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.