Golf Course Fishing

[justin apfel]

People are fishing golf courses around KY lake right now. By Boat!!!! Saw a picture of a bass boat flipping towards the pin because the golf course is flooded. Does that count?

I don't know, but that sounds awesome. There is a canal that runs through the golf course and we have a little 10 foot jon boat with a 9.9 on it that we run through the canal so we don't have to walk on the course and get in people's way. Works out pretty well

[Texfisherman]

Great article!

I've grown up fishing different golf course ponds and I can tell you, they hold some big bass!

I try to dress atleast respectable-looking and try to keep the noise down when I hook into one (very hard for me to do, lol!).

I was fortunate enough to have recently found a great 'honey hole' on a golf course pond. After about the third time of fishing there, the dreaded maintenance golf cart pulled up to us.

To our surprise, he said it was ok for us to fish there, but really it is supposed to be for the residents of that neighborhood only.

He told us as long as we throw the bass back and don't litter, nobody will say anything to us.

I go as far as picking up other peoples' litter... why? Because we have pulled out several 4 and 4.5 pounders out of this pond. My friend also pulled out a lunker in this same pond.

So, if they do eventually kick you off, keep looking and trying. Keep the place clean and practice C.P.R. (Catch, Picture, Release).

Good luck!

[Rick Howard]

Do yourself a favor.  Ask permission.  Some clubs are pretty serious.  You don't want to be arrested over fishing.  I've been first hand witness to several arrests of trespassers on a particular country club.  The pros only care because their members care.  The police are irritated to have to deal with it.  The trespasser loses that battle.  In NY the laws state that posted signs are not required for land with improvement.  Now we might not all agree that a golf course is an improvement to a landscape but by definition it is

[Koz]

Nearby we had a golf course in a residential neighborhood shut down a few years ago and my son and I have been doing a lot of fishing there lately. We can ride our bikes along the old cart paths and go from lagoon to lagoon.

 

I've only seen a few others fishing out there and that's been great news for us. We routinely land 2-4 lb largemouth. A neighbor caught a 7 lb lunker last month. The other day we hit a new lagoon with lots of tree cover and downed trees. It looked perfect. Lots of fish, but all we pulled out were juveniles less than a pound. But hopefully big momma is till lurking out there somewhere! We also saw a GIANT catfish patrolling the banks but couldn't entice him to hit anything.

 

A lot of golf courses have shut down over the past 5 years or so. If you're lucky you can find one of those to fish.

[lonnie g]

HECK! go golfing, one of my favorite clubs in the bag is a bait caster with a buzz bait!

[RoLo]

 

One day I caught a great big giant bass from a golf course pond.

Just as the scale hit 11 pounds, the scale busted

and about 10 golf balls came tumbling out of her mouth.

Okay...I lied about the golf balls   

[Tyloo]

On 4/26/2011 at 1:48 PM, justin apfel said:

I just started a new style of fishing, golf courses. I live in Virginia Beach and I went up to a golf course near my house and walked right onto one of the lakes and threw a pearl white 5" sinking minnow (gulp) weightless out and started fishing it right off the bottom. After a few casts I saw my line runnin, always a good feeling haha. I set the hook into a nice little 2 pounder and casted right back out. I ended the day with a 3.5, 3, 2, 1.5 and a little 1 pounder. The conditions were pretty bad too, a cold front moved through a day before I went yet I still did pretty well. I was expecting to get kicked out but the management people there were friendly and didn't even care. I dressed in some nice pants and a dress shirt because I read an article in a magazine once that said if you want to fish a golf course dress nicely and the people there will respect you more and you are less likely to get kicked out. So grab a wormin rod and your dress shirt and get to the nearest golf course ha let me know if any nice bass come out of this...

I'm pretty new to Va Beach and have been looking for good spots to fish some bass. Mind telling me which golf course you go to? Or some other spots to try?

[jimf]

My #2 PB is from the St. Peters Missouri public golf course pond.   This was back in the late 80's, no clue if they let you still fish there or not.   It was right by my house and I would hit it before/after work pretty regularly.  

[Djman72]

Golf Course fishing is close to my heart. A couple courses hold some of the best bass in the area. One i'm allowed to fish, and one i'm kind of sort of allowed to fish.

 

The "kind of sort of" pond is far superior in quantity and quality bass. I've made friends with the Golf Pro while golfing and told him that i sneak in to fish the property regularly. This was after a few beers and he laughed and didn't care one bit. He went into some long story about how the owner of the course hates fishing because he was accidentally hooked as a little kid. As long as he isn't around, I had permission to fish freely. I was only asked to leave by the pro one time, and he was very cool about it. He actually asked to use one of my poles and wet a line himself for about 15 minutes.

I was a sad camper when the pro was no longer there.