I found a pond that looks perfect for fishing! Except...I don't know if it has fish, if it is anything more than a big puddle or just what is left of a flood. It is out in the middle of nowhere, away from traffic and away from most civilization (a rarity around here). It is just off of a nature trail, but not marked for fishing (there is actually NO signage whatsoever). It is full of shoreline grass to give decent cover. It appears to be fairly deep. I stopped today and tossed a few baits for maybe 30 minutes (jig, fluke and spinnerbait) and even though the water is pretty clear, I didn't see a single fish. Not even a minnow. There were turtles, though, so that seems to say the water isn't too awful toxic (unless those turtles were named Raphael and Leonardo). The only explanation I can come up with is that it could be just a hole that was dug for dirt.

 

My question to you guys: what are some key things to look for to detemine if a body of water has fish? I am in a never ending quest to find "off the map" fishing holes because the top quality lakes around here aren't friendly to shore fishing, so this info would go pretty far. I want to stop and aska few farmers to fish their pond, but I would rather not get laughed at. Or worse: they let me fish there even though they know it's just runoff.

 

here is a panorama:

 

 

 

Very flat where you live, I would say man made, could be spring feed do yo see any run-off to a small stream or any runoff at all?  Depending on the temps not seeing any fish doesn't means its a total bust.  I would be cautious however of fishing something you know very little about, I would recommend making sure that's its public land and you are able to fish it.  Check on Google maps and see if you can find this pond, go back into history to see how much it changed or if it even existed, I think you can go back to 10 years or more.  If the pond is older than 10 years chances are someone put something in there and might be worth more research.

1: no springs that I could see, but I did not look very hard. It is surrounded by farm land. The road leading up to it splits off into a gov't run area that is gated off.

 

2: I did look for no trespassing signs and found none. There is a road leading up to it (you can see my little Aveo there in the picture). This body of water is as far as cars can go, then it is barricaded off for a walking trail that IS owned by the state.

 

3: I do see it on google maps, but I did not know you can go back to see the history. i will do that. It is not named on the map, though.

1: no springs that I could see, but I did not look very hard. It is surrounded by farm land. The road leading up to it splits off into a gov't run area that is gated off.

 

2: I did look for no trespassing signs and found none. There is a road leading up to it (you can see my little Aveo there in the picture). This body of water is as far as cars can go, then it is barricaded off for a walking trail that IS owned by the state.

 

3: I do see it on google maps, but I did not know you can go back to see the history. i will do that. It is not named on the map, though.

I think PABASS meant to say Google Earth, not maps. Use the "historical imagery" feature under the "view" menu.

I think PABASS meant to say Google Earth, not maps. Use the "historical imagery" feature under the "view" menu.

 

Indeed. I found that out and will have to wait until I get home because I can't install Google Earth at work.