You caught a bass there!?!? No way!!!

[Pat Brown]

In the spirit of Woody's 'fishless water' I thought it would be fun to try the inverse.

 

Any good stories about water that 'shouldn't have any fish in it' that is loaded with fish?

 

It seems like you pull over to use a rest stop in Florida and make a cast into a stagnant puddle next to the highway and stand to catch the fish of a lifetime.

 

In NC I see guys catching insane fish out of Walmart retention ponds!  (Makes note to fish more Walmart retention ponds in 2024).

 

Whatcha got!?!?

[DinkDonkey30]

We have a 100 ish acre lake that is spring fed. Extremely shallow and weedy like max depth 8ft if it doesn’t have Lilly’s and tall vegetation in it 90 % of the year on 70 % or more of the body your not at the right lake. It is absolutely packed full of pan fish, gar, big large mouth, all kinds of baitfish, small mouth buffs, common carp, huge bowfin, catfish and some others. Almost no one fishes it because you have to back a truck in almost to the floorboard  before you can unload the boat and it’s all mud. If you brave it though you can have an unbelievable time.

[Mobasser]

I fished a few tournaments years ago. I got matched with an older much more experienced angler one time. With 30 minutes left, he stopped at a bank that everyone else passed by and caught three keeper fish to come in third place. I think it was his intuition, that told him to stop there. I would have passed this spot by like everyone else.

[Mobasser]

I saw this recently also at a small state park lake not far from me. People told me it was fished out, and couldn't catch anything there. My family was up there for a picnic, when here comes a guy holding a chunky four pound bass.  He was bank fishing with a t rig plastic worm, and told me he caught some good fish there. He showed me photos on his phone to back it up. You just never know? It pays to make a few cast in these places.

[Swamp Girl]

As I've shared many times, my brothers and I fished farm ponds by tying our fishing poles to our bikes and sallying forth. One farm pond had an overflow pipe that ran under the road and emptied into a pool we could almost hop across. That little pool was brimming with the biggest bullheads I've ever caught, one after another after another.  

 

Another time, on the north shore of Lake Michigan, after reading a Field & Stream article circa 1969, I was wading for hours looking for the Volkswagen-sized rock described in the article that held all the smallmouth on that point. I caught nothing until I found the rock and then, out of the next 100 casts, I had hits on perhaps 97 casts. 

[ironbjorn]

I used to fish a little half acre park pond in a small farm town (population of 200~ people). Nobody ever thought it had bass in it. Hardly anyone fished it at all except for little kids bobber fishing for bluegill every once in a great while. I used to catch a plethora of 2 and 3 lbers from it. Many of them several times over. I got to know the individual fish pretty well. At least a couple dozen were unique bass. Any time anyone saw me catch bass they were surprised. Thankfully nobody ever fished it for bass that I saw. One time a sheriff's deputy stopped and asked if I really catch fish from here. He said he'll have to start keeping a rod in his car for when he passes through town. I don't know if he ever did. This was many years ago. I'm a few hundred miles away now. Often wonder if that little pond still produces. Also wonder if any of the old gals are still alive. Some I would still recognize, I'm sure of it.

[The Budget Angler]

Across the street from the library at my college is a little pond that is choked with poison ivy and just looks dead.  .  I went over there after an exam one day, and caught a beautiful prespawn hawg(19", probably about 4.5 lbs).  I had never fished it before because it's small and the water is hard to get to, but there's definitely fish in there.  I got snagged on an underwater stick and as I pulled it up, about a dozen pinky-length bluegill spooked.  Apparently that's how they're gettin' fat....

 

God, I gotta go back there!  Maybe tomorrow....

 

[Swamp Girl]

I love these stories. Thanks, guys!

[Catt]

55 yrs wondering around Toledo Bend staring at some kind of screen I know a spot.

 

There's a boat house in 6-Mile Creek that's two story, it's more of a party house. It's sitting off by itself, from the bank out 30 yds it's 6-8', flat kinda sandy bottom, no wood or brush, vegation is shoreline dollar lilies, some kind of grass on the bottom that's a foot or two tall.

 

Pasted that boat house dozens of times never once thinking of stopping. One mid August night, no moon, clear skies, light southerly wind, I decided stoo. Dropped trolling motor, picked up my worm rod, made a cast, bent over to turn the depth finder on & I felt that tap-tap...stuck a 2# bass. During the next hour & a half I boat 18 up to 4#. Before I left I idled the entire area & saw nuthin.

 

That was 30 yrs ago & I still sneak up there & boat a few.

[DinkDonkey30]

I work in the utilities department of a well known college. We have 2 small lakes on campus. One is part of the power plant discharge and control of chilled water. It ties into the other lake which is for storms/water control etc. You can fish them with an Indiana license and a permit from the campus pd. Most people don’t know they are fish able or support fish lol. Some of the students do. I’ve seen a handful of 6lbers come out of the warmer lake and absolutely giant crappie unfortunately they are strictly c & r. 

[Craig P]

My development has a retention basin that holds water since it was built 6-7 years ago. Sunnies, bass and catfish have made their way into it. It’s become a popular place for the kids in the development to go and fish all the time. Nice to see kids enjoying outdoor activities rather than staying inside playing video games. 

[Bankc]

I'm not proud to admit this, but when I was a kid, we used to fish a sewage lagoon and catch blueback herring and brook trout.  I think.  I was really young, and this was pre-internet days, so I probably wasn't good at identifying fish.  They could have been mutated minnows for all I know.  

[DaubsNU1]

Early 1990's, worked at a small directional University in Missouri. Some faculty told us of the "University Pond" south of town, right off the highway. You could not see the pond from the road...had to hop a barbed wire fence...then walk about 50 yards through some trees.

 

The pond was just a bit larger than a football field...lots of trees had grown on the dam, there were very few places to fish from shore. Rumors swirled about some big bass in that lake, and the people we knew would frequently catch LMB's in other lakes, and transplant them in to this pond. Seemed legit.

 

One afternoon we schlepped our canoe to the pond and fished...always caught a few nice bass here and there. Discovered the pond was max of 12 feet deep.

 

Few weeks later I had some free time and went fishing. I was tossing my favorite lure at the time, a rainbow trout colored Slug-Go on a medium spinning rod, spooled with 8lb Trilene XL. Fishing one of the few open spots on the dam, I was tossing that Slug-Go as far as I could...twitching it back my way. 

 

BAM!!, huge strike and I set the hook. Could not believe my eyes when the bass surfaced close to shore. Thankfully I had an fish scale in my bag...this bass weight in just over 8 pounds! Still my personal best large-mouth bass.

 

 

 

[IcatchDinks]

There's a little pond sandwiched between TJ Max and the freeway that I like to fish. No more than an acre in size. I've seen photographic evidence of someone else who caught a good sized largemouth out of it. I haven't caught any bass yet, but it holds hawg sized pumpkinseed, bluegill, and hybrids. There's a lot of little ponds like that all over town. I like to get on Google maps and find little hidden ponds and backwaters to fish (as long as I can be sure I'm not trespassing.)

[Buzzbaiter]

2 hours ago, Bankc said:

we used to fish a sewage lagoon and catch blueback herring and brook trout

“Sewage” and “brook trout” don’t go together in the same sentence. I’d bet you were misidentifying creek chubs, lol

[Bankc]

19 minutes ago, Buzzbaiter said:

“Sewage” and “brook trout” don’t go together in the same sentence. I’d bet you were misidentifying creek chubs, lol

You're probably right.  

Though, to be fair, this was on the other side of the plant, where the water was stored before being released back into the creek.  And it was pretty clear, didn't stink, and had lots of vegetation growing in it.  We didn't know it was a sewage lagoon until we brought some home to cook up and mortified our parents.  

 

We did a lot of that back then.  My mother will never let me forget bringing the "leaches" home that we found in the creek that ran near it.  I wanted to keep them in an aquarium.  I tried to explain that they were lampreys, and not leaches, but my arguments were counterproductive.  

[Bluebasser86]

My pond in the jungle. It's tiny, you can see in the picture, not much bigger than the turn-around at the end of the dead-end road it's situated by. It's easy to cast all the way across in any direction and can't be more than 5' deep anywhere in the thing. 

Pretty sure the state killed it by clearing the trees off the dam and pushing a lot of them into it, basically filled the thing in. It use to have fish like this in it though.

[steve carpenter]

I was about 11 or 12 and used to catch fish in a small perculation pond that was fenced and they would chase you you off. Found a culvert that ran under the high way and when the wind was right would float a bobber under the road into the pond to catch fish. Wonderful how kids can solve problems

[Swamp Girl]

I hate what happened to Clayton's pond. Dang it! Ponds are precious. 

[gim]

Shallow lakes and ponds do not hold fish here in the north.  Winterkill takes out any fish in there regularly.  Too much snow and ice depletes oxygen in anything shallower than about 10 feet.

[TnRiver46]

Crackhead creek and amphetamine aqueduct fish surprisingly well 

[VolFan]

Any creek with a numerical name dumping into the TN River/Ft Loudon Lake in Knoxville. But you have to fish around the biohazard signs. Charlotte’s creeks are pastoral by comparison. 

[Woody B]

Decades ago I used to drag race all over the Eastern US.  Every November I'd go to Florida for some races.   "Moroso Motorsports Park" (now closed) was in West Palm Beach.   There was a canal around the entire track/property.  At the widest spot it might have been 25 feet across.  Most areas were much smaller.  It was literally packed with 'Gators and big Bass.   I never caught a DD there but I caught several 8 pounders.  Texas Rig and a Devils Horse done most of the work.  Like the waters where Katy and others fish stealth was important.  You couldn't stand right at the bank.  Your lures had to land like a feather when casting.  If you could do that you could catch huge Bass.   I suppose there was a certain element of danger too.  I had Bass taken off my lines by 'Gators.  A friend of mine got bit by a pygmy Rattle Shake while fishing there too.  

 

I always kept a rod and reel in my race car trailer.  I've stopped and fished all kinds of "puddles" on the side of the road all over the Eastern US.  

 

There was a really small pond, 1/2 acre or less past the end of the drag strip in Baton Rouge.  I caught Bass there too.   

[Jmilburn76]

I worked at this company over 10 yrs before being told there was fish out front in a really small retaining pond. Myself and a few co-workers started fishing it on our lunch breaks.
 

There was several good bass and panfish in it since no one ever fished it or even believed any were in it. The director of operations actually used to encourage it, great times.

[TnRiver46]

15 hours ago, VolFan said:

Any creek with a numerical name dumping into the TN River/Ft Loudon Lake in Knoxville. But you have to fish around the biohazard signs. Charlotte’s creeks are pastoral by comparison. 

Dang you figured out what crackhead creek and amphetamine aqueduct were