Yep, you were right. Only thing I caught was a bunch of gnats in my mouth from all the lights on the pier. Thinking about going to Echo Lake or Greenbriar in FW, need a back to basics approach and a pond seems like a decent place to start all over.

Catfish are easy, get some chicken (cause blue cats will bite chicken but usually nothing else other than some kind of fish) and go to a bank that is either a windblown point or has a steep bank and throw out trying different depths. If you don't get a bite in 20 minutes recast to a different spot or move. You will find a good spot. On a creek or river just find a current break or shallow spots where it dumps into a hole. You can go fish even small creeks and catch 1-2 catfish in the small holes below running water.

Bass just start with the smaller ponds, if it's small you know you will have a lure in front of a fish at some point, large pond you might not have fished in the right area... Weightless stickbait is by far the easiest bait, also try a plastic swimbait or spinnerbait. Use smaller baits for the ponds and use colors that look similar to sunfish. Don't throw a white spinnerbait in a 1/2 acre pond with only bluegill and minnows. Yes it can catch fish but you will catch 5x more throwing a lure that looks like what they feed on daily.

Eric

I'll try that!! I went out to a pond on Friday morning and caught a ton of bluegill just with a tiny hook on pieces of a hotdog. Going to go back tomorrow and try to catch one of them to use for catfish bait. There's a ton of weeds on the bottom of the pond so I wasn't sure what kind of rig to use.

Went out this morning and caught my biggest bass ever! I used live bluegill on a circle hook, under a bobber. I had so much fun, I've had real bad luck for the past couple months, but it looks like I'm out of my rut. Still couldn't figure out how to get a good rig for the pond, with all the weeds and such. Tried for catfish for a long while. This forum has been really helpful to me and I appreciate y'all so much.
Caught it at Colleyville City Park.

Way to go! If you want to try any lures just go for colors that are the same as bluegill. Light browns/yellows/greens/blues/purples...(mix of them).

If you throw something like a jig or tx rig around on the bottom and can find where the grass line is (where the grass stops) that is the perfect spot for catfish bait on the bottom, or bass lures on that edge. It's an ambush spot and also a natural travel path for fish to move back and forth on.

Eric.

Trust me on this. One word here...

"Flats, Flats, Flats"

This is great advice! Thank y'all. How do I find where the flats are in a pond? Whenever I throw anything in this specific pond, my lure collects about a fistful of grass on it. I've been limited to bobbers to get around this. Now in other places I've fished, usually don't have this issue. So is there another approach I should try in addition to what I've been doing? Just trying to learn as much as I can.

Bass and crappie are sunfish

Fish from the bank on any lake at the public boat ramps
Light line and small shad pattern lures
Fish the rocks on the sides and the drop off on the ramp, and any rocks or riprap nearby
Lake ray Hubbard for example the east ramp and area off 130 in the middle of the lake has tons of small bass

If you are after catfish, try throwing some range cubes out.

The trout stocking starts next month. I am posting a series of videos on how to catch them. This is mostly for complete newbies but if you do it right, we caught 64 on our best day (4 people) and kept 20 12-14” fish.

This is the second video which has a link to the first. Try to mirror what I recommend and you will catch them!

https://youtu.be/sLGtSPdUIRQ

Greenbriar is usually good after a stocking.