Pond Fishing ABC'S

 The ABC’s of Pond Fishing

Growing up in the Midwest, farm ponds, golf course ponds and burrow pits were some of the most common fishing waters around. Spence Petros shares a dozen of the best spots to look for in these miniature waters.

1. Inflow of Water - An influx of water into a pond usually occurs after a rain or melt-off. The water may come in via a small creek, gully, or an erosion cut in the surrounding soil. Stained "new water" coming in often triggers some excellent bass and panfish action in clearer bodies of water. Water color can also help a lot on those tough, gin-clear strip pits too.

2. Stand of Emergent Vegetation - The key to working this is often just getting a lure to the fish. Bass and panfish will frequently hold on the deep edge of reeds, cane, bulrushes or other forms of emergent vegetation, making lure presentation tough for the shore-bound angler. Try to achieve casting positions that will let you work this edge.

3. Large Weed Bed - This will hold fish almost anytime. In spring, fish the shallower-growing edge of these weeds and over the top of new weeds. Pay attention to any shoreline wood cover such as a pier. Wood piers could be super very early before weeds start growing. If a pier has three, four or more feet of water at its end, bass may be there anytime; crappies best in spring and during sunny fall afternoons.

4. Shallow, Soft-Bottom Marsh - Ponds in low, flat, swampy areas often have a connecting shallow, dark-bottom bay. The first few warm afternoons of early spring will heat up these marshes very quickly, which draw bass and panfish.

5. Rip-Rap Bank - These rocky areas are commonly found in ponds where the water level can be controlled via a small wood dam or spillway of some type.

6. Deeper Hole - The deepest area in the pond is usually out from the spillway. I'd look to these areas for suspended panfish, especially big crappies, just about anytime you're not getting them in other spots.

7. Channel - A good early area for bass and panfish as this will warm up quickly.

8. Sandgrass-Coated Flat -Sometimes you're just at a loss in trying to figure out the whereabouts of the larger bass. On numerous occasions I've seen slow-tapering flats coated with sandgrass (a short-growing, crunchy grass that looks like dillweed and often has a distinct odor) hold the larger fish.

9. Pads - A bunch of pads in a bay usually signifies a shallow, soft bot-tom. In most waters this means the bay has bass potential from the first warming trends of spring until just before the pre-spawn movements begin.

10. Willow or Tamarack Bushes - On numerous ponds l've seen unruly growths of thick, impenetrable willows or tamarack bushes along a portion of the shoreline. These growths seem to occur on a somewhat firm bottom; which, when combined with the amount of cover they provide and the difficulty of fishing these areas, make ideal spawning grounds for bass and panfish.

11. Fallen Trees - Most anyone will recognize a fallen tree in the water as a potentially-good spot. But most anglers won't interpret and fish trees to exploit their maximum potential.

12. Stumps - Usually a few stumps together mean the pond was created by raising a previously existing source of water to reach the current water level. What this boils down to is that stumps are usually located in shallower water on slow-tapering bottoms.

Excerpts: Fishing Facts, 1987