How does pond fishing translate to lakes?

[RO_Watkins]

Though I have fished for my entire life Bass fishing is relatively new to me, I've only been doing it for about a year or so now. Since I don't have a boat I am almost entirely confined to fishing in ponds. I have several ponds to fish, all with different sources and topography, but they're all still ponds. 

 

As someone who wants to continue to Bass fish and would like to fish in lakes eventually I just wonder how much of what I've learned from ponds will translate. What is going to be the same? What is going to be different? Is there anything I can do in ponds to simulate lakes or prepare myself? 

 

I appreciate all the help, thanks!

[CrustyMono]

Ponds are a great place to learn how to fish. They are usually easily accessible, small, and have abundant fish. The basic food chain of a pond will be more complex in a lake. There may be more types of baitfish, smallmouth bass, spotted bass, and largemouth. Black bass might not be the apex predator. Pike, Musky, Stripers, and other large game fish rule the waters of a lake. At different points throughout the year, fish will be located in different areas. This aspect of lakes makes them hard to fish on tough days. The fish can spread out more, and will be less likely to bite. It can also be much better on good days. When you put together a pattern of getting bit in a certain area many times, you have the opportunity to catch lots of fish. Lakes also produce huge fish. The complex food chain allows them to feed more and get bigger. Fishing a lake can be both similar and different than fishing ponds. Many lures that work in ponds will also work in lakes. It is easy to bank fish ponds, because you can fish most of the pond from shore. In a lake, you are limited to the accessible part of the bank. This makes it hard to catch offshore fish. Fish will still relate to cover and structure like they do in ponds.

 

Good Luck,

Crusty

[WildmanWilson]

I grew up pond fishing but when I started fishing big water it was a different world. I fish Ky and Barkley and you may be right out in the middle of the vast lake fishing a road bed or ledge. It blew my mind that you would fish this far out. Of course you fish the banks as well but the time of year has a lot to do with it. Current also plays a big role here. It takes some time to eliminate unproductive water that all looks the same to an untrained eye. Get maps of the lake if you can. One point may look the same until you notice one has a creek channel right next to it. These things make a huge difference.

The best thing to do it hook up with someone that is accustom to this type of fishing and let them show you the ropes. The learning curve will be much shorter if you do.

[flyingmonkie]

There are many more things to consider when fishing lakes - especially if you're captain of the boat.  But your time is not wasted!  Bank fishing ponds can be one of the best ways to hone your skills.

 

As someone relatively new to bass fishing, use this time to focus on technique: casting, proper retrieve, detecting bites, setting the hook, fighting/landing/releasing fish.  It's also a great way to test new lures, lines, rods/reels, etc. and to build your realm of confidence (aka, your "arsenal").

 

I use pond fishing weekly as practice.  Each time I pick something to work on or something to test out.  

[NCbassraider]

Labeling ponds as "easier" or places to "hone" skills is a bit inaccurate.  Most ponds are under a tremendous amount of angling pressure and that can make fishing frustrating and cause a beginner to question everything as sometimes nothing will work in a small body of water.

 

One thing is for sure, the size of the body of water makes no difference to the size of the Bass living within. My friends at BPS all concur that the majority of big bass they see come from small bodies of water.  The State record in NC is almost 16 lbs and came out of a 2 acre farm pond.  16 years later no lake has produced anything close.

 

I will concede that locating bass in big lakes is tougher but catching them in ponds can be much tougher.  Of course, the definition of "pond" and "lake" can play a big role in this debate.

["hamma"]

The major difference is just as one would think,.Lakes are much bigger, therefore, offering more area to fish, This can act as a boost or bane, meaning there can be more fish within its shores, but then yet there can also be more unproductive areas as well.

 If I were you, in this crossroads, I'd follow Flyingmonkie's thought on building your "arsenal" but be ready to add some to it as the larger waters may require a couple deep water techniques such as deepwater crankin, dropshotting,etc. from a boat. Shore fishing lakes "can" be a exercise in futility due to their shear size. Your best served to fish lakes from a boat, and they alone will add techniques and tricks to the arsenal you comprise. So get effecient with the ways you fish now, become acclimated to your tackle and techniques as they will be the platform you will start with, as you graduate to a boat.

[frogflogger]

First time I was on a lake of any size at all I was flummoxed until I realized it is just a big pond or a bunch of ponds - learned to hunt and to eliminate and bingo.

[scaleface]

Get real good at  fishing the bottom and deep in cover . Soft plastics Texas rigged and jigs will prepare you to fish anywhere at  any depth .

[Paul Roberts]

Bass are bass -meaning, they share certain characteristics across all waters, even though all waters are not the same asking different things of those fundamental characteristics.

 

Small waters help in one particular aspect -finding fish is one heck of lot easier and less costly: no boat, no maps, no electronics needed. "Structure", if you even have to consider it (as many small waters could have bass habitat throughout), is most often attached to the shoreline and therefore an easy initial read. You are then looking for the "hot-spots"/ holding spots/ spots-on-the-spots/ ambush points/ strike zones/"carnage zones"/ etc... -pick your labels. Then it becomes a matter of finding, or conjuring, biters. At this juncture, I agree entirely with NCbassraider's excellent post.

[ww2farmer]

I learned to cast and set hooks on farm ponds.

 

I learned to fish on lakes.

 

In a pond you got them cornered 

[the reel ess]

My family had a lake house most of my life. I started out fishing from our dock with a cane pole and walking the banks, catching bluegill and small bass. My dad bought a pontoon boat and we started fishing from crappie. Later he bought an aluminum bass boat and we took up bass. We didn't have sophisticated electronics that bass boats come with now, so it was hit and miss. Sometimes we just didn't know where they went. On the other hand, there is the added bonus of a large striper or catfish or whatever as a bycatch. When I finally had enough money to buy my own boat I ran the lake for a while. I tired of going over to the lake, putting the boat in, spending the night so i could be on the water before every one else just to discover 2 boats already where I wanted to be...on a weekday. Did they sleep in that cove??? Then I'd end up at my backup spots trying to salvage the day.

 

I started going to our local reservoir with a friend and never looked back. The access is owned by the property owners around it so it's usually deserted. The most I've ever seen on it is three boats on July 4th. I can go with my buddy or put my big boat in. I started taking my kayak anytime it's warm enough. It's about 30 acres, with weedy and wood cover and some deeper structure so it's big enough for fish to be holding in different patterns in different places. It's just a smaller, cleaner lake. The forage is gold shiners and bluegill mas well as crawfish, I'm sure. The big bass are bigger here and less stressed. Therefore, I'm less stressed and have a better chance at a PB. In fact, this is where my PB came from last fall. I'm 46 now and I'm not looking to compete with throngs of anglers whipping the waters for smaller bass. 

 

I can't always get in the reservoir on short notice because I need a key from my buddy so I asked around for other places to fish and got permission. I have at least limited access by permission to 5 private ponds and there are a couple more I can go to anytime I like. These are nice to have when you're kayaking because you can put it in any puddle of water where often it's just too windy for a kayak on bigger waters. And the smaller the water, the more likely it is fish will be cooperative, but not always. That's a nice consolation prize.

 

Also, I don't see fish schooling on bait in ponds in an "organized" manner as much as I do in lakes. They relate to where bait is, but don't seem to herd it to the surface. Others will disagree, but that's my experience. That's probably due to the type of bait present, not the bass since a bass is a bass, wherever you find him. I don't notice one piece of cover holding groups of bass in ponds as much either unless it's during the spawn. Bigger the bass, the more likely they're loners. In a pond, you know you'll at least drag a bait by some fish, probably some big ones, even if they don't bite. All the same baits work in ponds as lakes, but I find it a lot easier to get topwater strikes in ponds. I imagine that's because the pond is shallower, therefore easier for fish to locate topwaters and food is more limited. Just theories.

 

That's my $0.02 in the pond vs lake topic. Some of my ideas are anecdotal and I'm sure people will have other opinions. Good luck!

 

 

 

[Deleted account]

I was always under the impression that ponds were small lakes, and vise versa, silly me, twarted by semantics! d**n you Webster!

[Paul Roberts]

3 hours ago, ww2farmer said:

I learned to cast and set hooks on farm ponds.

 

I learned to fish on lakes.

 

In a pond you got them cornered 

 

Wow. You must be GOOD!

 

In many small waters, even ponds, I've at times been forced to realize that I'm not the only one with all the power. The smaller the pond, the more humbling they can be.

[ww2farmer]

2 minutes ago, Paul Roberts said:

Wow. You must be GOOD!

 

In many small waters, even ponds, I've at times been forced to realize that I'm not the only one with all the power. The smaller the pond, the more humbling they can be.

Trying to bait me into an argument is just going to end up with you looking like a fool.

 

If you don't like my opinion, move along.

[Paul Roberts]

No baiting. Apologies for mis-understanding your post. I read it "learn", rather than "learned".

[NCbassraider]

9 hours ago, ww2farmer said:

 

 

In a pond you got them cornered 

 

Depends on the size of the "pond".  There is no clear cut definition on what is a pond and what is a lake. Some States have minimum acreage to be classifies a lake, most do not.  Some "ponds" are 100's of acres.  

 

I own a property with what was named a "lake" long before I owned it but I consider it a pond.  It is 10 acres and even on a body of water that small, you definitely do not "have them cornered".  I fish it 4-5 times a week even if only for a couple hours and am still learning how to fish it.  

[ww2farmer]

6 hours ago, Paul Roberts said:

No baiting. Apologies for mis-understanding your post. I read it "learn", rather than "learned".

No need to apologize, I was just wondering what you you were going for there.

 

I'll stand by my statement and clarify it , I learned to cast, rig bait's, detect bites, and set hooks on farm ponds.

 

I learned how to bass fish on lakes...........finding fish, finding a pattern, learning how the fish move and react seasonally, how they position on and use different types of cover that I was not familiar with, how weather effects there activity level, how to catch fish that maybe 10 other guys were trying to catch within the last 2 hours, etc....

 

In the ponds I fished, which were all small.............yes I had them cornered. 

 

Thats how pond fishing vs. lake fishing differed for me...........which is what the OP asked. Everyone else's exp. might vary.

 

Why people feel the need to call me out on what my exp. pond fishing vs lake fishing is or was is beyond me

 

Too many semantics in this thread.

[Snipe Hunter]

What I learned while fishing ponds generally translates to lakes. The biggest difference for me is that fish have more choices in a lake than a pond so locating quality fish and locating the areas of the lake that consistently holds fish is more challenging than reading a pond. I could read and learn to find fish a pond fairly quickly. It can take a lot longer to do that in a lake. My favorite "confidence" baits are generally the same ones I used in ponds.

 

I fish one lake in western Maryland that had me stumped. I finally realized that I was fishing the wrong end of the lake. It's a deep lake, 60-70 ft but the greater amount of shallow areas were at the other end. The deep water was still over 40ft in the main stem of the other end. I was at the dam end and the fish were at the other end. The shallows held more grass, long underwater points and easier structure to read that all translated into better habitat. Once the obvious dawned on me, I started fishing the other end where the fish were.

 

I also had to learn to fish deeper water and get the "shoreline pounding" out of my system. I fish big spoons now and under-spin jig heads on swim-baits so the fish can see them looking up. I wouldn't use those types of baits in a shallower pond.

[Paul Roberts]

2 minutes ago, ww2farmer said:

No need to apologize, I was just wondering what you you were going for there.

...

Why people fell the need to call me out on what my exp. pond fishing is or was is beyond me

 

Often fishers consider "pond" fishing as easy and just practice for "real" fishing. Kindof chaps my... . And, I took a wrong turn.

 

Big water sure adds dimension to the game; That's a no brainer. But, IMO, there's plenty to keep a bass fisher busy in small waters, if you fish enough of them.

3 minutes ago, Snipe Hunter said:

 

I fish one lake in western Maryland that had me stumped. I finally realized that I was fishing the wrong end of the lake. ...

Believe it or not, that happens on ponds too. Only, it's just a walk away, and I can usually just plain see it. I always walk a pond first, even ones I've fished often.

[ww2farmer]

1 minute ago, Paul Roberts said:

Often fishers consider "pond" fishing as easy and just practice for "real" fishing. Kindof chaps my... . And, I took a wrong turn.

 

Big water sure adds dimension to the game; That's a no brainer. But, IMO, there's plenty to keep a bass fisher busy in small waters, if you fish enough of them.

I don't disagree with you.

 

I often go back to the farm ponds when I need a change of pace from launching the boat, and all the dog and pony show that going out on the lake entails. I have been humbled by small waters more than my fair share of times.

[soflabasser]

Bass fishing in ponds isn't as easy as some might think,especially if your targeting trophy bass in a highly  pressured public pond. In these ponds, you need to know what your doing very well and even then you will have to put in more time to catch a big bass than fishing a low pressured big body of water known for big bass.For example, I find lake Okeechobee to be far easier to fish that most small bodies of water I fish and have noticed this for other big bodies of water I have fished as well.With that said,private ponds are significantly easier to fish for big bass than public bodies of water and its no coincidence many people's PB's come from farm ponds or other private ponds that are not accessible to the general public.

[WildmanWilson]

They will also migrate in the big lakes. They may be out deep then move to main lake points and secondary  points or road beds  then in shallow and back out. It's almost like pattering deer. In ponds you just look for structure  and you catch fish. Thousands  of combinations  it seems on lakes. In the back of bays, on chunk  rock, around  docks, on road beds, on ledges, on points, on creek channels.....

[NCbassraider]

31 minutes ago, WildmanWilson said:

They will also migrate in the big lakes. They may be out deep then move to main lake points and secondary  points or road beds  then in shallow and back out. It's almost like pattering deer. In ponds you just look for structure  and you catch fish. Thousands  of combinations  it seems on lakes. In the back of bays, on chunk  rock, around  docks, on road beds, on ledges, on points, on creek channels.....

 

They also migrate in large ponds.  People hear pond and think of a stink-hole farm pond but many ponds are fairly large bodies of water of greatly varying depths.  I've fished a 25 acre pond that was as diverse as any lake and had channels running over 20' deep.  

[WildmanWilson]

10 minutes ago, NCbassraider said:

 

They also migrate in large ponds.  People hear pond and think of a stink-hole farm pond but many ponds are fairly large bodies of water of greatly varying depths.  I've fished a 25 acre pond that was as diverse as any lake and had channels running over 20' deep.  

I personally don't consider 25 acre's a pond. Its not thousands of acres like the one I fish but still pretty big.

[NCbassraider]

10 minutes ago, WildmanWilson said:

I personally don't consider 25 acre's a pond. Its not thousands of acres like the one I fish but still pretty big.

 

I had a biologist tell me once that the actual definition of a pond is any man made body of water, regardless of size. Apparently it came from farming ponds that were almost always man made.  I think I read that some States classify them that way.