Bass fishing can be complicated. There are a lot of different rods, reels, line choices, hooks and lures out there and a lot of them can be very effective so sometimes it can be hard to figure out which combination is going to be the best one to go with. If you want to try them all out it can also start to get very expensive and that’s actually one of the reasons why I decided to make this website.
Today I’m going to share one of my most effective setups with you. In terms of numbers I’m betting most people out there don’t have a $70,000 bass boat (I don’t either btw) and most anglers fish a local pond from the bank most of the time. There are some ponds that get so much grass in them that the only lures you can throw are a frog or a punching setup (or maybe a bubba shot) but aside from those most ponds usually don’t have that much grass in them and as a result one of the best lures you can go with is a texas rig. The problem with that is everyone knows it and these are the same ponds that get the most traffic and pressure and as a result one of the best things you can do is throw something that is just a little bit different than what the rest of the herd is throwing.
Ladies and gentlemen I present to you the Weighted Twistlock 3x from Owner hooks:
If you haven’t figured it out by now Owner is one of my two favorite hook companies. I’ll leave it up to you to guess who the other one is, but aside from that I will say I’ve tried a lot of different brands out and really like Owner hooks. This hook in the 3/0 size with a 1/8oz weight is one of my all time favorites, and I would argue that you can just buy this one hook and consistently catch a TON of fish at your local pond. While there are a lot of different lures that will work with this hook I’m going to share three of my favorites with you.
The first one is the Little Dipper from Reaction Innovations. This thing is an amazing swimbait and the price isn’t too bad either which makes it a great value. I really like these lures when I’m throwing an umbrella rig, but if you are at a pond you are probably going to want to imitate a bluegill and in that case my two favorite colors are watermelon green pumpkin and sprayed glass. The watermelon green pumpkin is awesome because it is green pumpkin on top but then has a lighter green bottom half and if you look at bluegill a lot of them look like that. Sprayed glass is another one of my favorite colors and that one has a purple top with a green bottom and works great if the water is stained. Here’s how this lure looks on this hook:
This thing is a great search lure and an awesome choice to start out with if you aren’t familiar with the pond or aren’t sure where the bass are at.
Once you have figured out where the bass are the next question you might be asking yourself is if they are on the bottom or in the middle of the water column. Turns out this same hook has you covered. Let’s assume they are on the bottom. If that’s the case you can easily take the skinny dipper off your hook and replace it with a Midsize Rage Bug from Strike King. Behold the ‘mini rage rig’:
This thing catches bass for me consistently and I’m sure it will for you too. The other thing that I love about this setup is there aren’t a lot of people throwing it, so even if you are at a pond with 5 other people there’s a good chance 4 of them are throwing a senko and none of them are throwing this thing. This thing is amazing in ponds because the profile mimics a bluegill and a crawfish. Just trust me and pick some up. I personally like the blue craw and black and blue flake colors but there are a lot of other choices available.
Now let’s assume they aren’t on bottom but you have figured out where they are and want to slow down a bit and pick an area apart. Feast your eyes on the 3.5″ OSP DoLive Stick:
This thing is a JDM lure and it’s a little more expensive than other lures, but in this case I would argue it’s worth the extra cost and have been amazed at how effective it is. It’s heavily salted and while that means it isn’t going to be as durable as some other lures out there the action you get off this thing is incredible. It also has a strong odor / scent that they’ve applied to it. I’m not sure if that’s part of the reason why this thing works so well and to be honest I don’t really care at the end of the day all I care about is catching a lot of bass and if you are interested in doing that sort of thing then this lure is your friend. They have a ton of different colors available but my personal favorites are bluegill and dark cinnamon blue. The fact that this setup uses a spring lock hook also means the lure will last a little longer than it would if you were to throw it on a different type of hook.
So there you have it. Three different lures that all fit perfectly on one little hook from Owner. You can start out with the Little Dipper and cover water and once you have a spot that you want to focus on you can go to town with the DoLive Stick or the Midsize Rage Bug. This setup works day in and day out and is one of the few setups that I’ve tried that can keep up with a drop shot in terms of the numbers it produces. It can also take more time to tie on a drop shot and not everyone is comfortable with throwing one from the bank (although I’d argue you should learn to be) and so if you want to go pond fishing and just want to consistently catch fish without having to buy a lot of different rods and lures then I’d argue you should give this setup a shot. Let everyone else is throw a texas rig or a senko. This will be just different enough that your lures stand out and if you do decide to give it a shot you might find yourself getting side eyed from other anglers at the pond while you catch a bunch of bass and they sit there scratching their head.
