Kirk Pond Fishing Reports

[Indeep]

Nobody’s enforcing anything. It’s all rumor, those kids that got tickets for surfing . Jumped a fence , if they would have just walked down the road to where there is no fence, nobody would have said a thing. I have been fishing this whole time , talked with deputy from Klamath county last weekend on the dock 1 foot away from each other . The topic came up, he said they will not write a ticket for this . EPD has the same stance on this . I know this for certain, stop being sheep

 

[NKlamerus]

Stopped by Kirk with a few minutes between errands today, no kayak!

Made a few casts and was rewarded with 2 little guys. No signs up anymore, surprisingly not that busy with people

Rain the rest of the week will make things interesting!

 

[bass]

Good job! Those fish look really healthy. Glad to see things starting open up.

 

[drzhf9]

Nice

 

[maxwyatt]

I had my new kayak out at Kirk pond for the second time in a week. It was toward the end of the day and I could see bass actively feeding along the weeds and between the surface and the weed mat 6-10 inches down (total depth was 3-6ft). They wouldn't take anything. I couldn't get a Texas rig through the mat, so I started fishing them weightless. I pulled them (green/black plastic worm and a 'critter') across the weed mat slowly with some twitching and quicker pulls to get their attention. I got one bite on that. I also tried a Hula Popper frog. Time before, I tried a mouse. Nothing. I pulled the presentations right in front of several fish. On the way back to the put in, I spooked four or five bass going through the area I had already fished so I know they were there. Anybody got tips for picky ditch pickles in weed choked ponds?

 

[bass]

I grew up fishing heavily weeded ponds in PA and NC. The lures that we used were in no particular order:

SnagProof Frog (that is the brand). Just case and retrieve with a stuttering kind of retrieve extremely slowly over matted grass and algae.

Johnson Silver Minnow weedless spoon (black with a black Culprit worm trailer, silver with an Uncle Josh Pork Frog in the white with green polka dot color, or gold with a chartreuse trailer. The Silver Minnow was really good because you could fish it like it was a frog or snake on the surface but then let it drop on slack in every little hole. Let you really completely cover all the depths with one lure.

Texas rigged worm either weightless or with a pegged sinker. We would toss a weightless worm in open spots but the weighted worm we would drop into every hole we could and just jig it up and down a bit. Never cast far but just tediously probe every hold the size of a quarter or bigger in the matted algae.

When the sun is high those fish would almost always be laying under thick mats of algae (yellowish-green floating carpet). If they were active then I usually fished the frog or the Silver Minnow. If I was not getting bit but thought the fish were there then I would go to the plastic worm.

Sounds like you were doing things about right but perhaps you just there at a bad time of day. If the sun is straight overhead the weed fishing I describe is good. I can't imagine you can do better than an unweighted plastic worm on fish in those conditions. The only exception I can think of is that if the water is open enough we would burn a Mann's Baby 1-minus (crankbait that runs less than a foot) as fast as we could. That would often draw explosive strikes from fish that would not hit anything else.

Not sure how effective those techniques would be out here. That was a long time ago and there are probably better lures than the ones that I mentioned but I do know that the Cabelas in Tualatin did have Silver Minnows on the shelf the last time I was there.

The last thing to say is that it is often hard to tell carp from bass in the weeds like that. I have certainly wasted many an hour of my youth fishing for "stubborn bass" that turned out to be carp.

 

[maxwyatt]

Hi Bass. thanks for the tips. I'll add the snag proof frog and Silver Minnow to my shopping list. I saw one actively hunting frogs off of small logs. It was fun to watch the bass cruise and then hear the 'chirp' as the frogs tried to escape.

It has crossed my mind that they could have been carp, but based on the shape and color of the ones I saw up close, I'm pretty sure that at least some of them were bass.

Texas rigged worm either weightless or with a pegged sinker. We would toss a weightless worm in open spots but the weighted worm we would drop into every hole we could and just jig it up and down a bit. Never cast far but just tediously probe every hold the size of a quarter or bigger in the matted algae.

I'll try probing more too. Probably time to rig up a second pole.

 

[NKlamerus]

Bass really hit the nail on the head, I started with a snag proof frog as well, and used them for years until spro frogs came out

There is no other frog on the market that I have more confidence in than a Spro Bronzeye pop65, Gets their attention and they last longer than the traditional snag proof, the popping model walks easy as well but sounds like a hula popper

It's all preference in the long run

Kirk is hit or miss for me, always hit the kayak launch with some kind of bait, it's the only deep moving water in the whole lake, as well as the bridge/Lilly pads on the north shore

The south side of the lake I focus on grass points and holes with chatterbaits

North side I slow it down and aim for any shade, if I can see bluegill, I fish that spot in particular. I stay in the dirty water, just always had better luck over there

 

[Gulfstream]

Manns 1 minus Worked in the California delta in those conditions Chartreuse and red was the best color

 

[OliverW]

I had my new kayak out at Kirk pond for the second time in a week. It was toward the end of the day and I could see bass actively feeding along the weeds and between the surface and the weed mat 6-10 inches down (total depth was 3-6ft). They wouldn't take anything. I couldn't get a Texas rig through the mat, so I started fishing them weightless. I pulled them (green/black plastic worm and a 'critter') across the weed mat slowly with some twitching and quicker pulls to get their attention. I got one bite on that. I also tried a Hula Popper frog. Time before, I tried a mouse. Nothing. I pulled the presentations right in front of several fish. On the way back to the put in, I spooked four or five bass going through the area I had already fished so I know they were there. Anybody got tips for picky ditch pickles in weed choked ponds?

I was there on Thursday evening and was fishing from 5-9. I had multiple blue gill chasing jigs that I was casting out but didn't catch any. My dad caught a monster carp though

 

[NKlamerus]

Not going to make a dedicated 2022 thread as I dont plan on fishing it too often.

Made one loop out there in about an hour yesterday, was able to pick up a school of crappie on sonar, by the time I rigged up they were gone.

Saw some small bass but they were suspended on weed beds and couldn't pick one up