Pond fishing on St Patricks Day

[Johnsfolly]

With the nice day, I had my betterhalf drop off my daughter at my work so that we could fish our small pond on the property. I wanted Livie to catch one of the stocked green/bluegill sunfish hybrids. Maybe the luck of the Irish would be upon us. We were fishing the same jigs and float combination that we have been catching crappie, a 1/64 oz beveled jig head and black/yellow or black/green bodies. I caught the first fish, a nice hybrid sunfish. Livie caught the next fish, a nice chunky green bass. Her first largemouth of our new fishing season.

I caught another hybrid that looked like it had a checkerboard pattern.

Livie had a couple more savage strikes on a white/chartreuse jig and actually had one break off her lure, but still no hybrids. There was a long time between fish. Livie did catch another nice bass.

 

I finally caught a largemouth and then another one. One on a pink/white body and the other with a black/green body.

One my last cast of the evening I caught a feisty channel catfish on the same black/green jig.

Livie never did catch a hybrid. It was a nice night and we both caught some fish. We will have to try it again after some more warm days have a chance to heat up the pond and before the weeds overgrow the bank.

 

[trythisonemv]

Pond fishing should really be heating up in the next week! Great day with your kiddo !

[JestersHK]

Fish look very healthy!  Cool way to spend the day.  Any active jigging or just chucking them out and letting them sit?

[Johnsfolly]

 

Fish look very healthy!  Cool way to spend the day.  Any active jigging or just chucking them out and letting them sit?

We typically cast them out then pull them in slightly and then pause to let the jig drop then repeat. Depending upon how active the fish are, we vary the length of time of the pauses. Also we normally don't fish the jig more than 18 to 24 inches below the float. We don't always fish shallow water either. You'd be surprised at how many crappie and bluegill we catch at the end of a 40-60 foot cast from the bank.

I'm pretty sure that your daughters could pick up on this technique and then catch larger panfish than their dad as well!

[JestersHK]

Good deal!  Looks like a great pond you got there.  I've never had much success jigging under a float without some type of bait attached be it a piece of worm or a minnow jig combo.