the old fishing pond

lol at what point is it not really fishing any more???

You sure the soil on the bottom of that pond isnt plastic??? lol It looks like one of those landscapers plastic puddle ponds. I can just see them whining about hooks when someone wants to fish that thing

Since the pond IS owned in the family, try a handful of hybrid striped bass. They eat everything in sight and fight much better than largemouths. Crappie have a tendency to overpopulate small ponds like this and end up stunted. Now if that was my pond and I found you sneaking crappie in there, I'd stock your butt with birdshot )

If I lived in the NE, I'd get my skiis back out of the closet!!! Fishing season may start late and go later.

You see those angular small boulders near the far bank? Next time you are there, quietly sneak up on the back side of those rocks and lower a small bait like a single salmon egg down at the edge of that rock. Don't use any weight on your line... then hold on! Trout love to slide into cracks and crannies under rocks like those. Often times all you will see is a bit of a big trout nose sticking out. Good luck and tight lines!

Love stories like that! So you and the trout were happy after that!

My earliest memories of wild trout were from when I was about six. Even then I knew they were wild right away. With those long perfectly formed fins and their vivid colors, they stood out like little freshwater sharks.

I swore off that stuff 30 years ago when I became a fly snob lol Whatever happened to the romance of fishing with real things like worms???

They are notoriously hard to catch and the property owners usually don't want you to because they are stocked to eat the weeds. Anything soft and vegetable should work. You will probably have to nearly mouth snag em to get them to hit.