Bass Ponds

[jimk]

Hello, I am new to the forum and have a few questions regarding bass ponds. I recently moved to Rancho Murrieta and Have several bass ponds to fish. I have a large one right out on my back property and have four others, that to my knowledge, very few people fish. I have been told that there are very large fish in the ponds but as yet, have not talked with anyone who has fished them. Does anyone have any experience here? If so, what flies, lines and rods have you used??

Thanks again

[lee s.]

jimk,
We use anything from a 3wt to a 10wt, depending on what is in the trunk of the car.
Bass are generally pretty danged opportunistic and our choice is to mostly only ply them with top-water stuff......mostly. They will take underwater stuff from #16 chironimides to 8" rabbit strip "worms".
Most important for us, even more than what you toss or what you toss it with, is to fish the EDGES and DON'T spook your fish.....walk softly.
You are in for a treat, for sure.
....lee s.

[David Lee]

JimK -

I'd be happy to come an' visit in .... say , mid-April . You know ..... to , uhhhh ...... show you how it's done .

David

P.S. - Welcome to the board !!

[jimk]

Thank you lee and David for your responces. Today I took my lab and we hiked three of the ponds today. They all look very fishy. There were a couple of pontoon boats out there today and saw couple of fish landed.
I came across a young lad who was raised there and talked with him for a while. He was using nightcrawlers under a bobber. He stated that he regularly catches 7-10 lb bass every outting. Of course, this raised an eyebrow. Within a couple of minutes his bobber started racing about and he landed an honest to goodness ten pounder+. It was longer than my elbow to finger tips. So, I am heading to the tying bench and see what I can produce. Tomorrow I am taking the pontoon boat out and see what I can stir up. Also, some one I met today said that in deep summer, they catch large carp on dries. should be interesting.
If either of you would like to go I can leave your name at the front gate as a guest.

Regards,

Jim

[David Lee]

Very kind offer , Jim !!

Try a large Bugger in Olive or Black , fish it SLOW

David

[Hairstacker]

Hey Jim, welcome aboard!

I would tie up a 3 1/2" chartreuse/white Clouser on a size 1/0 Eagle Claw 413 hook with small dumbbell eyes so it sinks slowly. Tie the bucktail relatively sparsely and include 4 strands of silver Krystal Flash and 20 strands of pearl Flashabou between the two colors of bucktail and let these flash materials extend just past the tips of the bucktail.

Toss it out to the type of water the kid was fishing with the bobber, let it sink to the level he was fishing, give it two or three 6 - 8" strips, then give it a 4 - 5 second pause. Repeat the stripping/pausing sequence and especially watch for them to hit it on the pause.

Good luck and don't forget the camera!