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- The Keys to Landing Big Bass in any Pond (2021)
The Keys to Landing Big Bass in any Pond (2021)
Make the most of your bass fishing trip to a pond. There are a few tips that will make all the difference for you and your bass fishing pursuits no matter what pond you choose to fish. Jacob Knight, GoWild's resident bass fishing master, shares what he looks for in the water and surrounding areas to decide what to throw, how much he moves around the pond, how fishing a pond is different from fishing a lake, the one lure he'd choose for fishing a pond in the morning, afternoon and evening, what to do if you own a pond and want to know the best ways to build habitats that will make the bass want to hangout in those areas and give smaller fish a chance to survive and grow larger, his go to spinning setup and his go to baitcasting setup for pond fishing.
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Jacob's Pond Fishing Lures & Gear
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The belly features 'chines' that make 'walking the frog' easy in open water, and it's just the right weight for pulling over slop or through the pads for big bass. |
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If there's been one lure that has changed the face of fishing over the years, it's the Senko. With its wide range of uses and subtle natural action, the Senko has quickly become a favorite with anglers all over the world. |
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Not only does the Bullet Pop’s cupped mouth deliver a classic spit and surface swell but its unique balance allows anglers of all skill levels to easily walk it with near 180 degree turns with minimal movement. |
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The Hollow Body Field Mouse is perfect for Bass and Pike stalking in heavy cover waiting to ambush their next meal. |
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Shimano Convergence Spinning Rod CVS70ML2C The Shimano Convergence Spinning Rod is a budget-friendly workhorse rod suitable for a variety of species. The Convergence rod features a high composite blank construction, plus a full cork handle with Fuji stainless with O-Ring guides and tip. |
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Smooth performance at a great value! The President® delivers features and performance that will impress over and over again with it’s 9+1 bearing system. |
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Dobyns Rods Fury Casting Rod Black Smooth performance at a great value! The President® delivers features and performance that will impress over and over again with it’s 9+1 bearing system. |
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Shimano Curado K Baitcast Reel This popular baitcaster now comes in a smaller, more palm-friendly footprint that carries the latest reel technology, with reconfigured internals that include Shimano's advanced MicroModule gearing. |
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Daiwa Tatula CT 100 Casting Reel Bringing anglers a wealth of performance and value, the Daiwa Tatula CT Casting Reel was specifically designed and manufactured to bring anglers looking for an entry level baitcaster an entirely new standard of performance and aesthetics. |
Transcription:
Brad: A philosopher once said a pebble in the pond can be a ripple for change but a dad once said son quit throwing rocks you're scaring the fish I think that dab was the one and only jacob kentucky waterfall knight jacob is back on the show today for a very special edition of gearbox talk we're getting out of the studio and into the field as the bass fishing maniac unveils just how he bags those big girls at his family pond today we're talking about what to look for in the water covering lots of water versus having focus points the biggest difference between a pond and a lake the right lures for the mornings afternoons and the evenings how to build great habitat in your pond and we're going to talk through jacob's favorite spinning and baitcasting setup this show is quite different from my normal ones let us know if you prefer the on location shoot or if you like the l studio here drop a comment right now to tell us where we should go next and who we should talk to all right let's talk some tackle this is gearbox talk with jacob kentucky waterfall knight
all right so we're at your pond today but let's say you hit a pond that you're not familiar with you know you're walking in cold you go to your buddy's house and you're looking at the water to decide where you're going to fish what are you looking for when you walk out you know what what's catching your eye what's that first spot you're going to go to
Jacob: so when I show up to a pond the first thing I'm going to look for is structure structure on the bank structure out in the middle of the water and so that could be overhanging trees it could be limbs down in the water or another thing that's really good is if there's a water feature something that's stirring up the water oxygenating the water the fish will kind of congregate in that area and so that could be a creek coming in or that could literally be just a water fountain so anytime there's some sort of structure some sign disturbance in the water that's where you want to go to first and kind of concentrate on those areas
Brad: does Brayden swimming in the pond count as a disturbance in the water
Jacob: it depends on what stroke he's done breaststroke is good his freestyle no
Brad: okay so you're looking for structure you're looking for variances in the water but like when I fish with john hunter he comes in he's you know gridding the water out and he's going real fast are you doing that on a pond as well or like or are you taking a slower approach to focus on those features that you kind of mentioned
Jacob: when I'm approaching new water what I'm going to do is fish those high probability areas a lot harder so I might be moving around the pond a lot more than I would if I know it and I know where the fish usually are and I can fish it a little bit more methodically so when I show up in new water I'm going to hit that structure hard to make sure I cover those areas really well I might fish a couple different lures in those sections but just keep popping to those high concentration areas to focus on those first
Brad: okay so we've talked about some of the similarities in approaching the lake but are there ways that you approach a pond differently than a lake
Jacob: the biggest difference is just the direction that you're going to be casting from in most instances so from a pond you're going to be casting from the bank of course so you can work angles along the bank a little bit out and kind of a fan approach but when you're in a boat on a lake you can attack it straight on and kind of cast at the bank and work yourself back to the boat and so your angle of approach is a little bit different and then of course if you have a boat and you're on a lake you can get out and access more water you can fish deeper ledges and that kind of stuff whereas a pond it's a little tougher if there is that kind of structure in the pond you're going to have to hope that you can cast to it and come back across it
Brad: with lakes too you've got more points there's more docks you can hit up so you have a lot more variance I mean a pond might have one dock but not very likely to be so big as multiple right so you're kind of going to be hitting your structure is going to be less fewer options I guess
Jacob: yeah and I think your research ahead of time too like you got to know a little bit more about the lake where you're going to put the boat in where you're going to start where you're going to go to and hit because with a pond it's very easy it's accessible for the most part but on a lake you want to make sure that you've got a period of time where you can go and focus hit that spot and then if you've got a zip across the lake to another spot you've got to factor that in
Brad: all the guys I have on gearbox talk kind of talk about variances in the day if you hit a lull what's your go-to lure from the morning to the afternoon to the evening how does that change
Jacob: so the first thing I'm going to throw in the morning especially low light even dark is going to be a top water frog I like a hollow body frog it's you know nice strong hooks it's a little tricky a lot of beginners have to make the adjustment to wait a couple of seconds before they set the hook and so it's a little tougher to figure out but that's my go-to mainly because it's very visceral there's an audio component to it you hear them come up and bust it and so it's really exciting so that's my go-to morning especially in the summertime when you're fishing the dead of the heat and the fish are starting to move out deeper water they're getting lower in the water column and they
Brad: can't wait he couldn't wait man
Jacob: anyways so in the afternoon the the one thing I'm always going to go to is a wacky rigged senko or stick bait there's a bunch of different brands out there there's a lot of different colors pretty much anything green pumpkin in a stick bait is gonna be great but you fish it really slow it kind of wobbles as it goes through the water column and so those fish are kind of suspending in deeper water it's a lot more likely that they're going to bite it they're not going to be necessarily attacking it as aggressive as they would in the in the morning time in the shallows so afternoon time for sure stick bait so in the evenings I i actually have two favorites so I really like again you're going to notice a trend here and especially in the summertime top water something up on top floating that's loud it makes the fish come up and get it and you definitely hear them coming so I like a nice pop r and a dark color because they can see it in lower light conditions in the evening they can see it a lot better so I'm definitely going to be throwing a pop r and then this this goofy thing which I can't even find anymore because I need some more this mouse by savage gear they they make a bigger rat too so that I do think that's still available but this mouse fish in the evenings around the banks and fish back out if you're in a boat in a lake fish back out from the bank or if you're at the pond kind of parallel to the bank they hate it like they're going to come up and just bust it it's a big meal so you're likely to get some bigger fish too
Brad: I guess my final question on tackle is really what is your bait casting set up and what's your spinning setup for pond fishing
Jacob: so my go-to spinning setup is one that I've actually been fishing for about 15 years or so it's a shimano convergence graphite rod it's a medium fast action and it's just a very you know you do all of spinning rods and the reel that I use is a pfluger president very smooth very low maintenance I think I've only hard cleaned this once or twice and so I fish a lot with it and haven't really had any issues
Brad: affordable too
Jacob: yeah very affordable and so the the bait casting setup that I go with is a dobbins fury rod it's a medium heavy fast action rod it kind of again I like do all tackle because I don't want to take a ton of rods with me to the pond so this thing will take senkos it'll do frogs it'll even do spinning baits if you want to it kind of covers a bunch of things and then my reel is is probably a little higher end than what most beginners are going to start with but it's a shimano corrado k and I would recommend you know if you're just getting something that you can throw in your truck or whatever to keep with you go a little less lower end on the reel but make sure you get a good smooth reel and with a decent drag now when you're fishing frogs you want to have a reel lined up with braid to be able to get that stuff out of the grass so I would definitely recommend putting braid on and then having a fluorocarbon or mono leader on your your bait casting reel
Brad: and we'll we'll put a more affordable one in the links to the show notes yep okay unlike a lake if you have a pond you can actually build some structure to build in some habitat give your smaller fish a chance to survive what are you doing with your pond to build in some of those habitat features
Jacob: yeah so there's a couple of really easy things that you can do christmas trees are great if you have live christmas trees you can pitch those in it's a gift that keeps on giving exactly but the problem with those is they don't last very long so we actually put in some more permanent features you can take a five gallon bucket halfway fill it with concrete stick some pvc pipes we actually cut up sections of garden hose to have them coming out too so just imagine like a plastic bush and so we take those out we drop them probably about 20 yards or so off the bank let those go down to the bottom and the bluegill will actually use that as structure if the bluegill population is good and healthy it usually means your bass population is going to be good and healthy so that's something very easy that you can do I think we probably spent maybe a hundred dollars for the whole thing the other stuff is that you can look at what structures around the bank of the pond if there's a big tree and it's in your dam you don't necessarily want to do this but if there's a spot where you've got a tree you can just cut it hinge cut it lay it over into the pond that creates a bunch of structure for the fish to get up in and hide and so you can kind of look at the bank and assess that kind of stuff but again you just don't want to kill a tree that's big and in your dam because it'll it'll die and cause a leak but a lot of that stuff that's around the bank you just get it out into the water
Brad: all right if you like this video with me in the kentucky waterfall please like it please subscribe it we are doing this stuff every week it's sometimes in the studio we're trying to do more stuff in the field like this though jacob's giving great tips on fishing he's coaching me through how to ask great questions on fishing I'm learning a ton I hope you guys are learning a ton if you heard about or saw some gear that you want it's in the show notes my team goes through they comb through all the gear they find the gear that's mentioned and like like jacob mentioned that one reel was a little bit expensive maybe for a beginner setup we're gonna give you guys some other options we'll even pull in some options from some other shows we're gonna link to other fishing shows so if you're really trying to dig in and learn how to bass fish we're going to put some awesome content from john hunter dean rojas steven taylor check all those out in the show notes please again make sure you subscribe so you don't miss a show we're releasing weekly every week on wednesdays all right that's it for us we're out
Jacob: I just swatted a fly