small pond and small lake fishing

Question
hi iam 16 i do about the same as you i have proablly been fishing for 5 years. i do alot of fishing from small ponds and lakes, but really cant decided wut to use alot of time, either plastics, spinner bait, or buzz bait. maybe u can give me a tip on what to use?
thanks

Answer
Hi Brian.  Glad to hear from you.  I'm actually 21, the website just doesn't let me update that for some reason, it's kinda strange.  Anyway onto your question.  

As a fisherman I like to cover water and build a strategy first and foremost.  I believe that most of the time, the best way to do so is by covering water quickly with lures like crankbaits and spinnerbaits until I can locate active fish.  From there I'll usually throw a series of different offerings based on where they're located, depth, clarity, cover, etc.  This is usually my plan, and I find it highly effective, especially when fishing a new body of water.  

The beauty in this is that you can key in on patterns.  For instance, you might notice tons of baitfish swimming near the surface.  This is like a dream for a good spinnerbait fisherman.  You wouldn't need to even adapt much further aside from maybe matching colors and blades to optimize on the conditions.  Similarly, if you're using a crankbait as a locator, it's a great option to run along wood and especially along the top of submerged vegetation.  I've had great days just throwing crankbaits along the tops of weeds.  You should also typically notice patterns in terms of where bass are holding and what they're striking.  If you find bass in 5-8 feet of water hanging on submerged wood and striking Christmas Cider Carolina rigged worms on one part of the lake, chances are pretty good that you'll find a similar situation at a similar spot half a mile down the shoreline.  

A lot of times it might not be as simple as this and you'll have to alter your tactics accordingly.  Often you'll find it a good idea to simply locate the bass with lures such as a crankbait or spinnerbait and then approach them at a much closer range with lures like 7" plastic worms, pig'n'jig, floating minnows, and a whole slew of other lures.  In a more extreme instance, if a cold front has just rolled through, you might as well abandon anything that requires a fast active retrieve.  Fish are going to move deeper and usually hold tight to structure and cover.  You're going to have to fish finesse.  Good options here are finesse worms, bass jigs, appropriately weighted sluggo (or similar) lures, slow rolled spinner baits and just about anything else that you fan fish effectively at slow to extremely slow speeds.  

Other lures tend to be effective at different points in the day.  You're probably not going to get many hits on that spinner bait in the hot mid afternoon sun, but throw it around 8am or 6pm along the edge of a weedbed and that's a totally different story.  Bass are cold blooded and therefor their activity level relies heavily upon the water temperature.  If the water temperature is say, 85 degrees at 3 in the afternoon, but a lot closer to 80 degrees around dawn and dusk, you can bet that the majority of fish are going to be feeding while the water is cooler, it simply taxes their bodies less.  Water is a considerably poorer conductor of heat than the air, therefor the water takes more time to both heat up, and cool.  What does this have to do with lure selection?  Have you ever noticed how much more you hear frogs croaking either int he early morning or before dusk?  Not just fish, but just about all aquatic creatures are more active.  So, if you're using lures that emulate highly active aquatic life, you should do it while the real thing are active as well.  You can throw a Skitterpop or a Zara Spook all afternoon and not get much of anything, but throw that same lure between 6pm and dusk and it'll be impossible to keep it in the water.  Topwater lures, especially, rely on extremely active aggressive fish.  They don't work well at all in the middle of the day or in a cold front, but throw them into the night after a hot summer day and it doesn't get much better.

I hope I've helped you out some.  I've been getting a lot of questions like yours as of late, and they get me excited because it shows you're looking past just throwing lures, and looking ore towards strategy.  Once you start to pick up on the strategic aspect of fishing it just gets to be really rewarding.  Anyhow, good luck and let me know how you fair.

Thanks for asking and good luck!
Chris