Pond Fishing for Bass.

Question
Chris, I do a lot of bass fishing in private ponds and old coal mine strip pits. Mostly I use shiners for live bait of which has produced my best results. Most of the ponds I fish have a very dense moss covered bottom and or are very deep in some spots. At night time I have found a black buzzbait to produce very well also in farm ponds.
I for the most part catch what I consider to be average sized largemouth, 12 to 16 inches. I'm looking to increase my understanding of technic in finding and catching the bigger ones and how best to increase my chances. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks alot, Dan in southeast Ohio

Answer
I'm glad to see that you're enthusiastic about fishing and that you're all about progressing as a fisherman.  Learning to adapt your game to catch larger fish isn't all that difficult once you learn to locate them and the corresponding techniques.  

Larger bass are going to be found with the greatest consistency in areas that provide excellent ambush points.  They love areas with corresponding structure, cover, and deep water access.  In the farm ponds, find the creek channel and focus on areas in the immediate vicinity of it that might have fallen timber, stumps, or noticable vegetation.  In the strip pits, pay real close attention to changes in depth.  The sides of the pits are typically steep, with any variations possibly being enough to attract fish on it's own.  Any vegetation or windfall at all would be a tremendous plus.  

Adequately adapting your fishing techniques is the other major step in catching large bass with high consistency.  When you're fishing for the big ones, I've noticed certain techniques seem to work better than others.  Carolina rigging a plastic worm (if you're fishing for fish over 20in, the 10in worm is a pretty good idea, but you're not going to be catching many of the smaller fish) and learning to master the pig and jig.  If you're having a hard time enticing them with either the plastic worm or jig, you have a wealth of other alternatives.  A tremendous part of fishing is combining knowledge with creativity.  If the creek channel runs along or through topwater vegetation and fish seem to be active, cast a weedless spoon with a plastic or pig trailer on top of it and slowly drag and skip it across the pads, hydrilla, or duckweed.  If the fish seem sluggish and are proving a challenge to catch, try working a sluggo at various depths (light carolina rigging is necessary to get it more than about a foot below the surgace, but keep it light otherwise it destroys the lure's natural action).  

Most importantly, try things on your own.  I can only give you ideas and suggestions, you have to build confidence in them on your own and adapt them to your fishing style.  Learn to be creative with what you know and how to adapt it to a big fish oriented game.  Lean to pay attention to color, water temperature, etc.  If you like, I can answer any questions you might have in regard to either of those topics.  Just get out on the water and try things as much as you can, and when you're stuck, either ask some one on here or somebody at the local sporting goods store for help.  Thanks for asking and feel free to ask any time.

good luck!
Chris