Dumb Question About Farm Ponds

[Tuckahoe Joe]

I hear a lot of people on here talking about fishing farm ponds. I was just wondering, what exactly is a farm pond? Is it a pond on someone's farm? Like behind someones corn field or old barn? Or is it a pond where fish are farmed? Can anyone just go and fish them or do you have to get permission/pay a fee? Whats the deal?

[roadwarrior]

Generally, a manmade body of water in a rural setting.

They are private and require permission to fish. When

acquired for housing development or community parks

these ponds may allow public access, but restrictions often

apply.

[Sam]

The understanding of a "farm pond" is exactly that, a pond located on a farm be it a beef farm, a crop farm or a retired farm.

Many farms have been sold and the original owners have retained their home property that has a pond on it. This is considered to be a farm pond.

Then there are golf course and subdivision ponds.

When anyone uses the term "farm pond" it usually relates to a small body of water situated on farm property. Great places to fish and to sharpen your technique skills and learn about different baits.

Farm pond fishing is fun and it is not as difficult as fishing lakes and rivers out of a bass boat where you have to have additional skills to locate the bass on any given day. Many guys catch their largest bass in farm ponds and then go out on the local waters and get skunked.

[Tuckahoe Joe]

So are the bass naturally in such a small body of water or are they stocked? I ask cuz the MD state record largemouth came from a farm pond. If so, someone could just stock their small pond, leave the fish alone for several years, and then boom, record size fish. Doesn't it seem kind of unfair that they should count for state records? Maybe its just me.

[moguy1973]

The thing with big bass in smallish farm ponds is that the forage has to be present for them to grow to any size. Also, there must be the right ratio of bass to other fish in the pond. There can't be to many bass either because they'll just compete for food and it will stunt their growth. The size of the pond has to be large enough to support big bass too. Too small and they won't be able to grow due to lack of forage, cover, etc. Depth of the pond also plays a part in producing big bass so they have a place to stay cool in hot summer months.

[senile1]

There are farm ponds with huge fish but it has been my experience in my area that many of them are not managed properly resulting in an over-population of bass and skinny fish. There is one pond I have fished for eight years. When I first fished it there were a number of large bass in the 3 - 5 lb range and occasionally a 7 lb'er could be had. The main forage in this pond is bluegill and green sunfish and back then the owner was actively involved in managing the fishery. The population of bass outpaced the population of small panfish for food and the pond has evolved into a poor fishery for large bass. I have made suggestions to the owner to restock the pond with more small bluegill and I and a few others that fish it have tried to selectively harvest the smaller bass. The owner has not added any more forage and all of the bluegill/green sunfish that I see are so huge they would be difficult for the small bass to eat. In just a matter of a few years this pond has gone from a big bass fishery to an also-ran. I rarely fish there now because I have a better chance at big bass in the public lakes.

[wademaster1]

senile, i used to fish a pond identical to what your describing; never fish there anymore unless i just wanna catch a monster bluegill; also, some farm ponds do have big bass but after you put in all the time and work to find the ones that are actually maintained decently and fish all of them regularly enough to finally get a beast well then you deserve that fish, imo