I like to use a black frog on small ponds. Ponds fish different than lakes for sure

My sister has a 5 acre pond on her place that has a lot of bass. I go there once or twice a year to remind myself what a great bass fisherman I am!

If there is no vegetation they will relate to any sort of sudden bottom contour change. Bill Norman Tiny N in any sort of shad pattern on an ultra light rig will wear them out..........I had several of them in my high school days that had no paint left on them........

Think of the pond as a huge kitchen bowl. They aren't going to be on the rim, or up shallow, unless it's early in the morning or the evening, when they are chasing baitfish up there. I have the most success fishing out about 20 yards, where the bottom slopes down in about 4-6 feet of water with crankbaits and natural colored senkos. Also, downsizing your bait will result in more fish.

Dang...Texas Parks and Wildlife must have gotten to it. The way to know for sure is to look around and see if you can find a tiny fenced in area with a couple of sprigs on plants growing inside it. But relax, by the time your kids are grown that stuff may have grown and spread enough to hold a fish or two.

Sorry for the derail, but I couldn't help it...

Honestly, just use anything to cover water and find any sort of structure. you never know what's below the surface!

waterdogs

Small ponds like that get a quick dose of a rattle trap. Once I get an idea of where they are I can try other techniques.

What makes you think that? If you enjoy fishing top water, fish it. Whatever you will fish hard with, go nuts. A bass will come up from pretty deep to hit a spook, popper, buzzbait etc.

I wouldn't hesitate to cover water with a topwater in anything less than 15ft at all, beyond that I definitely wouldn't rely on it to search with, I'd be running a lipless crank bait or (my preferred) a swimjig 2-3ft below the surface first fan cast, then run deeper accordingly depending on what you find.

realistically though, me being me, I'd hit the place with a 4" swimbait in firetiger and cruiser my way all over the bottom of the pond to see what I can snag, then come back and cast a dropshot rigged fluke with a 12-18" line to the weight, and see where the bass hit form there to determine a pattern to fish... but I'm a weird guy by most conventional standard when it comes to exploring new waters I think...

which sums it up best, go with what you feel. You'll fish and produce best how YOU enjoy fishing.

I also recommend the "Ponds, Tanks, and Private waters" subforum, as well as the kayak and tubing sections. The tubing section is also home to all the bass buster boats and other small solo/2man craft as well. Tons of good info around there for finding and fishing skinny waters.

I think this is way overthought. It's a pond. You can literally throw whatever you want I'm sure and catch fish.

Which makes it different to a lake how?

Really? A small water filled hole with no structure or cover vs a lake? Geeze I don't know...

You know what? Instead of making a never ending list of the extreme differences. I'm just walking away. I have no interest in gettin in a pissing match with someone like you over the Internet. Congratulations you're right they're absolutely no differences in the two.

Wow, someone like me? You don't even know me. You need to calm down and quit throwing a temper tantrum on the internet, I assume you're a grown man, act like one.

What I quoted, was "you can throw whatever you want and catch fish" and jested 'how is that different than a lake'.... on any given day there are endless ways many different fishermen will catch fish anywhere. It seemed rude and impersonal for you to come in and respond to his question that everyone is wasting time discussing this topic... guess what, you can skip right over it if you don't want to comment or answer the guy. No reason at all to come in here and have a hissy fit.

I'm sorry not everyone catches their fish at large reservoirs and this clearly upsets you. Guess this is why there is a separate ponds subforum... sorry to have disturbed the serious anglers