where to find larger fish?

I fish local park lakes, varying from 1/2 to 10 or so acres. I cast as far out as I can with a 1/16 ounce rooster tail and let it drop to the bottom (10' max depth), and slow roll it in. I don't have trouble getting bites, but the size is poor. Naturally, I can blame it on fishing pressure and a lot of people keeping anything they catch, but there have to be some good fish in there somewhere.

Water temp is 65-69 degrees in this area. Besides some rocks at the bottom, these lakes are void of any real structure or cover. These are your typical "let's put a pond in the park" situations where they just dig out some dirt into a bowl shape and fill it up and stock it. A buddy set me up with some micro jigs, so I'm thinking of doing a jig and a cork.

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Originally Posted by Schmoopie

I fish local park lakes, varying from 1/2 to 10 or so acres. I cast as far out as I can with a 1/16 ounce rooster tail and let it drop to the bottom (10' max depth), and slow roll it in. I don't have trouble getting bites, but the size is poor. Naturally, I can blame it on fishing pressure and a lot of people keeping anything they catch, but there have to be some good fish in there somewhere.

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There might be, but due to the fishing pressure on places like this, they might feed mostly at night. Most public parks close at sundown.

FWIW, I regularly fish a local park just like you describe. The state regularly shocks up big bass, but I've never seen anybody catch one (including me.)

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Originally Posted by Schmoopie

A buddy set me up with some micro jigs, so I'm thinking of doing a jig and a cork.

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I would just fish the jig and forget the cork.

You might try a bigger bait for bigger fish.


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go find a quiet place off the beaten path is my suggestion . Quite often there are larger fish in those kinds of spots that are less educated and in numbers . :highfive

The city park lakes near me only seem to have smaller fish in them. The bluegill and crappie max. out at about 7 inches. All of the bass I've caught to date have all been less than 12". But, I know from experience, that the occasional bass must grow big enough to start feeding on the smaller panfish and bass, and when that happens they grow fast. There are probably a very few, very large bass in those ponds, but I haven't connected yet. Pretty confident though that there are no larger panfish there. Sometimes a body of water won't support the growth of larger fish. You never know though. There is a lake nearby where the panfish appeared to be stunted and I must've caught dozens of 4 and 5 inch bluegill. About to give up we (my son and I) tried one last spot and caught over 30 bluegill all in the 7 -8 inch range They were still biting good when we left, I just didn't want to have to clean more than that. We didn't change tactics, just the spot was different. That was on a 200 acre lake though.

I have found that ponds with lots of fish seem to have smaller fish. Food source is the key

You're at a great disadvantage fishing from shore when it comes to finding fish and weed beds - especially in spring around the spawn of different species. What shocked my partner and I were finding fish on sonar in the middle of the lake yesterday over the extensive weedy bottom that came within 4' of the surface even in 9'. Sonar allowed me to find any fish in the immediate area which prompted us to fan cast around the boat to find the direction of small schools of decent crappie and sunfish. Once the bite died in an area I let the boat drift until another sighing on sonar. One shore angler did have a nice stringer of crappie using a float and ? bait.

Crappie Magnets on 1/16 oz. jigs and other soft plastic designs sealed the deal in open water. After 40 plus fish in 4 hours we decided to pack it in (none kept). Retrieve was slow with pauses mid depth in the clear water gap above the weeds with many fish hitting close to the boat and hitting 3 times after misses in the same spot. Sun and cloud variations with a breeze helped big time.

Every water is different regardless the season, but pre spawn angling doesn't seem to change much regardless. Location, location, location.

If the dam has rip rap rock that is where I would start if bank fishing .

My thinking is in places with several small fish the fish are stunted from lack of food source.... Most places like that could use keeping every fish caught to help the rest of the school....I know for a fact it works with crappie.....
Stay At'um....