The Local Spots

Those of you who know me, know that I am very protective over "my" fishing spots.  I realize that I do not own the water, thus the quotations.  But the way I feel, the less people know the whereabouts, the better.  It's one thing if it's a fairly large body of water, or one that I feel is difficult to figure out, or remote enough, that people wont bother with it, then I may share the name of the lake/pond/river.  It's quite another, when the pond is maybe an acre, or has very limited access, or already has significant fishing pressure.

Now with that out of the way, what I want to talk to you about, is those little local ponds, creeks, rivers, or whatever it is that you have.  You know the ones, you live 5 minutes away from them, and never in your wildest dreams, would you expect to catch a fish in there, let alone, a decent bass.  Well, here's my advice, FISH IT.  Sure, you may get some looks from the clueless old lady walking by, or the pompous guy with the striped bass belt and the topsiders , that asks you "What do you think you're going to catch in here?!" with a sarcastic attitude.

My father taught my brother and me to fish in a small river.  The widest point of this particular spot is maybe 8ft, and approximately 5 or 6 feet deep.  We still fish this spot frequently, and continue to pull out 3, 4 and 5 pound fish.  I still get snickered at from time to time by the aforementioned supercilious gentlemen, but I just chuckle to myself, and play along, and be careful not to tip my hand on how productive these small waters can be.

Now I get asked a lot where I catch some of these 4 and 5 pound bass, and some get upset when I don't give them the slightest clue as to where it was.  The bottom line is, my father, my brother, and I have all put in our time, trying to figure out these bodies of water.  These have become "go to spots" when we only have an hour to fish, or just need a quick trip to build some confidence.  When one of us goes to one of these locations, and finds a group of people with buckets, taking everything that they catch, we kind of take it to heart.  We have since had one small pond, basically fished out by a group of "poachers".  I can't prove that they were taking more fish than the daily creel limit allowed, but if you take 6 bass out of a tiny pond every day, you are bound to destroy that ecosystem, and quickly too. Luckily, a volunteer group, has since taken over responsibility of the pond, and has made it strictly catch and release, and the bass population is starting to bounce back.

So, what I'm getting at, is go check out that little pond down the road.  Throw everything you have at it, and see what works.  I've come to the conclusion, that every body of water (aside from a puddle) has fish in it, no matter how big or how small.  Everyone wants to know where someone caught a  five pounder, but no one wants to put in the time looking for their own spot. This is the best place to start. Just give it a shot, and I think you will be glad you did.

Here are a few pictures from some of these places, and please excuse the expert level cropping, but I have to protect the spots!

Josh with a 4lber on his home made popper!

My dad with a nice bass, on a rubber worm.