 Yo, what's up, people? Welcome back to another video. Today, we're running a tip video. You guys love the tip videos. Today, we're gonna be making it happen. We're gonna be talking about how to catch more bass and small ponds. I've had a bunch of you guys comment that down below. Today's episode, we're gonna cover it. If you have any more tip video suggestions, drop a comment down below. Be sure to hit that subscribe button if you guys are new to the channel. Also hit the little notification bell and the like button if you guys have been liking the videos. Before we even hop into it, we got the big bass energy hats, guys. We got this one right here. This is the original. We've almost sold out, guys. We got a few left. We actually just got a couple more in stock. These are the original big bass energy hats. Thank you guys so much for everyone that's purchased one. It really means the world to me. It's awesome to see people walking around, repping them. And you guys are gonna be one of the first repping the first gen big bass energy hat. And also, we have the Neon Cryptics series that's gonna be coming out very soon. It could be on the website right now. So if you guys wanna go check it out, go click the link down below. You can either do it right now or wait till the video's over and go check out, see if the new cryptic Neon series big bass energy hats are available. And you can also check the whole big bass energy collection out, you know. We got sweatshirts, we got t-shirts, we got hats, we got everything, guys. We're gonna have a lot of stuff coming out very soon. I'm so excited for it. It's just awesome to see the supporters repping the brand big bass energy out there. So, as you guys saw by the title, we're gonna be talking about small ponds today. This pond right here, me and my granddad, when I was very young, this is actually probably where I caught my first bass ever was out on this pond. And me and my granddad used to catch a bunch of big fish out here and we're gonna be talking about it today. So let's go ahead and walk over here and take a look at the pond. As you guys can tell, it's not big at all. I mean, it's just a big old bowl. It's just a big circle. There's not much out there. It's pretty flat. It's got a little drop off in the middle. Got a little tree over there. Got some shade over here in this corner and it's got some natural water flow that comes in from a creek in that corner. There used to be some massive fish in here and I know there's still some big ones because last year I caught a few really good fish. The year before, or maybe like three years ago, I caught like a five, six pounder. I know they're in here guys. Me and my granddad caught some eight and nine pounders in here and it's just cool to come back to this place and kind of revisit it and do some fishing today. So we're pretty much gonna start off this video by talking about where are these fish positioned in these small ponds? What you should look for? What you should be targeting? What you should be throwing at? And we're also gonna be talking about a few baits today. I actually went to Walmart. I'm very low on my six cents stock right now but I went to Walmart, picked up a few things. I'm gonna be talking about the baits, talking about different ways to work them, talking about where to throw the baits, pretty much bass behavior and where the fish are gonna go in small condensed areas like this. So this is gonna be a very informative video. I think you guys are gonna learn a lot from it. If not, you can at least, that's the thing about fishing guys. You can learn from anybody. There's so much stuff to fishing and there's no rules to fishing. Everybody does stuff differently. So it's gonna be a good one. Let's go ahead and hop into it. I think before I even talk about the layout of the pond and where these fish are gonna be positioned, we're gonna talk about a few of the baits that I brought out today, why I brought them out and then we're gonna dive into where we should be casting those baits and then we're gonna dive into how I'm working those baits. So let's go ahead and hop into it. All right, so as I said, I went by Walmart. What's the fishing video without Walmart, you know? And we got a few things in here today and I'm gonna talk about it. So let's go ahead and look at what exactly did we buy? Let's go ahead. We're just gonna lay them out right here. So these are some black and blue sankos right here, as you guys can tell. It's got a blue little tail on it right there. And I usually use the Clout by Six Sins. That's one of my favorite soft plastics, but I'm currently out of it. So I had to go to Walmart and scoop some. We got some basic EWG hooks, nothing to them. Those are four EWGs. You guys didn't know what EWG stands for? Extra wide gap. And I also get some tungsten weights. I didn't even know this was a thing. I did not know that Walmart sold tungsten weights. So that was pretty cool. These are actually 316 sounds. You guys don't know the difference between lead and tungsten. One thing, tungsten is gonna be a lot more expensive compared to a lead weight. You can have a 316 sounds lead weight. And if you lay it next to a tungsten, the tungsten is gonna be half the size. If that, it's a lot heavier weight. And then the last whole thing that we got, these are actually the Rage Ned Cutterworms. I've never seen these before. So I'm at Walmart and I was like, you know what, this is a good little talking point today. And we're gonna be trying those out. And then I have one more bait actually on my rod and it is a basic fluke. And this fluke is actually weighted, which will probably take that weighted hook off. But this is another bait that we're gonna be talking about today. All these baits right here, you're gonna be able to catch fish on your rounds. I know you guys are probably watching this all year round, so I didn't really wanna focus this video just on the fall. But we're gonna be talking about that as well today. You guys didn't know in the fall time, the fish are feeding up, they're getting fat, they're chasing bait fish up shallow. And one of my favorite baits in the fall has to be a fluke. So we had to whip that out today. As far as the Senko goes, the Nedrick, other soft plastics, those baits are gonna be good year round. I don't care what time you're fishing, they're gonna eat that. Anything slow moving like that, you can throw a year round, guys. January through December, fish are gonna eat it. And by the way, if you guys were wondering what combo I have, this is my pro TI. I actually have 17 pound fluorocarbon. If I was most of you guys would probably stick to 15 pounds. And I have this paired up on my mock crush rod. Not the prettiest combo in the world, but guess what guys, I came out of town, this is what I had. And I've been using this one for a while. This rod with this reel actually pairs up pretty good. And I've been a big fan of it. So let's go ahead and walk around this pond for a second and talk about where we're gonna be fishing today. When you're coming to these small ponds, the biggest thing that you're thinking about is like, man, I'm just gonna cover the whole pond. I'm just gonna cast everywhere and that's completely fine. That is perfectly fine. But one thing to think about, you're gonna get a lot more bites if you fish the right stuff. And what I mean by that, let's go ahead and look at this pond and see how it lays out. We got this corner over here. And one thing I'm gonna pay attention to, we just walked out through this pond. Beautiful little area, nothing big. And the first thing that I noticed, there's a bunch of sun beating down on that bank. And this whole side of the pond right here is all in the shade. That's something to pay attention to. If you guys are watching this video in the summer, especially, this is gonna be a prime spot. As bass are gonna be getting out of that sun, they're gonna be getting in this shade, getting under that cover, doing whatever it takes to get out of that hot weather. Like I said, I'm not gonna be focusing this video just on fall fishing. We're gonna be talking about year-round pond fishing. So if we walk over here a little bit more, I'm gonna hope to not find any snakes. That's the last thing I know it wants to do right now. I'm not a big fan of snakes, by the way. I'm not, I don't like snakes. And we're probably just gonna walk about this far. Actually, we gotta walk a little bit more for me to show you what I'm wanting to show you. Another thing that I'm gonna look at when I come to ponds is very important. When you got these small areas, you gotta think. There's either gonna be a ton of fish in these ponds or it's gonna be a little bit pressure. There's not gonna be a ton of bass. And this one in particular, years ago, there used to be a ton of fish. Now there's not many. So the things I'm gonna pay attention to right now is the cover in the water. And Noah, what do you exactly mean by that? If you look right across the pond over here, I'm sure you guys can see it. There is a big lay down lane in the water right there. That is a perfect spot for bass to tuck up under and position themselves on. If you know one thing about largemouth bass, they love wood. If I can say anything about spotted bass, they love rock. So that's something to think about. When you're going pond fishing, 99% of the ponds are largemouth bass. So if you see cover like that, you see wood, you need to be fishing that. That's where these bass are gonna be pushed up on. Another topic to talk about. Right here, like I said at the beginning, there's a little creek that floods in here. You got moving water, you got natural water coming into this pond. This is a great little area for bass to stage up around. They can push up shallow. They can feed up on some bait fish. They can pull off. They can get under that cover. They can also be protected in this shade over here. This is a little hotspot over here at this pond. Some other little spots to pay attention to. You know, we talked about cover. We talked about lay downs in the ponds. But let's say there's a dock. You know, there's a dock in this pond. You know, that can be a great, whoa, camera, what you doing? That can be a great little area for those bass to hang under, to hang around. Can be awesome to skip a little worm up under there. Can be awesome to skip a jig. There can also be some rock piles, guys. And I'm not just talking about rock that's along the bank or riprap that's along the bank, but there could be some boulders out there in the middle. There could be some good looking structure on the bottom. And that's something to pay attention to. And a lot of people ask me, Noah, how do you know if there's drop offs in a pond? Noah, how do you know if there's brush piles in a pond that you visually can't see with your eye? It's all gonna be with that casting. It's all gonna be with that covering water, feeling what's on the bottom, counting your bait down. That's one of the biggest things. When you have a drop off in a pond and I'm trying to figure out the depth, I'm gonna throw my bait out there and I'm gonna count down how long it takes for my bait to hit the bottom then I can judge what the depth is. So, you know, if I throw 10 foot off the bank and it's flat as can be, you know, my bait's not sinking, but I whip my bait out 20 foot off the bank and it starts to drop off. That's gonna tell me between that 10 foot off the bank and 20 foot is where the bank goes like this and drops off and those drop offs are very important because those bass are gonna sit up on that drop off for many of reasons. Those bass can easily position themselves on that drop off. The flat is on the bank, right? Those bass can come off the drop off and come feed baitfish, feed on baitfish and what they'll do is they'll ambush the bait and why do they wanna ambush the bait up on the bank and on that flat? Let me show you. So say we have a drop off out there. There's bass sitting on that drop off. These bass are hungry. They want some food, right? They're gonna come up that drop off. They're gonna push up right here on this flat. We're a bunch of these brim, a bunch of these baitfish are at and they're going to pin the bait along the bank and why do the bass do that? If they're trying to chase baitfish out here in the middle, they can be running around. The baitfish can go anywhere and it's gonna be a lot harder for those bass to eat the bait. When the bait's up here and the bass ambush from this side, these baitfish are trapped. There's only one direction that they can go is either down the bank or they can go towards the bass which is gonna result in the baitfish being eaten. So it's very simple guys. These bass are gonna come up, they're gonna feed, they're gonna have this ambush point and these baitfish can't go anywhere. I've seen it on many of different locations not just in ponds, not just in lakes, everywhere rivers where bass are over here hitting baitfish up on the bank is because they can't go anywhere. I literally see baitfish as I'm talking right here. So offshore structure is very important and another reason why the offshore stuff is gonna be even more important to you guys than anything is because if you're going to a pressured area, just about everybody is going to throw at the laydowns on the bank. They're gonna throw at the dock that's sitting on the pond. They're gonna throw at that rip rat bank that's hanging on the edge. But one thing, when you have 10 people all 10 of them can see those laydowns, right? But only two of them know that there's a brush pile in the middle of that pond. So that's why it's very important especially in pressured areas because those fish have only seen two baits in the last week rather than 10. So it's very important guys, that's why it's great to be versatile and know different things about where these fish are gonna be sitting in these ponds. And drop offs are very important. Fishing out in the middle is very important. A lot of these ponds are going to be flat and it's gonna be easier just to chuck a lipless crank bait or something moving and cover a lot of water. But if you know exactly where those bass are gonna position, that's when you're gonna catch more fish. All right, without further ado, we're gonna hop into this. We're about to start doing some fishing. I'm gonna talk to you guys about how I work the baits personally, what I like, and we're gonna see if we can catch some fish today. I'm actually gonna start off with this fluke right here. This is actually a blue glimmer fluke. It's not a basic pearl white. This is actually gonna be great in the sun. It's gonna reflect off this bait. It's gonna put off that glow. On more of cloudy conditions, I like using a regular pearl white fluke. But in today, we're gonna be using this one right here. We're gonna go ahead and go cover some water along this bank edge over here and see if we can get some of these aggressive bass that are feeding up on these bait fish right now during the fall. And then we're gonna come back and we're gonna tie on that sank over maybe that Ned rig. Slow down. So pay attention to what I'm doing. I'm starting off with a moving bait, right? And this is almost a hybrid. You can work this very slow or you can work it very fast. I'm starting off with something I can cover water with. And then if they're not eating this, I'm gonna go to a bait that I'm soaking on the bottom. That's something to pay attention to. All right guys, it is time to get it started. So I'm looking at the pond right here and I noticed something. I see some cover about 10 foot off the bank. There was an old dock that was actually here. Now there's just two little wood pilings, two little wood pillars. And that's something that a basket took up under on. There's also a little bit of grass up on it. So it's gonna be something I'm gonna throw out. I'm gonna check that fluke out here. Like I said, I got a weighted hook on this, which I wish I didn't. And these, oh, no way. No way. He just hit me. There's, there's no way I was. Oh, okay. That was a one I didn't expect to catch a fish from my first cast. I just didn't. Sometimes that's good luck. Sometimes that's bad luck. And that's not really this. Oh my gosh, I about put the camera lady in the face. That is one of the smallest bass that I could possibly catch. He is not much bigger than that fluke right there. I'm gonna tell you, a five pound bass would probably try to eat this little guy. That is crazy. That's very weird. I actually had one about a pound and a half about to eat it. And this little guy just decided to come up. He was hungry. Guess what? One thing I always say, it doesn't matter the first fish of the day. It doesn't matter the size. Just get the monkey off your back and you can go catch some more and get her back in the water. I threw that fish almost over the fence too. That was, I almost didn't even think I had a fish on. I just lifted up and the fish was already 15 foot behind me. Well, that is interesting guys. I didn't, didn't expect that. But that does tell us one thing. You know, those fish, there's a multiple fish. There's more than just one. I'm telling you, there's one about a pound and a half that almost ate me. That was actually right on that cover right there. So something to pay attention to. You know, there's not a ton of cover into this pond. But what I'm gonna say is that sometimes a better thing. You know, it's sometimes better to have five laydowns than 50 laydowns because this fish are gonna be more condensed on the laydowns that are provided to them. So we're gonna make a few casts right here. We're gonna work down this bank. We got some of that sun glimmering on that bank. We're gonna see if we have any of these fall aggressive bass that are ready to feed up on some bait fish. There's also some rock right here that we're gonna be casting around. I'm just hoping we get a big one today, guys. I'm really hoping that was not the size fish that we wanted, but oh my gosh, right there, there's a fish that just ate a piece of bait up shallow. That thing was lightening fast. He's actually up in this grass. Where did he go? He's sitting up here somewhere unless he skirted out. I just randomly saw, he wasn't even a big bass. He was a little bit smaller than that last one, but he chased a little tiny bluegill right up in this grass. Exactly what I was talking about. Yeah, you can see a little bait fish. There, but let's keep fishing. Notice what I'm doing right here, guys. I'm throwing parallel to this bank. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take this moving bait. I'm gonna take this fluke. I'm gonna walk down this bank. I'm gonna throw a parallel. I'm gonna cover the edge of the bank. Once I'm done covering that edge of the bank, I'm gonna walk back to myself and I'm gonna start casting in the middle of the pond. So I'm covering, not only on the bank, I'm covering offshore on that little drop-off that I was talking about. And that's when you're really gonna learn what the fish are doing that day. You know, you might only catch one fish along the bank and all of a sudden you start fishing off on that drop-off and you catch about six. Then you're gonna be like, you know what, these fish are on the drop-offs today and that's what they want. And then that's when you double down and you really start catching a lot more fish. There he is. Oh, he came off. Right here, guys. You got the sunny bank that we just fished down. We didn't have any bites. We get to this corner of the pond. This bank right here has this little bush that's casting a shadow on the water. That's exactly where that fish was. He's right there in that shade. All right, we just went around the pond with this moving bait. I'm gonna cut it off. Just had that one fish on the first can. Hope we're not having some bad luck creeping up on us, guys. Had a couple more bites just from really small ones. And I haven't been here in a while. So now we're gonna slow down and we're gonna put a slow-moving bait on it. I'm actually gonna put this moo rig, the Ned rig on. See if they're gonna bite it. Something a little bit slower, something that subtle. See if these fish want it. And I'm also gonna go fish over by that tree. I'm tying a basic uni knot. If you guys wanna see the video on how to tie that, just go on YouTube typing, kicking their bass. Best fishing knot in the video would pop up. It's my favorite knot of all time. I know you guys probably heard me say that a hundred times. And this actually has a little tiny tail on it. I like that. I wanna see if these bass want that right now. Here we go, guys. Walking on the other side. That was a frog, freaked me out. It was a nasty spider, holy cow. Look at that. I don't know if you guys can see that thing. We talked about fishing all this cover and the big tree is definitely the biggest piece of cover in this pond. We're about to start casting all around it. There's gotta be fish on it. This net rig has an exposed hook, so I'm praying I... Oh my God, look at that, look at that. Fish just blew up right there. Please eat it. No! Why not hook set like that on a net rig? That was him. Although he literally just blew up. I threw in there and he ate it. Now I hook a tree. Oh my gosh, guys. There he is. Little tiny guy. This is kinda starting to worry me, guys. I know there's big fish. You guys should have saw the size of fish. I mean, my granddad used to catch out of here, but this pond hasn't been stocked or really well maintained in years. But I know there's some bigger ones than that. There's gotta be some bigger ones in these fish that I just caught. Man, let's keep on casting. He's right there on that lay down, though. That just shows. Who cares about the size of them right now? Let's just pay attention to where these fish are sitting. That first fish over there on those two wood little pillars, this one, on this big lay down. So I'm gonna pay attention to. Little bass. And I promise you, there's more than just that fish on there. So we're gonna make multiple casts really hone in there. That's another thing to think about. When you catch one fish in the area, bass don't just sit alone. There's multiple fish there. So keep on casting around it. Let's see if there's one on the end of this tree right here. There he is. Oh, he spit it. Oh, came off. He's so small, guys, all these fish. I hope these fish in this pond didn't get really small. They're loaded on this lay down, though. That's one thing I will say. There's another one. Just spit it out. I always got it again. They're so small. Like so small, that kind of worries me. Come on, fish. Chasing bait right there. Literally. There he is. Another tiny guy. I'm really starting to get worried, guys. And I know it's not me. These fish are just, every year, it seems like they get smaller and smaller, but there's got to be bigger ones in this one here. I'm not buying it. I'm just not buying it. Either way, I'm having fun, man. Throwing a little tiny finesse rig. I know I'm throwing it on a baitcaster. Should be throwing it on a spinner rod, but it's crazy, man. Oh, man, that's the worry in me. Just about everybody I've had today had been like that. I don't know what to tell you about those fish not biting. That is so weird, or not the fish not biting, but the smaller fish like that. And that kind of scares me. Come put some baitfish in here and feed them. But with that being said, I don't know if we're gonna catch another fish bigger than those in here. We're gonna have to come back a different day with different baits and see if we can catch some bigger ones. But what I am gonna do is I'm gonna show you a bunch of catches from the last year or two that I caught out here, because I know last year I caught a couple really good solid fish. Year before, I caught a couple really solid fish. And I wanna put those catches in here, so I'm gonna load those up. But I hope you guys enjoyed this video so far. Now, let's go on to the catches. I'm a big fan of using that as a, you know, moving bait and a slow moving bait. At the same time. Oh yeah. Oh my gosh, this is such a huge one. I saw him come right off. Put him right up on the bank. There we go, baby. He ain't a monster monster, but he's a good quality fish. Oh man, what a beautiful one right there. Let me show, let me tell you guys something right now. Look at that. That's a beautiful fish. He's about, let's say two and a quarter, maybe pushing to about two and a half. Really thick, he's a thick fish, he's not. That is a beautiful fish right there, guys. Let's get a quick release on him. Now, I'll show you guys how I caught that. There we go, guys. Beautiful little bass right here. Solid, thick and healthy one. Let's get him back in the water. There he goes. Dude, the hook's head up. That's a big one. Oh my God. No freaking way. Get him up. He's solid, bro. I know, man. Woo! Going that, junior? Dude, the way you hook said that scared me so much. Oh my gosh, that's a solid three and a half pounder, dude. Look at his stomach. They're bedding. They are bedding. Popping froggy's gonna get it done. You're gonna get a couple more on this. I'm kinda jealous. There you go, man. There's your fish. That's why we brought that frog and the chatter bait out here is to catch big ones like this.