After my last outing for bass (Backwoods Bassin’), I was searching for a quality fish to make up for all the little ones. Being that I had a few hours before I had to go to work, my buddy and I went out looking.
We were on the water shortly after 6 am in the pouring rain. Knowing that it was going to clear up early and warm up fast, we figured we would dry off quickly so the rain didn’t matter too much. The pond was new to both of us but we had a depth chart on my phone through Navionics Mobile. Because the pond was small we decided it was best to start fishing right off until we could piece together a pattern that would best keep us on the fish.
From what we’ve heard and found, the pond is featureless with an abundance of chara. We began by casting to weedbeds composed mainly of lily pads and two pondweed varieties. We fished these areas with flipping jigs and senkos. The jigs were dragged through the weeds on the bottom while the senkos were fished fast on the surface. The production in these areas proved to be decent but we caught mostly small bass and various sized pickerel. With clear water, we could see an abundance of perch and pumpkinseed as well.
The next pattern we began working on was a deep water one. We started by pitching dark colored senkos into deeper water up to 25 feet. After finding more quality fish, we sped up our presentation by tossing crank baits. Our catch rates went up significantly after this move. Using Navionics and a depth finder, we did our best to stay on the 25 foot while casting towards shallow water. As the bait went through the 15-20′ zone, we got most of our hook ups.
Once again, a quality fish was not brought into the boat… The majority of the fish caught were between 1-2 pounds with only a few breaking the two pound mark. At least we didn’t get skunked!
Here’s a few pictures from the trip.
D & B Ice Adventures 
Could you explain a little about ‘fishing Senkos fast…’ , I always just let them drift down slow and retrieve slowly, lift-n-fall, lift-n-fall , etc
gofish
I fish it like I would fish a top water lure; Popping and moving along quickly. When its moved on top of weed mats you don’t get hunt up as long as you are weedless and you get fast strikes. Many times you can see the fish following the bait before it hits. I’ll see if i can get a video this week sometime for you.