The most common topics people want covered on my "Your Fishing Questions" column are problems relating to smaller bodies of water such as farm ponds, quarries, small lakes, strip pits, and other mini-waters. Letter after letter will have questions such as, "I can only catch an occasional small bass out of a pond near my home, yet I know it has big ones...," "I can see bass swimming around (or jumping) but I can't make them bite...; " "I fish this clear water strip (or quarry) and catch some pretty good fish in spring and fall, but during summer it's a different story...;" "This small farm pond I fish gets choked with weeds during the summer and it's impossible to fish. Any suggestions?"
Small lakes, ponds, quarries, strip pits, and other small bodies of water that receive little or no intelligent angling pressure can offer some outstanding action, but how many places like that are there? And how many of them are open to the average angler? To top things off, once an angler begins to learn enough to consistently conquer these mini-waters, he or she has probably gotten into fishing larger and more complex waters.
During my teenage years I was heavily into fishing farm ponds, quarries, golf course ponds...nothing within 30 miles of Chicago was safe or sacred. But I ,too, went the bigger route once gas and money became more readily available.
My interest in these smaller waters has been reborn. Maybe I'm going through a second childhood, but I'd rather believe it's because mini-water problems that were once baffling are now interesting and easily solved. This past year I "discovered" a lot of nice sized bass in ponds that were supposedly frozen-out and void of larger fish, caught and released hundreds of panfish out of weedy, hard-to-fish pockets, and found a golf course pond that had more big bass than golf balls, turned up a population of lunker bluegills in an apartment complex where I used to live, and hit on an excellent method for finding and catching suspended panfish.
Recently I moved into a "singles complex" that appears to have potential. Before committing to an apartment, I walked along some of the water available to residents. With the aid of polarized glasses, I saw hundreds of bluegills and a few bass in the two ponds, and what was stocked in the swimming pool wasn't too bad either. I quickly put down my deposit.
What to use, live bait or lures, always seems to keep some people guessing. Skilled anglers can find a productive lure for just about any small-water situation. But for the most part, the more cover-free, clearer bodies of water would tend to produce better if live bait and lighter lines were used. As waters get dingier, lures get better, and the more off-colored the water, the wider the gap between lure and live bait productivity. Lures would also get the nod in cover-laden waters while most anglers fishing cover-free waters would do better with live bait.
If your presentation is in the open (with little or no cover) and can be easily seen (clear water) live bait would produce better on sight-feeding fish. If your presentation has to come over or through weeds, wood, or other cover, particularly in off-colored water, the beating of a spinner's blade or the vibrating of a plug would attract sound-feeding fish better. Live bait (minnows) get the nod just after ice-out or just before ice-up. If you want to use artificial at this time, use jig type lures.
During the cold-water period immediately following ice-out or just before ice-up, I would recommend fishing clearer bodies of water. During the heat of summer, daytime angling success should be better on off-colored waters. Aside from these extremely cold or hot water conditions your success on clear or dingier waters will then be more dependent on existing weather conditions and, of course, what you know about fishing.
Ponds off the beaten track are generally better than those having easy access. A lot of people will fish somewhere that's convenient and easy to reach, but when they have to tote their gear a few blocks--forget it.
Good county or quadrangle maps will show many waters which can't be seen from paved roads. In some states fish have been stocked in privately owned ponds with the understanding that the owner allows some of the public fishing. Contact your fisheries or conservation department to find out if this holds true in your state. Some states even have printed lists telling the locations of these ponds.
When fishing a body of water that gets a fair amount of angling pressure, try to fish from spots most anglers would avoid. Don't start fishing the level-ground/low-growing plant life areas. Look for the steeper, harder-to-fish banks, or places where shoreline vegetation such as reeds, bulrushes, willows, or overhanging trees make casting more difficult. Wear old clothes and keep a pair of hip-high waders in the car so you can fish these areas.
When fishing any of these smaller waters don't walk up to them like a bull elephant or you'll spook fish. Years ago my uncles taught me just how important a quiet approach was on trout streams, and how a heavy footed entrance would scare almost all nearby fish. The same holds true on these mini-waters, especially if they're clear. And this is a major reason behind the "I can see them but they won't bite" type questions.
Casting positions are a big key to bank fishing success. Many anglers just cast out toward the middle of the pond and neglect to cast the shorelines in a somewhat parallel manner. The vast majority of good-sized pond bass I've caught have hit within 20 feet of shore, with many coming within 10 feet! Weedlines running parallel to the shore will have far more bass along their edges than will be holding in open or deeper water. If casts can't be made parallel to the weedline, then cast perpendicular and concentrate on any "irregularity" you see such as a point, turn, or pocket.
When first fishing a pond, casts are made into deeper and/or coverless waters with a lure that will come in along the bottom. Crankbaits are good if you can get them deep enough, but jig-type lures are even better. This is because jigs can tell you the approximate depth of water they land in if they're counted down while sinking. Most jigs and weighted plastic worm rigs will sink at about 1 to 1 1/2 feet per second. A bottom bumping presentation can also clue in on the presence of deep, low growing weeds, non-visible wood or rocks, or a sandgrass coated flat that could be used by prespawn, spawning, or night-feeding bass.
Once I've fished and mapped out a pond, casts aren't randomly made out toward deeper water. When casts like that are executed, it's done to fish visible or underwater cover or changes in depth that I know exist.
Another rule of thumb to follow is to use lures in the small-to-medium size range. Generally preferred are 1/4 to 3/8 ounce spinnerbaits, crankbaits up to 1/2 ounce, smaller surface or subsurface lures, and jigs (which almost never exceed 1/4 ounce). Plastic worms, lizards, and similar lures will usually be five to six inches with an occasional seven or eight incher thrown. Line tests may be as light as 4 pound in a super-clear quarry during daylight, or heavy as 14 on an off-colored, cover-laden body of water. the one outstanding exception would be when trying for the "King of the Pond" at night with an outsized lure fished on heavy-duty tackle.
One of the best times of the year for catching size and numbers of bass occurs from the first warming trends of early spring until the spawn. And for northern anglers, first warming trends mean those immediately following ice-out.
Almost all action in this very early season will occur on warming trends when air temperature is considerably warmer than water temperature. The exception is when the wind changes or a cold front moves in, as long as these weather conditions haven't passed through and left skies cold and bright.
Even on warming trends, best action will usually occur during warmer midday hours. Fish activity is usually slow until the sun gets high enough in the sky for its rays to penetrate and warm the shallows. The same principles hold true for late afternoon/evening success: once the rays stop penetrating the water due to the sun setting on the horizon, fishing often takes a turn for the worse.
Even during the best hours on prime days, be on the lookout for warmer-water situations. Shorelines receiving the sun's direct rays are good, as are shallow bays or other protected areas receiving little or no wind.
This early season fishing will get better as waters warm and bass get more aggressive, but just after ice-out the word is slow. The best single bait for most anglers to use in these cold waters is a live minnow. It can be suspended under a bobber and fished in warmer-water areas, or put a split shot a foot above the minnow, cast it out, and slowly crawl it along the bottom with plenty of pauses.
During this early period I generally start off using a 1/4 ounce tandem spinnerbait, which is slowly crawled along bottom in warmer areas; generally at the one- to five-foot depth level.
Once the water gets into the high 40s to low 50-degree range, bass are liable to be caught on anything, with good fishing continuing until spawning begins. I don't want to get into catching spawning bass because the poor things should be given a break during the mating ritual. Plus they can be caught too easily at this point.
Fishing gin-clear mini-waters can present quite a challenge, but there are times and conditions throughout the year when your chances for success are much greater.
On clear waters that get weeded up pretty heavily during warmer weather, fish them heavily in spring when the weeds are down, and you can get at the bass. After the first frost or two hits in the fall and knocks the weeds down, the bass will again be susceptible and fishing pressure will be nil.
To deal effectively with weed-choked waters during summer, pick conditions that will tend to draw bass out to roam for food. Low light conditions such as dawn or dusk, or cloudy, misty/rainy days will generally get them moving. Or you can fish at night.
On clearer ponds that have some open water over the weeds (or over any other cover), a noisy, slow-moving surface lure is ideal for night fishing. For covering flats or distinct edges where a strike may occur anywhere, an Arbogast Jitterbug or Heddon Crazy Crawler is ideal. When casting to specific objects a popper or chugger-type surface lure is preferred. These lures can be enticingly popped and blurped near a piece of cover to draw the fish out, while these floaters have very little forward motion to pull them away from the strike zone.
If the water you're fishing has weeds to the surface, lures with exposed hooks are useless. For these conditions a bulky plastic or pork-bait-rigged weedless is recommended. The bulk is needed so the lure can be cast without adding any extra weight, plus this added resistance prevents it from sinking as rapidly as smaller lures. Favorite presentations include a Jumbo Uncle Josh pork frog on a weedless hook, or a large plastic lizard.
When a strike comes on a plastic or pork bait, drop your rod tip while slowly picking up line and feeling for resistance from the fish. At the first sign of fish, slam the hook solidly home and start cranking hard. When setting surface plugs, don't set the hook at every splash and swirl that occurs near the lure. Just keep the lure coming like you were working it before the surface activity. It's nerve-wracking, but don't set the hook until you feel the strike. Incidentally, the best night activity generally occurs under warm, calm conditions.
If portions of a clearer body of water become temporarily off-colored or stained, those areas can produce some excellent daytime fishing. Runoff from a hard rain often causes that condition. Small creeks, ditches, ravines, or just low areas or crevices in surrounding land can funnel dingy water into a certain portions of a clearwater pond, quarry, or strip pit.
Also watch for bare dirt banks or dirt piled along the bank of clearer waters. Some strip pits have "spoil banks" where excavated soil was piled) along their edges. A strong prolonged wind into these banks or a heavy rain will often dirty up the adjacent water, which can give you some fast, easy fishing.
This may come as a shock to some, but this past year I caught more fish on a "polecane" than on anything else. Why? It simply gave me the most effective presentation for a common condition--weedy pockets around 8 to 15 feet from shore.
Bluegills and bass that were down in the small pockets would rarely come up for a surface presentation during the daylight hours. Lures that could be cast accurately and consistently into these pockets were generally too big or fell too quickly. In addition, when trying to pull a cast lure out of a narrow, deep pocket after allowing it to plummet downward, it would usually foul up.
When using a long cane pole (which was really Lew Childre's "Bream Buster" fiberglass telescopic rod), it was easy to drop a tiny jig into various pockets or along weed edges that would normally be tough to fish. The mono line to the lure should measure a little shorter than the rod. The lure is swung out with an underhand pendulum motion that can perfected in a short time.
For panfish, I recommend 6-pound-test line and jigs of 1/32 to 1/64 ounce. For bass try 8- or 10-pound test and a live, unweighted nightcrawler, or a 4- to 5-inch plastic crawler on a small jig head. This tactic will give great accuracy with a lightweight presentation and a tantalizing , slow-falling bait or lure. Also, on closer pockets, you can slowly vertical jig the bait a few times to tempt tight-jawed fish.
On weedy waters that are almost always fished with spinnerbaits, you can often get outstanding results with weedless plastic baits or surface lures and lipped diving lures. The key is to run them just over the tops of newly growing spring weeds or diminishing fall vegetation.
On one early trip last spring I spent three futile hours beating some great looking shorelines to death that were loaded with good wood over a sandgrass-coated bottom. Just before calling it quits for the day, I noticed a small, soft-bottomed bay that had weeds within a foot or two of the surface. I tried slow moving spinnerbaits and plastic worms with the same success--none. The wind had shifted to the north and the temperature had begun to plummet. But there was good, dark cloud cover so I decided to fish a little longer.
I was fishing on a pond near my Uncle George Petros's house in northern Illinois. He'd already checked on me several times and was beginning to question my sanity. [Note: I had to remind my uncle that any man pushing 70 who commonly will drive 300 to 500 miles alone through the night to go deer hunting, shoot a deer, then drive home with little rest, should know not to confuse desire with insanity. He understood that logic, which made both of us either diehards or nuts.]
I decided to try a fast-moving, shallow-running crankbait (Cordell Red Fin) over the weed tops--something that I really didn't figure to work with the deteriorating weather conditions and 50-degree water temperature. On the second cast, a three-pound bass swallowed the lure. Then another and another...11 in all, within an hour. The key was a fast presentation that would just tick the emerging weed tops. This depth control was achieved by raising or lowering rod tip to fine tune the lure's running depth to actually tip the higher weeds.
On another windy spring day a friend of mine, Bob Singer, and I were drawing blanks on bass. We were fishing a small pond and had tried about every bass presentation possible. Finally out of desperation, I walked to the shoreline that was being pounded by the strong warm winds and fired a bobber and a small jig into the teeth of the wind. The hope was that the warmer water was stacked up against this shoreline, which had already sported an off-colored stain out past the weedline.
As the bouncing bobber blew back toward shore, its up and down rhythm wavered for a second--then it quickly disappeared under the surface. Soon we were both using this tactic and accumulated a nice string of tasty crappies and sunfish.
On another occasion a number of good-sized bass were present on a shallow, clear flat that had sparse patches of cover. Large lures were spooking them and lightweight lures and live bait couldn't be cast far enough. After an hour of futile exercise I remembered a favorite rig and tactic from my high school days; a six inch plastic worm with an exposed hook in the nose, fished on six-pound test with a large split shot clamped abut 18 inches above the worm.
I could cast this offering the needed distance, yet its splashdown was reduced greatly by holding the rod tip up and stopping the weight's motion before it hit the water. I fished the worm could be fished on the bottom, at middepth, or my favorite way--slithered along the surface. When surface fishing this rig, swing your rod from left to right while reeling in your worm. The object is to keep the weight out of the water and swinging in a pendulum motion. Watch the erratic fish-catching action this gives the trailing worm. In short order the rig proved to be just as effective nowadays as it was years ago.
When fishing these smaller bodies of water, keep an open mind, be flexible with your presentations and most of all, fish smart. I'm not saying you'll always catch fish, but you'll get more than ever and will even begin to understand why things sometimes don't work. Besides many good waters are close to home and it's fun!
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