Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - No Swimming!

As some of you know, I had to sell my pond a few months back due to health issues. Very sad after all the time and money spent, but fortunately we were blessed to sell to a great family. They have 3 young kids who not only love the place, but also invite friends. So glad to see the pond fully appreciated!

They gave us permission to fish there, so my visiting brother and I headed out on Memorial Day. Barry caught fish after fish on a plastic worm, mostly smaller bass and larger bluegill. Then he got a surprise...

He was fighting the largest redear sunfish he's ever seen -- 10 or 11 inches -- when two giant bass showed up behind it. He can't say exactly how big, but definitely lunkers. They followed the struggling trophy panfish up to the boat, alert to the possibility of a massive feast.

Barry decided to leave the redear in the water just to see what would happen. After a minute or so, one of the hungry bass lost patience and somehow managed to swallow the terrified panfish. Only the head stuck out of the giant jaws. A LOT of excitement on lightweight tackle!

After fighting for a short time, the bass let go -- there was no hook in her. Barry managed to boat the redear, which surprisingly was none the worse for its harrowing experience. He dubbed it "Jonah" and let it go. Fun!

My brother and I used to fish that exact same way as dumb kids!

We would start the day with some tiny jigs and put a couple of medium BG or GSF in the livewell. As I would slowly drive the boat parallel to shore and we worked plastic worms on the bottom, my brother would troll a sunfish out of the back of the boat under a bobber on his second rod.

Some days that rig would just get nuked all day long. Frequently, he would set the hook but it wouldn't catch. Other times, the bobber would go way under and then pop back up before he could grab the rod. The rig was a large hook under the dorsal fin. Frequently, we would have to change out the poor sunfish because it have been hit by bass too many times to keep swimming.

I certainly would have learned a lot about bass behavior if we had an underwater camera available back then!

Hard to beat natural forage for bass. Sometimes we forget that what with all the fancy lures available these days!

In northern Michigan, my nephew and I would catch small panfish and save them until night fell. We'd put them a foot or two below a bobber & cast, hoping a pike or smallmouth bass would eat it. Instead, the gar were our primary customers! Only problem was getting the hook out of those teeth in the dark. Good memories.