The Hunt For Big Fish with Larry Dahlberg

i have some issues with a small pond in my aea. it has almost nothing in the way of cover besides fist size rocks in one portion of the pond. the main prey is green sunfish and bluegill and these inhabit the rocky half of the pond. they only pattern ive been able to identify is an extemely shallow one where the bass will cruise along the shallows in small pods and occasionally attack the sunfish in inches of water. they will respond well to flies and soft jerkbaits at that time but there are also times when they are positioned off the shore a little(about twenty feet or so) and still seem to be cruising. the sunfish are still shallow, however so im not entirely sure what they are eating at that point. there are also days when they are simply impossible to find, even though yesterday withe the same conditions they were slamming greenies along the shore. where do they go? also there is a smaller population of pike that we catch every so often. where are they during most of the year? we dont see many pike and they apear to randomly to establish a time of year when they are caught the most.

hi hf,
My guess is when they're not actively feeding, the predators suspend over the basin. When it's time to chew, they herd the bait against the only available edge, the shoreline. And believe me, they most likely know you're after them.
Stay very low when you approach. try a buzzer, zara, wildly retrieved and also pause twitched on the surface shallow lipped minnow lure or super, super slow popping bug. They might bite it after it's been still for several minutes.
Fan cast, making sure to include parallel to the shoreline in both directions. Early am and evening.
A live frog, inflated with a straw so it can't submerge, tossed into the center might be interesting.
Live bait suspended on floats at various depths as a last resort.
good luck,
L