Fishing small ponds

Question
QUESTION: Mr Jack, I am a 49 year old fisherman with plenty of fishing experience, but I am baffled by my small pond. It is 4.5 acres. It seems to be very affected by weather changes. After a front comes through it takes about a week or more for the fish to start back biting or I am not fishing correctly at these times, also the pond gets very muddy after hard rains like we had last night. How does this muddy situation affect the fish and what do they do, or where do they hold in these conditions?  Thanks  Bruce

ANSWER: Bruce; There are several things that I will have to guess at to try to help.  First how deep is the pond and does the water clear up after a few days after a big rain.  Also does the pond have any kind of structure such as sharp drops or humps, also any cover such as weeds or timber?  Also is the pond surrounded by crop fields which are plowed.  The mud must come from somewhere.  Perhaps the pond has a stream feeding it that collects the mud.  

Bass are not badly affected by muddy water. They can survive in water that is always muddy but of course they prefer more clear water.  Bass almost always are affected by cold fronts, however usually only a couple of days is necessary for recovery.  There must be some other factor that takes a week or more.  Bass, especially, become very inactive after a cold front but can be caught. The key is fishing much more slowly and repeated casts to likely places until you activate their instinctive predator reaction.  I would say if the water is clear the place to fish after a cold front would be at the deepest edge you can find.  An edge might be a couple of foot drop sharply or perhaps a big downed tree or log along the deep side.

If I knew if you fish from the bank or from a boat of some sort I might do better.  If from the bank make sure you keep yourself hidden from the fish.  Most people fishing a pond just walk up to the waters edge and start casting.  If the water is less than really muddy the fish can see you or at least feel the vibrations of your walking.  Try pretending that the fish have periscopes and can see you from anyplace on an open bank.  If there are bushes or trees use them to keep yourself hidden.  I have crawled up to the bank of a pond on my hands and knees years ago in one pond I fished.  If I just walked up I couldn't catch any fish.  One other way I found I could fool the fish was to see to it that some cattle came up to the pond and I followed them.  The fish are used to seeing cattle in a farm pond.  If the pond is yours or you can get permission you might place some bushes or other things that you can hide behind to get close to the pond.

If the pond has a good population of bass they have to be there no matter what the weather does.  If it is an old pond you might see if you can get the state fisheries people to check the population for you.  There may simply not be enough bass in there.  I knew a farmer one time who was frustrated with his pond because he couldn't catch many bass.  He had the pond checked, actually it was drained and they only found a half dozen bass in the whole pond.  He had it restocked and the fishing became good again like it had been when the pond was new.  

When the pond gets really muddy you can still catch fish by using lures that do not depend on sight.  A large bladed spinnerbait will often trigger strikes in muddy water.  Another lure for this kind of water is a vibrating lipless crankbait or a blade bait.  Sometimes a really big worm which moves a lot of water when moved will bring strikes in such water.  I like the Rattletrap for this although there are other brands that work just as well.  Also in the early morning or just at sunset a large topwater lure will sometimes bring fish to strike in muddy water, especially on a warm quiet evening I love to toss a big Jitterbug or Zara Spook around cover.  I have caught some nice bass in a pond that was quite muddy.

As to your last question as to where the fish hold  in muddy conditions the answer is that in a small pond they have little choice so I suspect they hold about the same place as at any other time but remain mostly inactive.  They can go for quite a while without eating so your best bet is to work  toward reaction strikes.

One other lure that I forgot about that I have had some good luck with in muddy water is a white or silver crank bait that runs as deep as the water and bumps the bottom now and then.  I remember fishing the creeks that feed into the rivers of the delta of the Apalachicola River.  I remember getting there and finding the main river way high and the feeder streams spilling over into the swamps. Casting that silver crank bait up into areas that are normally above water when the river is down at a more normal level. I have found bass often up in this area out of the main streams themselves.
So if your pond has an area that floods when the rains have muddied it try working this overflow area, usually at the upper end of the pond away from the dam.(if there is one)

This is about all I can think of right now with what information I have on your pond.  I hope this will help you catch more fish.  Especially in a small water remember, take a few to eat but release most of the fish you catch to be caught again.  This will keep the bass population in your pond up where the fishing will be good.

Thanks for calling on me to answer your question.  If you want to follow up with more information on your pond I will attempt to be more specific.  But I think being really stealthy is often the answer to doing well in a pond.

Oh, if you fish from a boat remember that clanking around in the boat is likely to alert every fish in such a small pond of your presence.  An alerted fish seldom bites.

I am
Jack L. Gaither  (JackfromSeminole)
Lake Seminole, Georgia

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Mr Jack, thanks for your rapid response. The pond is in my private developement that was built 2 years ago. It has a deep section of between 12 to 18 feet. It also has a rather large shallow flat at the upper end. A lot of the surrounding land is open red clay with some grass and trees. The bad thing is all the water that can drain into the pond. It was stocked last may with what they called a tiger bass. These I was told were a strain of Fla. and northern bass hybrid. It evidently already had a population of crappie here as it was a farm pond before the development was built. I have only caught 2 bass in the pond but was catching a lot of big crappie up to 2 pounds and better. The crappie ar my favorite fish any way. I fish from the bank and out of a boat. I have been placing fish attractors at various places and depths around the pond. I am using plactice buckets with concrete and pvc pipe and also christmas trees. The crappie were the fish I was talking about catching and then catching nothing for days and weeks some times after weather changes. I never knew what the fish did or where they would go when the water got real muddy. I wondered if it made it hard for them to breath in such conditions.  Thanks again, Bruce

Answer
Bruce, I suspect that the muddying of the pond with the red clay might cause some stress on the bass.  However bass are a hardy species and probably will not be harmed by it.  I would suggest getting as much grass planted around the pond as possible as soon as possible to control the mud.  If the ground around the pond is eroding, that is being cut by gullies this means this silt is getting into the pond and will settle out damaging the pond.  Some bales of straw in heavy runoff areas might help cut the mudding until the grass can be grown.

Placing those pieces of cover is a good idea if the pond does not have natural cover.  Christmas trees are ok except that they do not last long.  The PVC will grow algae and eventually make good cover.

If the pond has big crappie that is great but make sure you harvest some of them as crappie can easily overpopulate a small pond and then become stunted.  There was such a pond in my small town when I was a kid.  It had lot of crappie but seldom one over six inches long because there were so many of them.  There were some bass but not enough to keep the crappie population in check.  Since the pond did not belong to me and the owner didn't care what happened to the fish in it nothing was done.  The pond was eventually filled and a house now stands in what was the middle of it.

I have heard of tiger bass but never saw one that I know of.  I understand that they are very aggressive and may be able to control the crappie population.  If I want fish to eat I go for the crappie and release most of the bass I catch.  If I were fishing on a small pond I would never keep any big bass.  Even here on my lake which is 37,000 acres I don't keep big bass very often.  I may keep one 5-6 pound bass to bake once or twice a year but other than that I eat the crappie.

Hey I am preaching and getting much too wordy shooting off my mouth (fingers) so I better shut up.  I have a tendency to get windy. Sorry.