I spent a lot of time at the local ponds when I was a kid and when the water got really cold the bass action would really shut down. On a lot of ponds you don’t have bait fish like shad. You usually have either bluegill or crayfish. I have never had much luck on suspending jerkbaits while fishing ponds and a lot of times the jig bite just isn’t there for whatever reason.
After much experimentation I found that a weightless senko was one of the hottest baits that you could throw on these small bodies of water. The key to fishing these baits was to rig them wacky style with an octopus hook.
I would put a small split shot just up the line about 12 inches or so from the bait to help get it down towards the bottom where the fish were.
The technique was giving the bait a couple of twitches and then letting it sit for 20 or 30 seconds. I could catch the bass on this technique in clear and dirty water ponds. It didn’t seem to matter. I had the best results fishing the set up on 10lb test line.
I probably caught more cold water bass from the neighborhood ponds on that technique in the winter than anything else. The technique is so productive because the bait has a great action on the fall, it sinks so slow, and it looks easy for the bass to catch.
For colors I kept it pretty simple. Usually I tossed a watermelon or a green pumpkin senko. Once and a while I had some success on black and blue fleck in the dirty ponds.
Key things to look for are rocks and lay downs close to deeper water. If the sun was shining on them all the better.
If you decide to give some of the small lakes a shot at ice out be sure to pick up a wacky rigged senko.You won’t be disappointed.
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