do some sort of pond dance, but sooner or later nature finds a way to drain that thing. A particular pond I fish has been plugged so many times with concrete it's practically a swimming pool now. But, it still leaks. When the rains come in earnest, the pond fills up quickly. It's at the bottom of a "holler" where all sides lead downhill directly into the water. So massive rain runoff loads it up fast. But, the leaks further up the bank that haven't been plugged cause that new water level to dump quickly. Severity of leak. Once the water reaches normal level, the leaks are smaller, fewer, but still there. So now we have a seep, instead of a leak. Do bass become accustomed to this and adapt accordingly. Bob pretty much confirmed that bass aren't thinkers, that they have 15 minute memories, and all this fisherman jazz about how cunning and manipulative they can be, and how picky they are, just doesn't fit.

Question 2. As I said, the ponds are in "hollers", basically they were built in a hole where four hills come together at the bottom. It can be 75 degrees at the top of the hill and by the time you reach the pond, it's 52. No cover, shallow depths, and cold blooded metabolism, I can see why some fish would just sit in one spot and meditate.

I can't find the fish if I don't understand their homes. All these YouTube fisherman are in places in the deep south where the climate is still keeping to a schedule, but as the saying goes, if you don't like the weather in Kentucky, just give it a minute, it will change.

My guess is that fish in general find the most comfortable place for them in the pond. For any species. If there is cover but the water in that cover is too warm, cold or lacks DO....they find a more comfortable place to be....

On the leaky/seepy pond....this is likely due to something with the soils. If the soil won't hold water or it wasn't compacted correctly....it's gonna leak or seep.

I'm not sure I understand question 2.

My two cents from a complete novice.

Thanks Boondoggle

Question 2 is geared toward understanding air temperature changes and how they affect water temperature changes. In Kentucky, especially where I live, we can have 25 for a low and up to 75 the next day. This time of year you can have 63 degree days in March, then snow at the end of the week and down to 22 at night. Our weather in this area fluctuates so harum scarum that fish can't seem to figure out if it's time to head to the shallows, or stay in the deep water to keep warm. Just when they think the water is getting warm enough to venture out, here comes another cold snap. I was looking for some guidance on whether or not I'm over thinking this. All I know is that the ponds I fish, you can see the bottom in the shallow areas and in some cases I can see the bait moving through the water from where it landed to back to me. I've never had much luck finding fish when they can see me walking around the pond. Do I need to wait until the temperatures finally become more consistent to put to good use all of the stuff I've heard about water temperatures?

I like to go smaller and slower baits when the water temp is cool. Fish will still eat but they "need" a bait that can hang in the zone longer.

I've all but gone exclusively to rubber worms or something in that class of bait. Caught one on my first cast yesterday, hung one at the bank but it surprised me and I didn't get the hook set, and then.................crickets. I could have been wearing meat flavored underpants and jumped into a piranha pool and still not gotten a bite. 60,000 of them yes, but not just one.

Redrider,

Your OP contained numerous good questions, but there are still many more variables that control the fishing. I don't believe we could possibly give you spot on advice that would apply to your particular fishing holes.

If you want to determine when the fish are going to start biting, then keep a calendar for several years that show all of your observations for times of good fishing AND times of bad fishing.

You can even include temperatures into your records with an inexpensive swimming pool thermometer. I am not sure how valuable a temperature reading is right at the bank (due to the effects of the color of the pond bottom, amount of sunlight that day, etc.) Maybe take a float and throw the thermometer farther out into the pond and get the depth at 4' or 6', or whatever depth you think would be the best indicator for the ponds.

Another thing you noted was the very clear water. At some point in the spring, the phytoplankton (plants) will bloom, as well as the zooplankton (creatures). This will severely reduce the clarity of the water. Those blooms are also the bottom of the food chain and launch the cycle for the year. Who knows, your records may show that the best bass fishing occurs every spring from Day 10 to Day 20 after the start of a visible bloom. (Made up numbers.)

Also, a passing cold front, or warm front, does not change the water temperature at depth that significantly. However, fish certainly do react to the atmospheric pressure changes along with the temperature change. If you note that a cold front in March, ALWAYS shuts down the fish bites, then perhaps go out fishing three days after the front has passed. The fish might be both active and hungry at that point.

Good luck on your fishing adventures!

Thank you so much for your input. That's exactly why I joined this forum. That one section where you explained why the water is murkier in the spring and summer versus right now, is the information I need.

I'm not trying to turn this into a bass fishing forum, but in order to know what to do, I need to know what makes my bodies of water tick. Ponds are a different breed of water versus a creek, river, or dammed up lake that used to be a river before Hoover was built and we now have lake mead. I know that because I looked it up before I wrote it. I also saw the documentary. But farm ponds, cattle ponds, or stocked mud puddles with cattails growing on one end, are fishing in a barrel. The bass do not have much choice on where they go, or where they bed, or where they hide. We hear pro anglers always talking about, "find the food, find the fish, look for cover" My granted ponds are lacking in the cover part, but as for the fish and food part, Bluegill to eat, frogs, crawfish, bugs, maybe a snake now and then, but not a lot of threadfin shad or feeding troughs. Crappie in one or two of them. Another issue, is there any fish left in the pond? But all that aside, I can't get answers if I don't ask the questions. Thanks to any and all person's who answer my post, you are helping me in ways you don't know. Or maybe now you do.

Do you own these ponds, or are they ponds where you just have permission from the landowner?

Either way, you can always add artificial cover. Long term, this type of cover helps your fish health. For example, LMB are ambush predators. If they have some vertical cover to hide behind, they will be more successful on BG captures.

However, short term, adding some cover would almost certainly act as "fish concentrators". Much easier to pull 2-3 bass off of known hot spots and then move over to the next one. (Especially if you are fishing with kids! Let them throw the first few casts and see what hits. Then you throw a few casts in with a different presentation.)

You can search Pond Boss for the many excellent threads on adding artificial cover.

Once you find some ideas that might be good choices for your ponds, you could even request permission to add that cover from the landowner of the ponds for the ones you don't own. If your addition would improve his fishery and NOT detract from his other agricultural uses of the ponds, then that could be a win-win situation.

All of the land owner ponds I fish are permission ponds. One is owned by my direct neighbor down the road from me. She and her late husband have been friends of ours since I was born. I'm 58. When my grandson got the bright idea he wanted to learn to fish, there is a story behind that, but for later, I asked her if I could take him to her pond. She granted permission and off we went. Another close pond is owned by a familiar, I know his grandparents, his cousin, and have had the pleasure of talking to him over the years. He granted me permission. A third and fourth permission came from two long time family friends, and the fifth came from a man I've never met in my life, but I knew his wife and she asked for me. I text him and officially asked and he granted me unfathered permission in a reply. His pond has a world of cover to pull from, but it's not easy to get into using a Ford Escape.

I tell you this because I wanted to take this opportunity to thank any of you who have taken the leap of faith and granted permission for fisherman to fish your ponds. Bob Lusk talked about catch and release. I am %100 catch and release. Not just because two of the five grants started with, "you can have all the bluegill you want, but don't take my bass". No worries, I don't eat fish. Well, I eat Tuna Fish and Salmon from a can, but I don't per say eat fish. Because my friends do not wish for their bass to leave their ponds, it's very easy for me to abide by that rule.

I would like to give my two cents worth as to adding cover, culling the small sizes, and pond management, but you have to understand, four of the five ponds are owned by person's who stocked them, but once the fish were in there, they went back to not paying much attention to the ponds. One pond is a cattle pond the by the way has bass in it. One is a cattle pond that the owner also uses as a place to fish when he's not fishing tournaments. One is a bathtub behind his mom and dad's old house on his mom and dad's place, and his mom and dad are both sadly not with us anymore. But he grew up there and keeps the place mowed and let's people fish. I think his grandkids have about depleted the stock.

The hard to get to pond is easy to drive to, but in an area that is best described as, "he won't know, heck he never comes here to begin with" so you can say that he gets quite a bit of interloping angler traffic. He's one of those guys everybody knows and they think they can get the "familial" fishing license. I've know Roger (not his real name) since I was born, grew up with his brother, his aunt was my mom's best friend, and I still asked for over three months before he finally got tired of me interrupting his work and just said, "you can fish any time. I have full faith in you to do what's right."

So to pond owners throughout this forum who have "faith" in someone you don't know and have granted fishing privileges, thank you. And to the persons they have granted the permission, don't screw it up. That land owner is taking it on faith that you are worthy of the permission. Follow the rules, and don't mess with the water. Fish what's there, and follow my tried and true method of catching fish. Cast, Reel, Hope.

I suspected that was your situation.

Read up on some artificial cover threads. If you see some ideas that might work on some of the ponds that have limited access, then I would talk to the owner about your ideas. Many people would welcome your "improvements", especially if you could demonstrate that you did your homework first!

P.S. I also grew up fishing in small ponds and creeks with my father and brother where we were given permission by the landowner. My father realized what an important privilege that was, so he always offered to help out on any tasks that needed extra hands at the farm. I remember lots of projects like holding a long cattle gate against the wind while the farmer welded the needed repairs. Another time I filled a milk carton with baling wire from a stretch of grass that the farmer wanted to re-work. I could barely carry the load when I got back to the barn. The farmer was shocked. He said he had been through there a half-dozen times and wished he had my eyesight! In hindsight, I don't know if that was the truth, or if he was just thanking a little "city kid" for doing some actual work.

I agree with you about the privilege of being allowed onto property that someone else owns. It is certainly a blessing!