I have a pond that alot of people in the neighboorhood fish and i swim to the fountains once a month and find cranks or mostly spooks and poppers hooked up on the fountains ropes that hold them down, i usually clean the baits up and change treble hooks, and ive caughten fish on many of them. I have to say i atleast have gotten 50 dollars in cranks and spooks,

Never swam out to the fountains but my dad and his buddy used to pay me $1.00 each time to jump in and retrieve their snags. Made good money and got invited to go on a lot of fishing trips that way.

If i had a pond like that, i would without a doubt do that.

You sir are very lucky.

No fountains for me...but like smr913, my dad several times sent me swimming to get one of his plugs that he had hung up on the opposite side of the canal. No dollar for me - AND, I should have got hazardous duty pay. The canal was along Tamiami Trail in South Florida, north of the Everglades, alligator country. When I asked my dad if I should worry about the gators, he'd say: "no problem - they're probably full of fish and won't mess with you." It was only a couple times and I think he eventually realized it wasn't the greatest idea.

But, at the time, I guess he figured that he had 3 kids so he had a couple of spares if anything happened to me.............................

During the winter months if there's open water I'll idle along the shorelines in the local lakes and look for baits hung in the trees that were hidden by leaves during the summer months. One of the lakes with the heaviest pressure that has lots of trees along the shoreline gave me over 30 baits in one day one of the first times I went out there, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, and topwaters that were either floating along the bank where the water willow is thick during the summer months or hanging in the trees that I used my telescoping lure retriever to get. Had to climb on top of my pedastal seat to reach a couple of them, don't know how people manage to cast that high up in trees.

Well here in louisiana every neighboorhood has a pond with fountains and i think i might start doing that in other neiighboorhoods than mines.

I feel like a hobo doing that but it saves money when you find baits that cost 5-10 bucks each and all you have to do is change treble hooks

i retrieved several of my own and many others last winter at several ponds once they froze over. We have 3 local golf courses on rivers here. The kids now do what i and my buddy did and snorkle for the lost golf balls. to the tune of over 500$ for each of them last year. we sell them all. from perfect to near perfect to junky ones for practice.

There is a big, dead tree about 20 yards from shore at a local lake. It collects a lot of gear from shore fishermen and once or twice a month a buddy and I will stop by in the boat while fishing and collect whatever is stuck to it. We collect a good $30 - $40 worth of gear on average every time we stop by. I've pulled some nice stuff out of that tree.

I know the location of a few crankbaits in a tree near me hahaha

No ponds around me that would be legal to do that. What I do, however, is when area reservior's are in winter draw down I hike around the shoreline and pick off snagged lures from stumps, deadfalls etc.

No fountains for me...but like smr913, my dad several times sent me swimming to get one of his plugs that he had hung up on the opposite side of the canal. No dollar for me - AND, I should have got hazardous duty pay. The canal was along Tamiami Trail in South Florida, north of the Everglades, alligator country. When I asked my dad if I should worry about the gators, he'd say: "no problem - they're probably full of fish and won't mess with you." It was only a couple times and I think he eventually realized it wasn't the greatest idea.

But, at the time, I guess he figured that he had 3 kids so he had a couple of spares if anything happened to me.............................

No fountains for me...but like smr913, my dad several times sent me swimming to get one of his plugs that he had hung up on the opposite side of the canal. No dollar for me - AND, I should have got hazardous duty pay. The canal was along Tamiami Trail in South Florida, north of the Everglades, alligator country. When I asked my dad if I should worry about the gators, he'd say: "no problem - they're probably full of fish and won't mess with you." It was only a couple times and I think he eventually realized it wasn't the greatest idea.

But, at the time, I guess he figured that he had 3 kids so he had a couple of spares if anything happened to me.............................

Swimming in the tamiami canals!! Lol I've seen gators pushing 12 feet in there. Hazardous pay, haha, you couldn't pay me enough!

Swimming in the tamiami canals!! Lol I've seen gators pushing 12 feet in there. Hazardous pay, haha, you couldn't pay me enough!

As an adult - you couldn't pay me enough either. But as a young kid - I wasn't smart enough to know better. My dad would also point out that the Miccosukee kids swam in the canal too and they seemed to be OK (although I wonder if some of them came up missing from time to time!)

This was all in the early- to mid-1960s - almost 50 years ago...

someone started a rumor to all of the shore fishermen that if they cast at the trees with a crankbait that's how they would get their bites they caught fish and I had a boat to catch their hung up lures lol

Never done that, but I'm constantly biting the bullet and getting in the creek to retrieve my cranks.

At some point during the day we'll usually beach the boat to stretch or wizz. I usually take the time to walk the shore line. I gotta say, people drop some weird items in the lake, most of my finds are hard lures, with cranks being the majority. I dont really deep crank,but have enough D22's and bandit 300's to last a lifetime.

Yes, I have gone swimming in my favorite pond to retreive a bait.

I now cut the line and when I get the paddle boat out I go to the wood and use my baitless hook to snag the line and then retreive the baits.

I will not go into any large lake or river waters. If the bait gets hung and I can't get it free then I cut the line.

Yes, I have gone swimming in my favorite pond to retreive a bait.

I now cut the line and when I get the paddle boat out I go to the wood and use my baitless hook to snag the line and then retreive the baits.

I will not go into any large lake or river waters. If the bait gets hung and I can't get it free then I cut the line.

Smart thinking..I see water moccasins in my creek all the time.

don't know how people manage to cast that high up in trees.

My Dad must have been there, hahaha

I will swim for my own lure for the most part. There are times were I am like screw it though. Once and a while I have snagged other peoples lines. Since a lot of shore fisherman use only live bait. I just throw it in the trash. I can not tell you how many times. I have snagged 50 feet of line. With a 2oz weight in it.

nah

I'll swim for an expensive swimbait, but that's about it :-p

I'm not above looking for lures to adopt though