Back in 2007, I wrote about fishing on the small community pond in back of my in-laws apartment down in North Carolina. At best, that pond was 1/4 acre but it produced some nice bass. With that as a frame of reference, I’ve had to take a new look at small water.
We went on vacation to the Outer Banks this last summer and I did a quick map recon of the area using the Google satellite images (I agree, that’s bordering on obsessive). To my joy, I discovered a few small ponds scattered up and down the barrier. I took my fly rod with me and hoped that those ponds would prove productive in the early morning while waiting for the Basswife to get ready to go to the beach. I ended up fishing on two tiny ponds that both produced 2 pound bass. Granted, I was a little embarrassed standing on the edge of the parking lot with my fly line zinging back over parked cars but all that went away when I started to catch fish. I also noticed some huge carp swirling around within the pond’s small boundary and threw a fly or two in their direction with no success. I ended up fishing that small set of ponds every day during our vacation and caught and released some nice bass each time.
Later in the summer, I had to work late up in Gaithersburg . I worked up there once a week and looked forward to the short drive over to the Upper Potomac to fish while I waited for traffic to die down prior to resuming my commute home to Northern Virginia. On this particular day, we had a minor crisis on my program, and I had to work later than I normally do. Not so late that I could drive directly home and avoid the traffic, but late enough that I did not have time to go over to the Potomac.
Frustrated at missing an opportunity for smallies on the Potomac, I cast my eye on the small corporate pond next to the building. “The heck with it”, I thought to myself “I’ll just fish there”. I wandered down with my 4wt rod, loaded up a small grasshopper, and began to fish the small water. Instantly, the bluegills sprang into action. These guys had probably never seen a fly or any other type of lure. I worked my way around the pond, catching bluegill on every second or third cast. There were some big ones in there that approached 9 inches as you can see from the picture. Any fish caught off the top is an exciting fish to catch!
So, the lesson learned in all this is to not turn up our noses at the small ponds. I’ve certainly learned to overcome my embarrassment of fishing in the middle built-up area and recommend you give it a try as well.
Tiny pond produced the nice bass to the right
This guy is 14 inches!
Corporate pond proves to be a holding tank for bluegills!
This guy is about 9 inches – not bad.
Unless stated otherwise, this article was authored by Steve Moore