Bass fishing in ponds during April??

Question
Hey chris, Ive read your profile and answers and i believe you may have the answer im looking for.
I live in socal, simi valley and i'm having a difficult time with plastics and pre spawning bass. The pond I fish in my town is full of debry and I can't tell if the bass has picked up my bait or if its a twig. Is there a certain feeling I should be looking for? Also the water is extremely murchy, maybe 6'in to 1ft visibility; where should I look for the bass?
And if you have any other knowledge on small pond fishing for bass that might give me that edge, please let me know.
Thanks for taking the time!
Chris Tepper

Answer
Hi Chris,
I'm sorry it's taken me a few days to get back to you. I have finals coming up and it's been rough to even find time to check email. (my profile is out of date some, I can't update the part where I had mentioned my age) Now, your question...

Plastics are a fantastic choice right now, but fishing them during this time of the year is a little different than fishing them under normal conditions.  Right now the bass should be moving onto their beds in your area, or they will be very soon.  Locating them involves finding the shallow flats where they'll be building their beds.  Preventing snags and feeling strikes is muc easier with the proper rig.  Carolina and Texas rigged plastic worms are ideal.  In dense cover I usually prefer a Texas rig because the bullet is pegged right against the end of the hook, preventing the lure/weight from wrapping branches, etc.  However,  I tend to switch to Carolina rigs if the Texas rig is ineffective and I'm in need of a slower, more life-like presentation, and greater finesse.  Both of these approaches keep the hook tip buried within the body of the soft plastic and thus make them both pretty much snag free. In just about all cases you should be able to feel weight or even movement on the other end of the line and not just friction.

Also, the murkiness presents a unique situation.  Murky water means that it's going to be necessary to capitolize on the limited visability.  This can be done with plastics two ways. First, murky water means that you're going to have to switch to brighter colors.  Brighter colored lures tend to be significantly more effective under low-light and low-visibility conditions because their bright colors reflect more light, thus increasing their visability.  The second way to increase success when visibility is low is to make use of sound and vibrations.  Fish sense vibration on their lateral line, which runs the length of their bodies, and use it to locate food under such conditions.  This can be done with rattles on both rigs, and beads on a Carolina rig.  Rattles come in many varieties, and most can be integrated into any rig using soft plastics.  

I briefly touched on locating bass above, but I'll ellaborate a little more.  This is the time of the year when bass are moving toward and beginning to settle on spaning ground.  Largemouth bass spawn in shallow flats.  Right now they should be moving that way up from deeper water.  Look for areas that boarder shallow flats where there significant depth change.  Look for points, look for creek channels, and other similar points of structure that border shallow flats.  Bass will be moving up from these areas.

I hope I've been helpful.  If theres anything else that I can help you with just let me know.  The more specific a question you ask, the better a response I can give.  Good luck on the water.

Thanks for asking,
Chris