[Michael]

Monday I headed out to check on local ponds and Mondo Pond. Arrived at the funeral home around 11:30am to find it all open finally!

Started by throwing a helsinki shad HJ-8 but didn't see anything interested.

Later is when bluegills and cookie cutters got stacked up in their usual area so I twitched a number of soft plastics on the surface rigged on a South Bend floating jighead. 2 certain soft plastics that had small bass and average bluegills interested in were 1" crayfish and small piece of a black Mister Twister Twistermite. Missed out on a largemouth and bluegills weren't taking the hook.

Headed up to the ice out pond to look and hear for life and try and catch a largemouth. Local buddy was there recently before be got all the rain and reported a fish kill with many dead largemouths.

Once I got to the ice out pond and saw all the ice was gone, I headed over to my usual spot. One sign of life that was quiet for this time of year was noise of chickadees and titmice. I also didn't notice any eastern cottontails.

As for fishing, I tried throwing a few Husky Jerks, 1/8 ounce marabou, and 4" Berkley Power Worm but never had any luck. Only saw 1 largemouth lurking at the usual spot. Tons of bluegills where I caught the 6 1/2 pounder in 2012. Swirls from a spooked 3 or 4 pounder in one of the spots I'd usually find that fish.

Decided to not bother much more after how dead it was and the fish kill, so I headed over to pick up a bus in order to get to Mondo Pond.

Arrived at Mondo Pond around 5:30pm to find water levels very high and water pretty calm except for fish, birds, and muskrats. That had me thinking there was gonna be a good evening bite.

Lures I threw included helsinki shad HJ-8, silver shad JSR-4, hot tiger SSR-5, baby bass Tiny Torpedo, yellow perch J-7, and bone Teeny Pop R.

Had a nice explosion on the Tiny Torpedo but ended up losing the lure. Nothing showed interest in the JSR-4, Pop R, HJ-8, or J-7. Caught a pickerel under a pound with the SSR-5.

Hit the road just after 7pm.

Mondo Pond seems to be the place right now. Plan is to bring my 6 footer with heavier line and a variety of quieter evening topwaters with the way the forecast is.