small ponds Bass Fishing in Unmarked, Unnamed, Small Ponds

[Moto]

Hi, 

I live in Trumbull, Connecticut and recently I have found a pretty large lake that contains trout, bass, pike, and perch. I fished there a few times. However recently I realized that next to it, there are a few small ponds a few minutes away, but they have no name and I’m pretty sure no one fishes there. But I’m curious to know if there are bass there, because I only caught one in my life. What are the chances that there will be bass there? I don’t want to waste my time on an empty pond, so how would I know if there are bass there? 

(P.s., if anyone here is from my area, let me know so we can discuss our fishing area because fishing for me this year hasn’t been successful at all)

[papajoe222]

Welcome. 

About the only way to be sure is to fish it. You could ask around, but even if it does another angler may not want to divulge that fact. 

Have you fished that lake from a boat?  If you’re limited to fishing from shore, the ponds could offer a better chance of catching. 

[Bluebasser86]

I fish some ponds exactly like you describe. Some have had fish, some have not, only 1 way to find out. I've caught fish up to 6 pounds out of them, worth the effort for sure. 

[ratherbfishin1]

Yeah I’m with the others you gotta fish it to find out...  I would do it soon because where I live there are a few lakes a little while away but I fish like 90% in ponds and there are some giants and they are generally far less pressured.

[burrows]

First time I ever cought a bass was out of a farm pond that looked like their were no fish in it I was using a cotton cordell diving minnow that dove like 5 feet got it at Walmart for like a dollar. I kept casting till I was gonna give up and go home. I don’t know why I made one more cast but I did and I felt what I thought was a snag on a tumbleweed that was in the pond and as I tugged to get my lure back, it fought back like crazy! it was my first bass, and a four pounder at that. I’ve been a bass fisherman ever since.

[Moto]

Ow wow that’s cool. The difference is that most people here (in this conversation) are from the other side of the country with a much higher bass population, so it is more likely for the bass to be in the ponds over there, or does that make a difference? How do bass get into these kinda ponds anyway? If there’s a nice bigger lake with fish in it, is there a bigger chance that the smaller pond next to it will have fish? 

[Koz]

That's all I fish down here, except we call them lagoons. My suggestion is to use Google Earth and look at historical satellite imagery to see if the pond existed at least 10 years ago. In general I have found that small bodies of water at least 10 years old are more likely to contain fish.

 

Why 10 years? Well, it's kind of an arbitrary number. But in that time fish eggs are more likely to be transferred (or fish dropped) from birds and if all of the elements are correct (vegetation, food sources, etc) it's enough time for a fish population to establish.

[Darren.]

Welcome aboard! I'd fish 'em, if allowed. Only way to find out  

[Moto]

Is it possible for bass to live in a pond without ever being stocked? If so, how do they get there?  

[MIbassyaker]

Where I live, bass might live in any puddle of water with good habitat and adequate oxygenation, as long as it won't dry up in summer or completely winterkill in winter. They probably get there from connecting waterways or flooding.

 

The largemouth species is a few million years old, probably somewhere around 2 to 8. Natural bodies of water change much more rapidly than that. They can expand and contract, join and separate from neighboring bodies from flooding, droughts, fluctuations in volume from springs and feeder creeks/rivers, wet vs. dry years/decades/centuries...populations of fish and other critters in one place will have lots of opportunities to spread around to neighboring waters over time, on the order of 100s or 1000s of years, which is very brief in the grand scheme of things.

[burrows]

4 hours ago, Mottel said:

Is it possible for bass to live in a pond without ever being stocked? If so, how do they get there?  

Yes , depends where the water is coming from.

[Bluebasser86]

6 hours ago, Mottel said:

Is it possible for bass to live in a pond without ever being stocked? If so, how do they get there?  

Some of the ones I fish are near large reservoirs. I suspect the bass get in them during high water events. Nature finds a way in these things, or it could be someone catching them somewhere else and moving them, really hard to tell.

 

Don't let the bass population thing discourage you. How many times have you heard of the great bass fishing in Kansas?

 

One of the ponds I found with Google Earth proved to be a gem despite it's tiny size. I almost ignored it, but it wasn't too far out of the way so I gave it a shot. Held some of the healthiest fish I've ever seen. I'm usually pretty open about fishing spots, this is not one of those times.