 It's a new year and it's finally time to get back out and search for these monster fish. We're fishing some small ponds that are known to have 10 pound giants. The day started off slow and had me questioning if we would get any big bites at all. We never gave up and kept grinding throughout the day and boy, was it worth it. Oh, big, big, big, not big, not big. Dude, dude, I can't even move this fish. Like, like this is a mega, mega, oh my God. All right, boys and girls, it is 2024, a new year, a new me, a new y'all. We're back out here at a small pond, ready to catch some big fish today. But before we get into that, I wanna talk to you guys about something real quick. I got these two packs of swim baits and also a chick magnet. I got a bunch of these back at the shop and I wanna give it away to y'all, starting off the new year with a little giveaway for y'all. If you guys want to enter this, all you have to do is be subscribed to the channel, share this video with a friend and I want you guys to comment down below your new year's resolutions for 2024. That can be just to be a better person, that can be to get in the gym every day, that can be to get on a good diet, that could be to catch a 10 pound fish. What is y'all's new year's resolution? It's 2024, we need to kick it into gear, we need to get disciplined, we need to get motivated and go take on life guys and whether that's gonna be at the pond, at the lake while we're fishing or if that's just getting your body in the shape and overall being a better person, let me know down below but that's all you have to do to enter this giveaway. We're actually gonna be fishing with some of these baits in the video as well, but like I said, I have extra packs so when you guys get these, it'd be brand new. Before we get deeper into this video, only 27% of y'all watching these videos are actually subscribed, so if you could take the time, hit the subscribe button, really helps the channel, I'd appreciate it. So let's go ahead and hop into today's video. I got a bunch of different stuff with me today. I have my Kickin' Their Bass TV, Exluse, Baitcaster combo. If you guys wanna check them out, kickintheirbass.com, they'll be linked down below. I appreciate everybody who supported me and the brand this winter and got your combo for the holidays. I also have a mock jack spinning combo with a drop shot on it and I have another kickin' combo with a Texas rig. So this kickin' combo actually just pulled up and we're gonna be rigging up a moving bait on here. We have a bunch of different options, so let's go ahead and dive into it. So we got some of these swim baits, which I wanna use a little later on in the video, but I think I'm gonna start off with this chick magnet and this color right here is just green gizzard shad. I haven't fished with the chick magnet a ton on the channel before. This thing dies between four and six foot. I'm hoping I'm gonna be able to throw it in this pond. Back on the far end, so we got like a small little pocket here and then it opens up way in the back. We might be able to get on some really big fish with this chick magnet here today. I will say a surefire bet for us to get smoked would be this red eye shad. So if we have to switch up to that, we definitely will, but I at least wanna give this chick magnet a shot at this pond. It's pretty cold this morning. It's about 40 degrees outside. I'm hoping these fish are gonna bite. I had a couple days, guys, that I went out recently that it was just so tough and honestly it was a little depressing. It was hard to get these fish to bite and today we have a different mindset. It's a new year as well. We're gonna put on our big bass energy and we're gonna hunt around and catch these fish today. We will catch some big ones and we will catch a lot of fish. Whether that's gonna be at this pond or some of the ponds down the road, we're gonna find them today. I'm actually gonna take down this Texas rig and this crankbait. I actually wanna start off in this corner. I don't really fish this side too often but I think the ideal bait is definitely the old Texas rig. So we're gonna toss around for a minute and just see if we can get one to slurp it up and then I wanna go down on the far end. That's where I've caught a lot of really big fish and chuck around some of the crankbaits. But my fish senses are tingling and I think it might be worth throwing a few casts in this corner. There's a bunch of trees and lay downs in this pond. One thing that I really like about it is not just like a solid bottom. You got a bunch of cover along the bank, bunch of structure on the bottom. Before we keep walking down, let's at least try this chick magnet. I need to make sure my reel's set up correctly and my drag's not set. Here we go. We gonna set the set of our reel to about three. Don't do that at home, kids. I put it to about five to six. I just like mine really loose. When we went fishing the last couple of times, we slowed down tremendously. I mean, I was throwing pretty much a drop shot, Texas rig and I just could not get these fish to bite. So today I have like a different mindset. I'm like, let's throw something with some vibration. Well, there's a crankbait, lipless crankbait, swimbait, something to kind of entice these fish to come get a nice meal and get a little aggressive. That's kind of my game plan. And I'm hoping it pans out. I just know, you know, fishing the drop shot and everything was not working for me. All right, let's grab our tackle. We're gonna walk down. There's a little tree or a massive tree laying in the middle of the pond. We're gonna flip our Texas rig up there for a second. After that, we're moving to the far side and that's where I think it's gonna get spicy. I do not know what those dogs are doing, nor do I know what the heck these holes are. If this is not a juicy area, I don't know what is. Every time I came out to this pond, I've just thrown like moving baits up by this tree. This is not a spot for a big fish to sit. I don't know what is. If we get a bite, it's gonna be a war. My heart stopped right there, I'm not gonna lie. I'm gonna skip the hook set. Not even pretty crazy. Skipping right up in that tree perfectly. Who knows, they just might not be in these trees. They might be in that open water here on the other side. If they're one more cast up in this tree. Okay, we're gonna keep on moving guys. I'm gonna be honest, I wanted to say we could have caught one on this side, but that is okay because we haven't even hit the juice yet and we're about to get into it. I don't know if you guys noticed this, but right here, you can tell where the water was elevated recently. I haven't been here, I'd say at least a month and a half and that had to have been recent because I didn't see that last time. We're gonna put our slow baits down for this chick magnet for a second. If they're not eating it, we'll switch up to the trap. I wanna mainly focus on keeping this bait vibrating but also reeling it really slow. I wanna go too aggressive with this. I wanna keep that slow presentation and I'm also trying to not really fast because I don't want that bait on the bottom digging up all that grass, which it seems to be running pretty good, which is perfect. If I was reeling that thing fast, I could probably get it down to five foot, which I think would be the bottom, but we're trying to keep it right above that bottom so we don't get all that grass on there. Oh, I just got hit that quick, man. No, we came off, bro. No. Oh, dude. Okay, that's a great sign. Let's lock it in here, boys. Let's lock it in here. Probably not gonna catch that same fish, which sucks, but that is a great sign to get a bite that quick. I'm telling you, a fish has been tough, guys. Those bites don't come often. Well, we got one that you did, he didn't commit. I have no idea how you don't hook a fish on the crankbait unless he kinda slapped it. He probably just slapped it sideways. Which is at least a good sign. Let's get him at least biting. Let's get a couple hits. All right, boys, we're gonna throw this chick magnet just a little bit longer. We don't get any fish to commit or totally eat it, and we'll switch up to that trap and give it a shot. That trap's been a proven bait in this pond in the past. Plus, I just love throwing traps in ponds. Let's cut this puppy off. She got us a bite. I think we can catch some fish on it, but I'm curious what the trap, the trap could just be electric. So this color is just like a sexy shad with a bunch of chrome. If I'm gonna be honest, I'd probably use more of a white bone color when it's cloudy like this. But this is the last one that I had, so it's gonna have to work. Here we go. We got her tied up with a uni knot. Let's go give her a shot. Oh yeah. Feeling this, boys. Feeling the old trap. Watch us just start getting smoked right away. It really wouldn't surprise me. I have an idea. We're gonna try out the old drop shot. So pretty much you got each side of the pond, nears down into a little ditch. That ditch is about right there. And there's fish. I just know we're sitting down there. We should get them to bite, unless they're just not wanting to bite something small and super finesse. But that would surprise me because we just threw two different types of crankbaits. They weren't one to touch it. I had one bite on it and he didn't commit. Another option that we have is the swim bait. And that's like more of a bigger, bulky profile, little less vibration, but we have to try this drop shot real quick. No. No. No way I'm stuck, dude, on my first cast. Gotta be kidding me. I'm bringing in this tree, which is not what I wanna do. We're gonna figure these fish out. I just know the opportunity we have in this pond. There's 10 pounders that live here and we can catch them. I mean, there's gotta be a way. And even if it isn't a 10 pounder, if we catch something over four or five pounds, I'd be ecstatic. There he is. There we go, boys. Let's freaking go, baby. Oh my gosh, man. That was every bit of a high two pounder. I don't think he was quite three pounds, but he was pushing it. I'll tell you guys, I'm really getting tested in the last few times we've gone fishing. But I'm gonna tell you all, if you guys are having a hard time right now, just know I'm there with you. And we ain't gonna give up. We're gonna keep on fishing. We're gonna keep on trying. So that sucks. You know, we got a bite earlier. Didn't even have an opportunity to hook them. That fish, we had an opportunity to hook them. We just didn't land them. That really sucks. But it is what it is. And we're gonna keep on casting. All right, there were our casts. So there's gotta be one. So if we can trick them to bite. That feels like a good one. Oh. There we go. He ain't a biggin, but that's a fish right there boys. Had to really work that thing slow. Let's get this baby on the bank. Let's go to first fish of 2024. That is a freaking start boys. That is all we needed to kick off the new year and kick off the video and get us moving here. Pretty little one and a half pounder, maybe one and three quarters of that belly on her. There she goes. Oh man, these fish are slow boys. I mean, these fish are something else right now. Using just a little Junebug Sanko, some really small one on a drop shot, little secret bait. He was sitting right where he needed to be. I mean, he was right in that ditch. You're talking about that far off the bank, maybe a little bit more on that side. That's about where I got that other bite too. I mean, these fish are sitting in the middle in that little tiny bowl, but you just have to force feed them. I mean, I had to sit there and like just barely move this bait. And it took me 20 casts to barely doing that to get that bite right there. But man, was that worth it. That's our first fish of 2024. And we're on the board guys. Now we just got to try to find these big ones. We just got to keep moving. I already stayed here longer than I would really want to. But it's so hard when those fish are slow. It's like, if they're biting good, usually you'll throw in there. And if they're not eating, yeah, you can stay around and try to catch them. But I don't know, I think our best move right here is to get out of here. Totally leave this spot and go find some of that juice. I'll add a new spot. Haven't been here in a very long time, but there is monsters in here. If we can get on them, oh man, it'd be fun. So I'm still curious, like, hey, is this pond going to fish different than the last one we were at? You know, for all I know, we can sit here and throw this lipless crankbait and really catch these fish. So I'm going to kind of fancast around and just see what's going on. See if we can get any bites. If not, we'll switch to the drop shot. We'll go back to what we were doing and really hunker down and just slow down for this fish. First time I came out to this pond, missed a absolute megalodon of a bass off these pipes. There's some rocks in the water here. And rocks hold heat. So when it is really cold, like Samfischnall Lake and it's super cold out, I'll actually target either some rocks or some boat ramps. There usually be a good bit of fish that sit on them. This canal usually holds fish. Let's try this worm out. This is a really good cast I just made, but that is the first piece of activity I've seen all day. And I got to risk my good cast here just to throw in there. Oh, hold on. Yes. Oh dude, he had it. He spit it out. How do you, oh my goodness. I can definitely get this fish to bite again though. I mean that, he didn't get hooked at all. He had it for 0.2 seconds. I barely felt him. So missed opportunity. We're gonna walk down to this end. Got the mouth of this small pocket. And I've also caught a lot of fish just stacked out here in the middle. So maybe this would be the move. Ooh, that rock felt dang good. Bigging, bigging, bigging, bigging. We got a monster boys. Stay pinned, baby. Oh my gosh, he's huge. He's barely hooked. He's barely hooked, he's barely hooked. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. Jeez. Thank you, baby. Freaking four pounder, son. First freaking cast, bumped it off those rocks, dude. Talking bumped it off the rocks, probably three or four more turns. And boom, she ate it. Beautiful fish right there guys. Almost four pounder. Well, there we go. That is freaking sick. Let's freaking go, baby. Oh, all our hard work. His first three hours or so has definitely paid off a little bit when he hooked a freaking monster like that. Or at least a really nice fish. Let's go. Thank you, baby, for biting. Maybe that's a good sign right there, boys. Maybe this is what we needed to open us up today. We had to work for it, but we didn't give up. We kept working hard, and we got rewarded. We'll see how lethargic she is. Usually those fish would kick off so quick, but you know, with how cold this water is, those fish are just so slow. Let's go, baby. Come on now. That's got me pumped. She ate that thing so good, boys, that I didn't even realize she was on there. It was one of those bites that just feel like a freight train, and then you have nothing on your rod. Like it is, so what happened was this crankbait was just going do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. And then this thing slammed it to where it pretty much made it to where I had zero pressure on that fish. She was running right towards me. Oh man, that's got me fired up, boys. Let's keep on casting. And we got a moving bait bite. Not saying that they're gonna smoke this thing today, but that just shows us some of these big, aggressive ones. If you put it in the right spot at the right time, you can get bit. Another big one. Another big one. What's going on, boys? What's going on? I've never seen that happen before. And my freaking 15 years of fishing, what just freaking happened? I thought I got hit at the bank so I kept my bait in the water and I was just dangling it around and this puppy came up and ate it. She ain't as big as that. That's just a two pounder. But man, that got me excited. I thought I had a freaking three plus, but nice two pounder. We went all this time not getting bites. Boom, we catch a four pounder. Now we got this fish. Oh my gosh. She kissed it a foot away from the bank and I dangled it in front of her nose and she ate it. I appreciate the bite, buddy. I appreciate it. That is why, guys, you always stay positive. You keep on hunting. You try to figure things out. Let's keep on casting, boys. And girls, ladies and gents. Yeah, I can literally beam this thing to the other side of the pond. That is insane. I'm not surprised, man, if we start getting bit over there in that corner. Biggin. Stop the cold turkey. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, dude. Oh, monster. Freakin. Oh, that was like a freaking six pounder. Dude, I just lost her. Oh, dude, I can't believe that, man. Guys, I could literally cry right now, bro. That is so hard to stay calm, cool and collective when that just happened. I just can't even, I don't know if you guys got the full picture of that fish, but that was every bit of a six pounder. Every ounce I have a scale with me. We would have waited. That was a megalodon, man. Dude, she came off right out of her dang feet. Like they're not, I don't know. She acted like she ate it like the first one. Well, the first one barely ate it, but the way she hit it was intense. So, oh gosh, man. I just got drilled, dude. These fish are biting guys. These fish are biting. I've got a bit twice since I lost that bass in three casts. We're on to something here, okay? I just got hit again. I mean, there's a lot of fish out there and they're hungry. I would pick up that drop shot to try to start plucking them off, but I mean, they're hitting this trap. They're not eating it good, but they're hitting it. Now I'm gonna tell you now, this went from a day of struggles to a day that this could possibly be unreal. We just got to hunker down here. There's more big fish to be caught. You can't get too down on yourself. As a monster to lose, I've had really bad luck at this pond when I hooked big fish. I don't know why. It just hasn't happened for me. I just can't believe these fish are eating like this. I had a couple more bites and now nothing, let's keep on casting though. I might pick up that drop shot here in a second to try to follow up this. Maybe there's some just sitting down there. Now I kind of have an idea where they're sitting. They're definitely all out in the middle, which makes sense of them being in the deepest part of the pond. There's something with this trap, you know, getting them to chase and getting them to react. I think it's the move here. It's not even like they're eating it good, but they're actually biting it and they're in here enticed by it. That's the important thing we got to notice here. What just happened? Dude, that fish hit me in the middle and drugged me to the bank without me knowing. That fish hit it so, I've never experienced that. I've never experienced that my whole life. What just happened, dude? I heard the rattle tribe rattling without me reeling it. That's when I realized something just happened. That was messed up. Matter of fact, that's all I can say about it. I was messed up. To explain to y'all, that trap was in the middle of the pond. He drug it all the way from the middle of the pond to here before I even understood what was going on. I never felt him. He almost hit it out a million miles an hour. The fact that these fish are that lethargic and he just did that is beyond me. Today's full of mysteries, ain't it? It is full of mysteries, let me tell you. Next pond. We're gonna hit this one really quick. It's actually small enough, only fished it one other time before. It caught a few fish, but it just looks really good. So, I'm gonna try it for a second and see if we can get anything going. If we can't, we'll just keep on moving. I definitely wanted to stop here while I'm around the area and just try it for a second. Right out of that dang tree. Heck yeah. Oh man. I just decided to put on my ground mode and be like, screw it, man. I understand these fish are slow, but I just gotta move and I got a bite really quick. Maybe that's gonna be the move the rest of the day. I've been slowing down, trying to fish these fish how I think I need to and I guess I just need to fish how I wanna fish and just keep moving. That fish was hungry though. Look how skinny that bass is, boys. Not a big one, but that's a good sign to get out here and get bit right away. Thank you, baby. Kind of felt bad. I hate catching those fish that are super skinny like that and just, you know, obviously I'm feeding them a fake bait and signing them like I can give them anything. What's crazy about that catch is it was right in this corner by this pipe and there's like a little lay down here and I ticked my crankbait off of it. I was like, you know what? We'll make one more cast and sure enough, he just gobbled it up. There we go. That feels like a nice one. Boys, that feels like a good one. I can't tell. Oh gosh. Let's go. Oh, it's not a bad one, not a big one. Man, we just ate. Dude, you're eating it like that. You gotta be kidding me. Look at the dang lipless is stuck in his mouth. That's why he felt so big. His mouth was open. All right, not a big fish, but a nice little close to two pounder. And when you're going in the right direction guys, two fish pretty quick in this pond. Thank you, baby. And they're liking the red crankbait. That's a good sign. That was probably our best to eat all day. He wanted that thing. All right, in front of that pipe. That should be the money zone. That's a nice one. That's a really good one. He was up so shallow. Oh my gosh. Oh yeah, that's a big one. Come on, baby. Oh, she barely hooked. Got to see barely hooked. Mm, look at that. Almost a freaking four pounder, bro. Oh my goodness. Their heads on these fish are huge. The stomach's a little smaller. That's a high three pounder. Close to four. And we are freaking moving now, boys. I wasn't even gonna cast deep in that pocket. That is a beautiful three and a half pound, three and three quarter fish right there. Let's go, man. Huge head, small body. And me catching that fish shallow in that corner makes me think a little differently on how I've been fishing. Wow. Thank you, baby. There she goes. This pond, I did not expect much out of it. I expected maybe one small fish, if that. But we have hit it in 10 minutes and caught three fish, the number of fish we caught all day, in like four hours, or five hours, however long that was taken. We're catching them. They're in this pocket really good. There's gotta be a couple more I would assume. This was a hidden gem that we needed to hit today. It's salvaging up our day now. He was right there in that pocket. And they're liking this red color. They really are. I'm not working it slow. I mean, I'm not burning it super fast, but I'm just kind of covering water and doing what I need to do, and they're eating it. Gosh, that's a breath of fresh air, guys. It has been, I've been on the struggle bus today. And for that to happen is just, oh, amazing. That makes me feel way better about today. I started to feel good about today, and then I lost that six pounder, and I was like, man, that really sucks. But that, these three fish catches really puts us in a good spot. But if there's a repetitive theme, in all of these ponds today, these fish have been tucked back towards the corners. Not saying that they're shallow in the corners, but they're all tucked back towards the pocket. All right, boys, gotta keep moving. That was a good little quick stop. That was way better than I expected. Here we go, boys. Let's get it. We still got some time, and we're out of that pond. Haven't been to in a minute. This pond's kind of hidden back here. We're gonna see if we can hook us a few. There's a lot of fish in this pond. I'll tell you, I haven't been here in a long time either. There's usually a good amount of fish. I've killed them on topwatering here a few times. We'll see if we can get a few to bite. We know they live here. We're gonna go deep into the woods here and try to get on the other side where there's a little bit more opening. It's like not much room to cast over here. Into the forest. Here we go. A little boil right there. Here we go, guys. We should get that any second now. I feel it. I've seen a little bit of activity already. That was a bite. That was a freaking monster. I don't know what I just felt. I have no clue what that was. Let's see if there's something in the water. Dude, I don't know. That was a fish, that was a big one. I felt like I was about to break my dang rod. That's a big one. Dude, I can't even move this fish. Like this is a mega, mega. Oh my gosh. Oh, he came. Dude, did you hear my rod whistle? I couldn't even turn that fish. Dude, what is going on today? I do that when I'm not gonna lie, like that felt to the caliber of a 10 plus pounder. I couldn't even move that dang fish. Oh my gosh, man. I can't even believe that. I really can't. I mean, that's gonna haunt me for a long time. That fish I lost earlier, I at least saw it. That right there was either a 30 to 40 pound carp or it was a monster fish and I'm hung up. I'm gonna tell you right now, I pray that that was a carp because if not, that was every bit of a 10 pounder. I mean, I don't know if you guys could hear my rod there but he was totent to the left. I've never felt the bass that I just can't. It's usually the 10 plus pounders that you can't control but that's exactly what that felt like. I can't promise you nothing but oh my gosh. That was a mega bigger than that one I lost earlier. I'm telling you guys, we've handled ourselves pretty well today. We've been pretty controlled. After that first fish, it did hurt a lot. I was able to suck it back up and keep going. But after that one, that was a very tough pill to swallow. Like, could have been the biggest fish of my life. I did not know there was fish to that caliber in here but that changes my whole mind on this one.