Pond Hopper

Well for years its been a couple buddies but my girlfriend of 6 years recently got hooked after catching a few nice bass (4+lbs). That or she knows its the only way to see me on a weekend. BUt I am trying to teach her and she learns well but it gets frustrating. Here she is, this is a double we caught about 2 months ago fishing ponds. Chances are she ends up being my main fishing partner, although I still need the weekends with the guys. http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i265/cmward13/June2006Trips005.jpg Corey

A couple nice rods and reels, a bigger tackle bag, then either a diamond ring for the old lady or like George said Id invest it so when I retire I could buy the nicest boat out there. Can never look to far into the future, unless your looking into the grave.

Most of the bodies of water I fish are less than 5 acres. I am convinced that with the fish I have caught and seen one of these ponds holds a true chance in thr spring to produce a double digit fish, in Iowa. State record is only 10 lbs 12 oz or along those lines. My 2 biggest fish this year have come out of a pond that is a triangle with 40 foot side, maybe 1/4 acre.. Hawghunter was there for one. Small bodies can produce big fish. A big bass here is 7 lbs and every fish 7+lbs Ive seen has been out of a 5 acre or less pond. Corey

Caught a 7 lb 14 oz Iowa bass about 3 years ago. Caught it all by myself fishing a farm pond and was amazed I just sat there for 5 minutes. Im hoping to top that this year since I havent caught anything over 6 lbs all year.

JTbassman, It was an unbelievable weekend and I started to expect it, with not the same results. Private farm ponds are amazing fisheries if managed correctly and there is no sizeable population center within 50 miles so it is very remote. Normal weekend may be a dozen or so bigger than 3 lbs and normally see a 5 lb fish when down for a weekend. But by no means do I catch them like Bill Dance, although Im not as clumsy either. Corey

PM Sent

Fathers day weekend 2004 I took my buddy and his dad pond fishing in Southern Iowa. Between Saturday and half the day Sunday we caught 90 bass over 3 lbs. Of those there were 9 fish over 5 lbs, and everyone caught a bass bigger than 6lbs. The best of the weekend was a 8 lb 1 oz bass my buddy caught that I got wet landing. It was an amazing weekend and all we were doing was pitching spinnerbaits into holes in the weeds. The weird thing was 50 of the 3+lb fish were out of one pond. Corey

Take 3 pallets and make a triangle. THen take some old weights(barbell/dumbell) and tie them to the pallets. THen shove a xmas or other small tree in the pallets with some holes cut in the tree and pallets. Gives the fish somewhere to hide with escape routes. Easy to put together and cheap.

One leg in front of the other.

Uncle Virgil and also CLunn, I like the old timers but of the young guys Id say Edwin Evers.

I lie to my uncles all the time about what ponds I caught fish because Ive watched an 8 lb bass fall to their knife, and I like growing some bigger bass. Corey

I agree with Marty, smaller ecosystems are much more delicate than say a lake. Selective harvest does need to be practiced eventually so that a pond doesnt become overpopulated and stunted. Ive seen some awesome ponds turn into ones where all you catch is 8-10 inch fish. Corey

I try not to fish a pond too hard, but it helps in the area I fish I have around 50 ponds I have access to. Choosing a fishing spot though is dependent on if there are crops up, how hard it gets fished, the quality of fish, and also the ease of fishing. I dont stay too long at one pond if the fish arent biting, HawgHunter can attest to that. That is more a lack of patience than not wanting to over fish them though. One piece of advice I would give is vary your appraoch, fish different ponds and fish different baits. Alot of the ponds I can fish, the fish there are very wary of a spinnerbait because of the overuse of them. Otherwise just go catch some fish. Corey

A fish that big could probably crap out a Iowa state record. Geez what a bruiser.

Yes thats a no brainer. especially beings almost everything I fish is private. The compensation would be nice too. Corey

Same here in Illinois/Iowa. Although there are some poisonous snakes they arent that serious and also not very common. I normally am bank fishing ponds and have never ran into anything other than gardner/bull/water snakes in ten years. Although if they were a threat I would have to agree with the .357 with birdshot, or whatever caliber it was. Corey

Most of the bodies of water I fish arent as big as that thing, seriously. Corey

Darrin, Gives me an idea for how to get on that lake I fished this weekend. Maybe tell her dad he will be on TV, people love the attention. Corey

I do the majority of my fishing from shore and like it, but I had a little boat this weekend and its nice not to have to walk or worry about mud or anything but not sinking the boat, which isnt all to unfamiliar to me either. COrey

This is up around Galesburg, IL. It is privately owned but Im looking enough that my girlfriends dad is a VP for the company. Its a gorgeous lake, Ill take some pictures of the lake and cabin.

I am going with the in laws this weekend and get to fish a 50 acre flooded quarry. While this is not my first time there I have never done that well on bass. The structure of the quarry is limited to a few stumps and trees that fell in otherwise it is crystal clear water(can see 10-15 ft deep). And it consists of nothing but shelves. I dont know the best way to expalin this but there is an old access road to get in and out that spirals nearly the entire way down. So basically there is about a 15 foot shelf then the next dropoff goes down another 15-20 feet and so on. I am just curious as to how many would approach this. I know there are huge fish in there because it is an old lake that is spring fed, maintains constant water levels, and is over 100 hundred feet deep in areas. There are a couple smaller ponds that I will focus on but would like to pull some fish out of the big lake. Thanks in advance for any help. Corey

I doubt that hooks dissinegrate in the time it takes a bass to digest one. My girlfriend caught a 2 lber a month ago that had mono coming out of the rectum and when she pulled on it out came the shank of the hook. Unfortunately she tore the gills up so it wasnt a matter of it living or not. But there was also part of what looked like a ten inch worm in the gut when I cut it open. I know some waters are different but this is just what I witnessed. Corey

First of all introduce yourself and the neighbor that you know. Farmers all know their neighbors. Second of all tell him what you want to catch and if you keep fish or just CPR. THen like said before offer to clean some fish for him and ask what kind how many, etc. Also dont litter and pick up any garbage you see. I got kicked off a pond for other people littering, I know have permission to fish it again and take anything out that I see. I picked up tons of shot off fireworks and papers this summer, but the farmer pulled up when I was doing it and Im pretty sure I have permission locked up. And dont get greedy is the big thing, as far as keeping fish or how often you fish this place. Most farmers in this area will give permission if you are cordial and polite. Corey

Signed up on my first trip, I like the idea of a mainly bass forum, although my first post was greeted with some skepticism by LBH because of HawgHunter.

My two cents here because 99% of what I fish is farm ponds from a 1/4 acre to around 8 acres. I got into a habit a couple summers ago of throwing spinnerbaits religiously, and catching lots of fish because I had never thrown them and these ponds dont get fished alot. Granted there are new year classes every year but after a while my spinnerbait bite seemed to die down. I dont know if they get use to it or if the past times fishing were not ideal situations. I recently started using alot of buzzbaits with the heat (because of my girlfriend) and the bass seem to hit the crap out of them. In one 1/4 acre pond, and hawghunter has fished it, I swear Ive caught the same 5 lb bass twice this year. Maybe not but it looked identical. Anyways, I think there is a point where they begin to realize that they have seen that before and may not hit it like the had before. Not saying I dont catch any fish on spoinners anymore but I think overfishing one lure can educate fish and trying to match a lure to the conditions instead of past luck will produce better, at least it has for me since I quit throwing the spinner 95% of the time. Corey