Mark Fike
Ponds are arguably the best family destination to catch fish, particularly if looking to have fun and bring home supper at the same time. A good definition of a pond is a landlocked body of water that is relatively small in size and not that deep. Those are vague terms. Anyone can decide where the cutoff point is as far as numbers goes, but I would say something less than 75 acres and preferably much smaller and no more than 20 feet deep at the deepest point would qualify as a pond for the purposes of this article.
There is something special about those small waters that are whole ecosystems to themselves. Fishing a pond is much easier than a lake, which is nothing more than a very large pond, yet finding fish consistently is not always easy unless you know these tips.
Seasons and Weather Conditions
Because ponds are much smaller than lakes and the depths are relatively shallow, seasons and weather conditions readily impact the fishing. However, smaller bodies of water seem to recover from bad weather much quicker than a large lake too. For instance, if a hard cold front blows through on a Monday, fishing on a large lake may not improve until late Wednesday while a pond will revert back to the status of fishing and fish activity much sooner, possibly within 12 hours.
Ponds warm up and get colder much quicker than a lake. Turnover happens quickly in a pond in the fall and spring. The shallows heat up in late winter and cool down in the fall much faster too. You might catch bass in the shallows in February after the temperatures have been in the 60s for a few days while on a lake that probably won’t happen unless you have a week of warm weather or the temperatures are warmer than the 60s.
All that is said to say this, if a storm or front rolls through, give a pond about 12 hours or so if the weather settles quickly and then go fish with good expectations.
Depths
With a pond not having a lot of depth for fish to escape from the heat or cold, the fish could be anywhere at any depth. The nice thing is that there is not a lot of territory to cover to figure out what depth the fish are using in a pond. In the cool of winter or sustained heat of summer midday, I am going to be fishing deeper water where oxygen levels are likely to be a bit better and temperatures will be comfortable for the fish.
Sunlight
However, a disclaimer would be that the sunlight has a lot to do with where fish in a pond will feed too. On a hot summer day with the sun shining or a cold winter day that is cloudy, I am sticking to probing the depths with slow moving jigs and plastics, spinnerbaits in white or shad colors or by using a Johnson spoon. On cold winter days I also like to run RatLTraps or similar lures, particularly the ones that suspend and can be jerked, twitched or just wobbled along
Once that sun is starting to head up or down in the hot summer or the day is cloudy and overcast, fish will ease into the shallows to find a meal. Stick baits, creature baits, finesse worms, whacky rigged worms, topwater frogs or shallow crankbaits bounced off logs or other structure will pick up bass and large bream quickly.
Spring and Fall Fishing on a Pond
This is the transition time of fishing. Ponds will be turning over. Fish are often in the shallows among emerging vegetation (spring) where the water is rapidly warming and cooling. On strings of warm days invertebrates such as crayfish will come out. Sometimes frogs and other prey will be in the shallows too.
During the fall, vegetation such as cattails or lily pads are dying off, but fish are seeking invertebrates that are in or among the receding vegetation seeking what is left of available cover. These are dynamite areas to fish as everything seems in a hurry and changes are happening rapidly.
The key to fishing when the water is in transition and when the pond is very clear is to make long casts. Because ponds are small, movement by anglers is felt and seen from a longer distance. Long casts avoid spooking fish and tend to put more in the livewell or cooler for you.
Be sure to check the banks in shallow water while wearing polarized glasses during the early spring on warm days. Crappie will be looking for a place to spawn and then a month later bass can be seen on flats or in coves of ponds making bowl shaped depressions for nests followed by bream a month later!
Tips for Year-Round Pond Fishing
- Start out with pearl or white colors in the late fall and winter then switch to another color.
- By late fall and winter, most prey fish have grown. Don’t be afraid to use large lures or jumbo minnows.
- Hit a pond in the late winter on the third or fourth consecutive day of warm and sunny weather. Fish the shallows with long casts using crayfish imitating lures, small minnow crankbaits, small spoons or spinnerbaits such as Beetle Spins and small jigs.
- Wear polarized glasses to sight fish and determine if fish are in the shallows when possible. If you do not see any fish in the shallows, fish deeper. Once you find the right depth, experiment a bit with colors and lure types but don’t leave fish to find fish!
- Walk or boat quietly along the banks in late February and March looking for crappie in the shallows on the banks. They will often be in mere feet of water when spawning. They are much easier to pick off when their noses are to the bank.
- Bream and bass make bowl shaped depressions in shallow waters of coves and on flats. Polarized glasses will help pick these areas out. Bream are easy pickings in such areas. Use red wigglers, garden worms and crickets.
- Bream will destroy a cricket that is lobbed near a nest. Get a tube of crickets or catch your own in late April and May
- Bass hate creature baits swimming around their nests. Often they will just deftly pick it up and carry it out of the area, but sometimes they are very aggressive and “kill it”. Be ready!
- Catfish can be caught on float rigs with bait hanging a few feet below the float vs on a bottom rig in ponds. It is a little more fun on a float, particularly for kids.
- Use just enough weight such as a small split shot or a float just large enough to get the job done to avoid spooking fish or tipping them off something is awry; better yet, when possible use no weight at all for a natural presentation.
- If your pond is ever drained or gets a few feet low, note where the structure is or better yet, take a photo of it so you know where to fish when the water level returns to normal.
- With the owner’s permission, you can add structure such as hinge cut trees, cedar trees or other branches to the pond for more fish cover and fish attractants. Make a point to remember where you placed the structure by lining up points on the bank to locate it later.
- Move quietly. Sound travels easily in the water.
- Last, take a kid fishing on a pond. With the fish concentrated in a much smaller body of water, kids are much more likely to be successful. Let’s pass on our traditions and create some good old fashioned family bonding time by taking our kids fishing.
