To All My Memphis Pond Hoppers!

[wwood]

My only fish from this week . Got him flipping a jig at part of a Shelby farms pond where it got a little narrow and messy. He hit it on the retrieve about 2 feet off the bank and kinda surprised me

[Angry John]

On 2/15/2018 at 10:25 PM, CWest said:

Plan on taking on going to check out Glenn springs when it warms up a little bit. Might yak out there or rent one of the little boats they have.

My fishing partner picked Glenn for sunday, hope it's decent.  Might go big baits for kicks.  A lot easier out the back of a boat than in a yak...

[CWest]

6 hours ago, Angry John said:

My fishing partner picked Glenn for sunday, hope it's decent.  Might go big baits for kicks.  A lot easier out the back of a boat than in a yak...

True. Iv heard the left side of the dock is better for bass out there. 

[WDE]

Got out for about 4-5 hours at Neshoba, Grove, and Johnson on Thursday. Not a single strike. 

 

You can now reach some parts of the far bank at Grove since they carved a beaten path through the woods for the middle school cross country team. I’ll probably start spending some more time there in the coming weeks. Talked to a guy fishing for crappie out there, he was also having a rough go of it. 

[Bluffcityfly]

Hey guys, first time poster. I moved to memphis this past May from Florida.  I'm a fly fisherman mostly, but will fish however.  I went out to Johnson this Sunday for the first time and slung a little wooly bugger for only 20mins or so and caught a little speck (crappie). Just wanted to see the place and didn't have the time to really zone in on anything. Might try to get back out there this weekend.  Anyone else mainly use fly around for the ponds around here? Or any other spots that give decent room for casting from the banks? Thanks in advance!

[WDE]

Picked this big girl up this afternoon at Johnson   . 4.6lbs, t rigged junebug Yum Dinger. 

 

 

 

[WDE]

1 hour ago, Bluffcityfly said:

Hey guys, first time poster. I moved to memphis this past May from Florida.  I'm a fly fisherman mostly, but will fish however.  I went out to Johnson this Sunday for the first time and slung a little wooly bugger for only 20mins or so and caught a little speck (crappie). Just wanted to see the place and didn't have the time to really zone in on anything. Might try to get back out there this weekend.  Anyone else mainly use fly around for the ponds around here? Or any other spots that give decent room for casting from the banks? Thanks in advance!

Welcome to the thread. I’m not a fly fisherman myself, but I believe there’s at least one poster who gets out with his fly rod. 

 

Depending on your knowledge of the area, we can direct you in a few different ways to kill an afternoon. Personally, I spend most of my time at the Johnson ponds because it’s 5 minutes from my house. In Collierville there’s also Halle which is behind the City Hall, Library, etc. 

 

On my off days I’ll go to Germantown and hit a few ponds there. Primarily Grove and Neshoba. There’s also a big pond at Shelby Farms that I haven’t tried. 

 

You can also go up to Herb Parsons, about 15-20 minutes outside of Collierville. It’s an actual lake, but plenty of bank to walk along. I think it’s $6 for a one time visit, but you can get a season pass as well as rent boats or kayak or whatever. Only trolling motors. 

 

Most of the ponds I mentioned have clear clear banks for at least half of the body of water. 

[Bluffcityfly]

WDE , really appreciate the info. Awesome catch too.  The lady and I live downtown Memphis so Collierville is a little haul but not terrible.  Definitely worth it if I can get some fish dialed in. I'll have to spend some more time at Johnson and try the civic center as well. I tried a few ponds at shelby farms when I first moved here but only caught a blue gill with the fly. Saw a lot of bass just no takers. Ran into an older guy there that was also tossing a fly and he said long gone are the days he used to go out there and pluck 20-30 in an afternoon.  I guess it just gets too much pressure (?).  If anyone knows of something closer to downtown, let me know. If not , no worries, I'll let ya know how I do next time i make it east. Thanks!

[Angry John]

I dont know if i ran into you in Bartlett today or not.  There was a guy fly fishing at the church pond on Kirby witten and Yale.

[Gabriel Sachett]

Hi All, 

 

My first post here, i'm new to the area just moved from Brazil one month ago! Went to Johnson last sunday, had two actions during the afternoon, and got one little buddy. it is Johnson Road Park you guys are talking about right? Didnt know that those lake have this big bass thought, i'll definitly spend more time there.

 

Dink, nice catches, Congrats

[Bluffcityfly]

11 hours ago, Angry John said:

I dont know if i ran into you in Bartlett today or not.  There was a guy fly fishing at the church pond on Kirby witten and Yale.

No, unfortunately not me. Only went out to Johnson the other day for a short bit. 

9 hours ago, Gabriel Sachett said:

Hi All, 

 

My first post here, i'm new to the area just moved from Brazil one month ago! Went to Johnson last sunday, had two actions during the afternoon, and got one little buddy. it is Johnson Road Park you guys are talking about right? Didnt know that those lake have this big bass thought, i'll definitly spend more time there.

 

Dink, nice catches, Congrats

Gabriel, tudo bem? My fiancé is Brazilian too. We live downtown Memphis. Let me know if you ever want to fish sometime. Nice catch too!

[Angry John]

Pulled a fiver at the pond next to the cop shop and performing arts center in bartlett.  The first fish over 1.5 lbs ever out of that pond.  It sees a bunch of pressure and then i hung up my trap and it was all over....

[Gabriel Sachett]

14 hours ago, Bluffcityfly said:

No, unfortunately not me. Only went out to Johnson the other day for a short bit. 

Gabriel, tudo bem? My fiancé is Brazilian too. We live downtown Memphis. Let me know if you ever want to fish sometime. Nice catch too!

Hi, that´s awesome. I live accross the street from Wolf river and Shelby farms. Would be great, i'm planning to go to Collierville this weekend if rain give us a break, forecast indicates sunny days in front. i´ve tried some ponds here in Shelby farms but no cacthes at all, Beaver lake seems promising though. let me know if you are coming to this side!! 

[Bluffcityfly]

anyone ever fish the creeks around the area? im not sure if now would be a good time to do so with all the rain, but some look like decent habitat...

 

also, anyone ever target carp?  always wanted to land one on the fly, didn't know if there were and urban ponds that catered to carp around here

 

hopefully ill be doing fishing this weekend and able to give a report on Monday.  thanks

[Angry John]

15 hours ago, Gabriel Sachett said:

Hi, that´s awesome. I live accross the street from Wolf river and Shelby farms. Would be great, i'm planning to go to Collierville this weekend if rain give us a break, forecast indicates sunny days in front. i´ve tried some ponds here in Shelby farms but no cacthes at all, Beaver lake seems promising though. let me know if you are coming to this side!! 

Beaver lake is rough and I caught one dink out of there.  They all see a lot of pressure but I do have some 4lb catches out of the dog park ponds

[Chris Walker]

On 11/14/2015 at 5:23 PM, MFBAB said:

 

That pond looks great, but it was recently converted to a Bartlett park.  During the construction of the walking path, etc., they drained the lake according to Bartlett parks and rec., I think this was done in 2012-13 or so....

Basically, it is full of dinks, tiny bass, bream and crappie - throw a trout magnet in there and catch all you want. 

 

It will probably get better in a few years, but I found it so tough for bass after a couple of trips this summer that I actually called in to check with the parks and rec. office to see if there had been a fish kill there, that's when I found out about the draining. 

 

And yes, there is a bad siltation problem there too, I'm not sure whether it will fish very well from the bank even after it has had more time for the fish to grow.  It's just an old farm pond, and they usually silt in eventually, but if you look at it on Google Earth and go back a few years to when Bartlett Parks was working on it, you can see that they really had the shoreline stripped down to dirt for a while...I think a lot of the silt issues came from their improvements.

 

Hope I save you some time, I had high hopes for that pond this past summer myself   

Hi guys, I'm new to the forum. Just found it by Google searching this pond. I heard they have stocked trout in it. Has anyone fished it lately?  Looking for a spot to take my boys fishing. Not looking for trophy fish, just fish on the hook to get the boys excited. Davies Plantation park is right around the corner from house. 

[WDE]

On 2/28/2018 at 11:15 PM, Gabriel Sachett said:

Hi, that´s awesome. I live accross the street from Wolf river and Shelby farms. Would be great, i'm planning to go to Collierville this weekend if rain give us a break, forecast indicates sunny days in front. i´ve tried some ponds here in Shelby farms but no cacthes at all, Beaver lake seems promising though. let me know if you are coming to this side!! 

You’re also close to Neshoba in Germantown. You’d drive right by it on your way to Johnson. It’s part of the Wolf River Greenway. The main pond is behind the Chic Fil A on Gtown parkway, I usually park in the doctors offices on Wolf River. Fishing there is seems to be better in Spring and Summer. 

 

There’s 2 more ponds at Neshoba behind the tree line adjacent to the main pond if you don’t mind walking through the woods about 50 yards. Well, used to be 2 ponds, but a dam separating the two washed out during some heavy rains last year. I haven’t had any luck at either of those ponds since they merged. You can fish around the smaller portion pretty easily, but not much safe bank space for casting or walking around the larger part. There are some good bass in there though as well as crappie. 

[beaver]

On 3/1/2018 at 2:04 PM, Bluffcityfly said:

also, anyone ever target carp?  always wanted to land one on the fly, didn't know if there were and urban ponds that catered to carp around here

Hey Bluff, I actually was setting up to try to land some carp last summer. 

There's a trail at johnson park cVille that starts at the first three ponds on the left, runs about two miles and hits the wolfriver and makes a right headed towards the end of the boardwalk. After that you'll eventually see a trail to your left that drops down to a large sandbar. There is a herd of carp back there. I went back there three times last year targeting bass. I strap my poles to backpacks and take bikes back in that area. It might be less distance going down the boardwalk and taking a left at the end of it but you cant bike that way.

[Angry John]

Got one strike and one catch on a top water popper.  Things are getting more intesting now.

[beaver]

Struck out at herb parsons yesterday. Threw alot of different soft baits, spinners, lipless cranks. Even brought out beatle spins out of desperation. Nothing. On a bright note, my son and I tested out our new $50 fixer upper jon boat and survived.

[WDE]

Bite was on and off quickly while I was out. Caught 3 in about 20 minutes, and 2 on back to back casts. 2 dinks, and this 2lb-ish. No bites for another hour and a half. 

 

[beaver]

3 hours ago, WDE said:

Bite was on and off quickly while I was out. Caught 3 in about 20 minutes, and 2 on back to back casts. 2 dinks, and this 2lb-ish. No bites for another hour and a half. 

 

There aren't going to be any fish with lips left by the time I get back to 'our' honey hole. Darn pinhole leak home repair is making me miss the prespawn.

[Gabriel Sachett]

On 03/03/2018 at 9:38 AM, WDE said:

You’re also close to Neshoba in Germantown. You’d drive right by it on your way to Johnson. It’s part of the Wolf River Greenway. The main pond is behind the Chic Fil A on Gtown parkway, I usually park in the doctors offices on Wolf River. Fishing there is seems to be better in Spring and Summer. 

 

There’s 2 more ponds at Neshoba behind the tree line adjacent to the main pond if you don’t mind walking through the woods about 50 yards. Well, used to be 2 ponds, but a dam separating the two washed out during some heavy rains last year. I haven’t had any luck at either of those ponds since they merged. You can fish around the smaller portion pretty easily, but not much safe bank space for casting or walking around the larger part. There are some good bass in there though as well as crappie. 

Thanks for all the information, i went to Halle Park in Collierville, just two actions in 2 hrs fishing there, but a good size though.  This is a very deep lake, and speaking with a local guy i've noticed that there's some huge bass over there. i've got my PB saturday afternoon. went back there on Sunday (couldnt resist) but any bite during all afternoon!

[WDE]

10 hours ago, beaver said:

There aren't going to be any fish with lips left by the time I get back to 'our' honey hole. Darn pinhole leak home repair is making me miss the prespawn.

Haha. They’re still being a bit finicky. Not biting as hard as they did in the Fall. I’m not sure if the rains we’ve been getting have pushed a lot back up into the creek or what. Hoping it dries out and they come out of there. 

 

With real heavy rains it’ll flood the area by the bridge on the fountains pond. So I’m wondering if it’s ever deep enough for them to migrate back and forth. 

 

I’ve been seeing a large carp(1.5-2ft long at least)moving around, and even leaping out of the water, that I’ve never seen back there before. I beginning to wonder if it’s the same large carp that I’ve seen numerous times in the fountains pond.  

9 hours ago, Gabriel Sachett said:

Thanks for all the information, i went to Halle Park in Collierville, just two actions in 2 hrs fishing there, but a good size though.  This is a very deep lake, and speaking with a local guy i've noticed that there's some huge bass over there. i've got my PB saturday afternoon. went back there on Sunday (couldnt resist) but any bite during all afternoon!

That’s a nice fish, did you get a weight? I’ve never had much luck there, but you may have inspired me. What were you throwing? I think it’s a pretty tough pond for everyone due to its depth. To paraphrase someone’s info given to me here, it used to be a quarry and the shad circle the middle which is where the bass hang out most of the time. 

[roadwarrior]

Nice fish, great pic!