So, I consider myself a good fisherman in the Spring/Summer/Fall...but I SUCK in the winter time. I live in Ohio and we had a strange warm spell roll through here and I went out fishing yesterday to one of my favorite retention ponds. Weather unstable: rainy and 45*degrees the day before, 61* the day I went fishing, with a lot of sun and no wind...The water was pretty murky from the rain, (which I think is what killed my fishing luck). I've caught 4+pounders out of this pond before, so I know they are in there.
I usually fish jigs in the winter, but this pond has a layer of moss on the bottom that is at least a foot thick. Yesterday, it wasn't as bad as it was in the fall, but it was still pretty thick so I struggled dragging or hopping a jig. Instead, I fished a Senko texas-rigged with a light weight along the bottom pretty slowly. I then tried a wacky rigged worm, finesse worm, and soft plastic jerk bait...still nothing. Thinking they couldn't see it with the murky water, I tried slow-rolling a Colorado blade spinner and also a noisy lipless crankbait...nothing.
I was mainly fishing the center of the lake and the west end. I did venture up to the shallow skinny side late in the day. I saw some signs of life out in the pond with ripples. I never had a single strike though, from 3pm until dark. Any suggestions on what I might have tried differently? Do you guys think I was fishing the right spot?
Here's a picture of the pond to get an idea of the size. I'd say it's about 100ft across and 500ft long. I'm unsure of the maximum depth, but I'm guessing 10-15 feet in the middle and it slopes off to about 3 feet deep 5 feet from the shore. The west end is deeper and usually wind-blown. The skinny east end is very shallow after the bottleneck.
I usually fish jigs in the winter, but this pond has a layer of moss on the bottom that is at least a foot thick. Yesterday, it wasn't as bad as it was in the fall, but it was still pretty thick so I struggled dragging or hopping a jig. Instead, I fished a Senko texas-rigged with a light weight along the bottom pretty slowly. I then tried a wacky rigged worm, finesse worm, and soft plastic jerk bait...still nothing. Thinking they couldn't see it with the murky water, I tried slow-rolling a Colorado blade spinner and also a noisy lipless crankbait...nothing.
I was mainly fishing the center of the lake and the west end. I did venture up to the shallow skinny side late in the day. I saw some signs of life out in the pond with ripples. I never had a single strike though, from 3pm until dark. Any suggestions on what I might have tried differently? Do you guys think I was fishing the right spot?
Here's a picture of the pond to get an idea of the size. I'd say it's about 100ft across and 500ft long. I'm unsure of the maximum depth, but I'm guessing 10-15 feet in the middle and it slopes off to about 3 feet deep 5 feet from the shore. The west end is deeper and usually wind-blown. The skinny east end is very shallow after the bottleneck.