Small Lake Baits

[mbhutton]

Okay. So my background in fishing is big lakes and main river systems. I am going the small lake fishing for the next little bit, bass and crappie mainly. What are some good small lake baits. I tried some things today but with little success. Do you use the same sorta thing but just scale it down a lot or are there other baits out there that are better suited for the application.

[m.t.hands]

i like tubes and trick worms, light weight and small line....downsized, but i'll still throw a jig or spinner-bait around every stitch of cover, you know

besides, you can still put in at waterloo( last year the grass was unbelievable), or somewhere close to panther creek, the trace,, and be on good fish in a minute, just watch the weather and the big water, especially if there pulling water

[Gangly]

what do you consider a small pond? 1/2 acre, 1/4 acre, 10 acres? I've found that the smaller the pond, generally the smaller the bait I do good with. On smaller farm ponds (1/2 acre), the forage is generally much more scarce, especially if there are a few big fish in there.

With that in mind, most creatures are eaten before they get to any real substantial size and so the forage base is generally smaller. Also, I have found that bass will hit just about anything in a smaller pond if they aren't fished for very often. Any worm of any size smaller than 7-7.5 inches, single tail grubs, smaller profile crawfish, and the king of all for me on small ponds is a Rebel Minnow in model F4901. It catches EVERYTHING, just dont expect any bass bigger than 12 inches on it. I mean, its possible to pull one bigger with it, but not likely, I mostly pull in crappie and perch with it.

[Chuck7]

Back in the day...20 years ago my favorite pond baits were

Rapalas or Rebel Minnow 2 inch models
Mepps Comet
Lazy Ike 2 inch model..green with scales
6 inch rubber worm Texas Rig.

[flhunter91]

Quiet baits are needed. Pond bass spook easily. Work small spinner-baits parallel to the shoreline. That is where pond fish relate. Small natural color worms work well. For top-water a baby spook or small top-water frog will do it. Remember when approaching the shoreline stay quiet and watch your shadow.

[fishinty]

zoom watermelon trick worm weightless always works for mr.