How do find good bass ponds to fish in?

Technology is a bass fisherman’s best friend for finding secret bass pond honey holes. Google earth is a great way to see into the woods and areas where you otherwise would have a problem exploring on foot. You will be able to see openings in the woods that you could not find without a lot of effort.

I personally like to explore the woods to find bass ponds but a computer will definitely do it more efficiently. You do not need much of a body of water for there to be a lot of decent sized bass in it. There is a pond behind my house that is only 30 feet across and a little over a 150 feet long that is absolutely full of bass up to 8 pounds. You should fish any pond that you find because you just never know what might be in it.

What are the best lures for catching bass in a pond?

To me it is hard to beat soft plastics for catching bass. The old Texas rigged worm has been catching bass for 50 years and I don’t see any reason why that lure would stop catching bass anytime soon. It really doesn’t have to be a worm. You can use a creature bait, a crawdad, a lizard or whatever soft plastic you are most comfortable with.

The great thing about fishing with soft plastics is that you only need to buy 3 different colors for every water clarity condition that you will encounter on the pond that you are fishing in. You will need a watermelon colored soft plastic for clear water conditions. The translucent properties of watermelon colored baits will get you the most bites in clean and clear water on a sunny day.

The next color that you will need is green pumpkin for fishing in stained water. The dark green and opaque nature of green pumpkin is your best bet for fishing in stained water conditions.

And last but not least you will want a very dark color like black or June bug for fishing in dirty and muddy water conditions. The opaque, dark silhouette of the lure will be easier for the bass to target in bad water conditions.

Crankbaits are just about the best search baits that there is. You can cover every depth and just about every open part of any pond that you find with a crankbait. That lure will work everywhere except for thicker cover and aquatic plant areas of a pond.

You can use spinnerbaits to fish in the cover a lot of water a little bit better. I prefer to use a spinnerbait over a crankbait for most bass ponds where I live because there are very few hard bottoms in Florida. If you have a hard bottom to bounce your crankbait off of, then they are a better choice a lot of the time.

However, in Florida the bottoms are usually covered in vegetative matter that will get your crankbait all gunked up when you bounce it on the bottom. Spinnerbaits are much more weed less than a crankbait and will be a more efficient way to cover more water.

The good news about a spinnerbait is that you only need a white one and a dark one to fish all water clarity scenarios. The white one is best for all circumstances but if you want to use a black spinnerbait at night or in super dirty water, then it can produce bass most of the time.

If the bass pond that you found is overgrown with aquatic plants, lily pads, cat tails, floating weed mats……. then frogs are going to be your best bet. I only have one baitcasting rod and reel combo for bass fishing. It is specifically optimized to fish with frogs in heavy cover.

My frog rod and reel combo is a 7 foot 2 inch heavy power, fast action rod coupled with a fast 7.1:1 reel. The reel has 18 pounds of drag to get those big bass out of the weeds. You will need a rod and reel combo similar to this one if you like fishing with frogs or jigs in very thick cover.

You need a rod that is super tough and you need a fast reel to get those bass out of the weeds very quickly so they don’t get all wrapped up in them. The line that I use is a 50 pound braid tied directly to the frog.

You only need two colors of frog to catch a ton of bass. You need one with a dark belly and a light belly. The bass only get to see the belly of the frog so the tops don’t really matter that much. A pretty painted frog back is meant to catch bass fishermen more than bass. The bass will only see the silhouette of the belly from underneath.

Jigs have probably caught more saltwater and freshwater fish than any other type of lure. They are simple, cheap and fish love to eat them. Get yourself a jig and master the various fishing techniques for using them and you will catch a ton of fish. It is really that simple.

You can fish them in open water and around any sort of structure. You really only need a dark one to fish just about any pond that there is. You can get a white one if you are only fishing in clear water but a dark one will work everywhere.

Do retention ponds have big bass in them?

Retention ponds can sometimes have some really big bass in them. The retention ponds are all over Florida because we get so much rain and the elevations for most of the state are so low. If you can’t get the water drained out into the ocean or a big lake, then everything will flood.

The bass use these flood situations to find new areas to live. They end up just about everywhere during the rainy season in Florida. You can find bass in just about any freshwater body of water in Florida unless it has just been dug. If it is an old retention pond, then it is a safe bet that there are bass in it.

Is it legal to fish in retention ponds?

You will need a freshwater fishing license to fish in retention ponds along the highways in Florida. If there are no trespassing signs you can get a ticket for fishing in them. If they are not marked a police officer or trooper will most likely ask you to leave without giving you a ticket.

The roads and highways are owned by the state of Florida or the different municipalities so you are always trespassing when you fish in those areas. Most law enforcement officers will not mess with you if you fish the retention ponds around Florida.

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