|
JOHNS POND Johns Pond is my favorite pond on Cape Cod. Largemouth and smallmouth live in the pond, and you can fish many different types of structure throughout the year. Most of the pictures that you see on the Bourne Braves Fishing page were taken on Johns Pond. Johns is a kettle pond like most ponds on the Cape. There are extensive weed beds on the pond that seem to "move" year after year. In 2009, large cabbage type weeds were growing near the "ramp" area, in the shallow middle bar and in the southern end of the pond. There is also a lot of "eel grass" type weed in the 19-25 foot range that the small mouth like. The herring run in the NE corner of the pond is well maintained and the water level has been fairly consistent over the past few years (2007-2009). My Techniques
The small mouth begin to spawn in the middle of April to almost June (average). I find them shallow this time of year and usually looking for beds. Most will be sitting on or near a bed area and can be caught with grubs, small worms, senkos. The water temp. is right around 60. Just around 55 degrees, I feel the jerk bait is a nice way to catch them. The small mouth aren't quite on the beds and the jerk bait really calls them, I like suspended models because they hover and don't rise out of the strike zone. The largemouth are still a little deeper, but depending on the amount of sunlight in an area, they could be coming shallow and looking for a bed area. I have found both small mouth and largemouth on beds in Johns this time of year. June is usually the month I really look for the largemouth, but if you go to the "back pond" up the little river- the largemouth are in there early in the year. When both species go off the beds, there are numerous weed beds that they go to . The water is clear and warming fast and the weeds grow quite rapidly. Worms, spinnerbaits and senkos work for both species. In July and August the weather and the water is very warm. Also lots of boat traffic. I like to fish tubes for the small mouth in 20-30 ft or very shallow- around 6-8 ft. This past year, the small mouth were in shallow heavy weed beds along the shorelines. They were also deep in the breaklines around 20 feet. The largemouth were in the shallow weeds, not more than 10 ft. In some tournaments the larger fish were found in the deeper part of the weed bed , some around 12-15 ft.Johns is a good pond for fishing crankbaits. I like throwing them around the 10 ft zone. The grass is usually growing this deep and I place the boat around 11-12 ft and throw at an angle to get the bait around 8 ft and reel it in. There are also numerous docks around the pond and these really hold the largemouth. I have been fortunate to fish in December, January and February the past couple of years. The smallmouth I fished were between 25-40 feet deep. I use my depth finder to find the bait fish around breaklines and then fish a carolina rig, or a tube in the area. Sometimes I use a jigging spoon, this takes patience and a good depth finder. Practice on the white perch schools, to get used to using the jigging spoon. Sometimes throw it out like you are casting a crankbait and let it fall to the bottom. Hop it back to the boat, I didn't think any fish would bite a piece of metal with a hook on it, but wow!!! It works. Sometimes it's a nice small mouth, sometimes a nice trout!!! May 1, 2010- The water is beginning to warm up. There has been almost 10 days of poor weather, that is cold nights, that prevents the water from maintaining its temperature. The fish come up shallow, go near the beds then back off during the night. The back cove has large mouth and the spawning areas on the main lake are seeing small mouth beds appear. Later in the day is the best bet to see them on beds. Look for them in about 10 -12 feet just off the spawning grounds. May 25, 2010- I missed the real good small mouth that were spawning. Only little ones on the beds- however, they are acting like they are just coming onto them to spawn. When you throw a lure on it, they swim away. They don't act like they are protecting fry!! The largemouth are coming onto the beds. Some are using the old small mouth beds. I watched a largemouth on a bed, and then chase away a small mouth who had "eyes" for the same bed!!! Water temp. was around 67, but we had some real hot days and lots of sun. Water warmed quickly, but the moon was late or early.?? Summer months: I thought the top water bite would be better than it was. The grass areas were still located on the pond as they were in 2009- but I couldn't get the fish to come up. The fish seemed to be more scattered , there were still the big ones around the shoreline cover, but once the grass got thick it was tough getting them to bite. Senkos were the trick any time I fished- you had to "glide" the bait through the grass cover and finally get bit!! Baits with weights had to land very close to fish- If I didn't get bit on the fall or within a couple seconds of landing and twitching, I started another cast. Oct- Nov: I started getting the small mouth with carolina rigs- I was throwing from the deep areas (30-35 ft) up into the 20's. If I could feel some gravel or clam beds, that was an area that held fish, and I would get a good small mouth. I did manage to chart some bait fish and drop a jigging spoon down and catch a good 4 lb small mouth. I tried the drop shot a lot, but it didn't work for me- others that were with me did show me that there were fish in the area!!!!! They did change baits frequently until finally they got bit- usually 4 inch worm style and usually "whacky" rigged.
JOHNS POND HOT SPOTS I have picked some areas on the map of John's Pond to talk about. Pan the mouse around the lake and when it changes to a hand; click on the area and I will tell you some of the bottom structure and features in the area. The brown shaded areas are relatively shallow; from 1 to 5 feet. There are a few "flats" away from the shoreline in this pond and have scattered weed beds on them. The weeds seem to "move" each year, so cover them quickly with your boat and mark the areas where the weeds are growing on your map each year.
|
