Fishing
Farm Ponds: Fishing Goldmines
Growing up on a farm, pond fishing was all I knew from the time my parents trusted me not to drown until I was old enough to drive. My friends and I spent a lot of exciting afternoons riding our bicycles to the local ponds with our slender rods and meager supply of lures, trying to pull old granddaddy from the heavy moss. I can remember times when it sounded and felt like a refrigerator fell from the sky onto my floating weedless frog. I had as much chance of landing those fish as I had of becoming president, yet the hope was always there. It is a bit awe-inspiring and mysterious even to cross paths with huge fish in small water. Farm ponds may seem at first like leftovers the day after Thanksgiving, but in truth, they are top-notch fun.
In my rural county there are approximately 4,000 to 5,000 farm ponds, but only 8,000 people. There is a pond for every two people, and most are stocked with under-fished and overlooked bass.
In rural areas throughout the United States—especially those with a history of grazing cattle—farm ponds provide an incredible fishing resource. It is also easy, in many cases, to gain permission to fish ponds because most of them actually need fishing! Reservoir and river bass are fun, but those locations can’t match the undisturbed tranquility and first-class intimacy of a three-acre farm pond filled with too many six-year-old bass.
You can’t churn a farm pond to an espresso froth and expect to catch bass. You need to take a deliberate approach to kick-start the action. Here are the methods that will help you achieve that goal: an enjoyable and productive fishing experience in small water.
Fly Rod Poppers
An eight-weight fly rod and a cork popper are all you need to turn a lazy summer evening into fast bassing action. Fly rods are my favorite tools when fishing a farm pond for a number of reasons. First, I love casting them. Perfection is found somewhere between athleticism and artistry. It is fun in itself, even if there aren’t any fish.
Second, once you master the art of casting, you can make a more precise and subtle presentation than is possible with other rod/lure combinations. How you lay the lure on—or plunk it into—the water is critical when fishing ponds. You don’t have the luxury of being able to bully the fish. You must work your limited area carefully and thoroughly to take maximum advantage of each fish holding location. The best way to accomplish this goal is to make long, precise casts with lures that alight softly on the water. In other words, to keep the fish from knowing they are being sought. The fly rod popper is perfect for this kind of fishing.
When you cast a fly rod, you are actually casting the line. It carries the lure, rather than vice versa. When done properly, the fly line forms an upward curving loop as it zips toward the target; it unfurls and straightens, the line flips the popper forward a few feet off the water where it then settles softly with little more than a slight ripple—like a butterfly landing.
Set the popper down as close to the fish-holding cover (or shoreline weeds) as possible and then let the ripples disappear before making the first twitch. Let it sit for as much as a minute to unnerve any nearby bass. You may even quiver it a little bit before you actually twitch it and the bait’s cupped face tosses up a little plume of water. That first twitch is your best chance for a strike, and it will often result in the popper disappearing in a violent splash. If no strike comes, let the ripples die before twitching it again. This slow, tantalizing retrieve keeps the lure in the fish’s strike zone for a long time. It is an exciting way to fish.
Finally, a fly rod permits you to lay the bait on the water right where you want it, cast after cast. Strip from the reel only as much line as you need to make the cast, then retrieve the line by hand. After the lure leaves productive water you can easily pick up the line, flip behind you to gain momentum and zip the popper right back to the cover. It is an efficient way to keep the bait in productive water for the greatest amount of time.
When you cast a fly rod, the line trails out behind you on the back cast. For this reason, you need a lot of room; fly-rodding is only possible from the shoreline of ponds with little or no nearby bank vegetation, or from a small boat. The boat is best. I also find that popper fishing is most productive at dawn and dusk when the bass are cruising shallow water actively hunting for a meal.
If I’m not popping the shallows, I’d just as soon be flipping a weedless unweighted plastic lizard onto the shoreline and then slipping it into the shallow water in search of a strike from a spawning or shallow-feeding bass. As my friend once grunted after setting the hook on another five-pounder, “Bass just hate lizards.” Whether it is the lizard they hate, or just any form of intrusion on their spawning grounds, is up for debate, but there is no debating the fact that they work.
Dragging Lizards
Texas-rigged weedless and unweighted lizards are ideal for this second form of soft presentation. They don’t sink deeply into the shoreline vegetation so you can easily slip the lizard quietly into the water without the kind of big splash that will scare shallow fish. Also, the unweighted lizard settles slowly through the water giving bass plenty of time to see it and grab it on the sink. If the initial descent is not greeted by a strike (generally the strike will not be savage, only a resistance on the line), you can twitch and slowly retrieve the bait near the bottom.
This method of fishing is not effective in water deeper than about four feet because it is hard to get the lizard down any deeper. You must also use medium action rods and light line (eight-pound test is a good choice) or you will find it hard to cast the unweighted lizard any distance. I prefer spinning rods to casting rods for this type of fishing, as I can cast much farther with the spinning rig.
Be sure to work the unweighted lizard along the edges of all visible weed lines and any visible structure. If the structure is in water deeper than four feet, you should use a different lure or simply add a 1/8- to 1/4-ounce bullet weight to the front of the lizard.
During times with limited run-off, ponds clear up fast. You can often sight-fish spawning beds at these times. When you have that luxury, flip the lizard onto the bank and swim it right over the bed before letting it sink. Along weedy shorelines, look for movements in the grass to give away the presence of a spawning fish.
Smaller is Usually Better
There are plenty of other baits that will also produce well when fishing farm ponds, however, it is best, in general, to keep your offerings small so you can work them carefully and subtly. Once again, if you are heavy-handed you will quickly put the fish on the defensive. Small offset spinner baits, such as the time-proven Beetle Spin or Mr. Twister styles up to a 1/4-ounce, are great producers. Medium action spinning rods work best when handling these small baits.
Live bait can also be exceptional for pond bass, in which case a four-inch fathead minnow hooked behind the dorsal fin and hung below a bobber is an excellent choice for fishing weeds and the inside edge of moss beds.
Bank v. Boat
Without exception, the best fishing in a pond occurs from a boat because it permits you to fish shoreline structure from a distance great enough to keep you from spooking fish. Also, some ponds have heavy moss beds and weed lines near the shore, and are virtually unfishable except by boat. The only shoreline fishing method I’ve found that works on these ponds is chucking a weedless frog bait, such as the one made by Snag Proof, out on the moss or past the weed line, and then twitching it across any open holes. It can be dynamite and works best right at dusk.
You don’t need much of a boat. An eight- to ten-foot jonboat powered by oars or even a float tube is adequate. The recent popularity of small plastic two-man electricpowered “Pond Prowler” boats should not be lost on anyone looking for an economical craft for pond fishing. These boats have swivel seats, weigh as little as 100 pounds and cost as little as $400.
If you aren’t fishing ponds, you are missing out on a tremendous bounty of overlooked bass. Many farm ponds have such an overabundance of bass that their owners may actually beg you to take some fish out of them.
No overpowered bass boats, no water skiers and no pressure. That’s pond fishing—a thoroughly relaxing way to spend a spring evening.