Farm Pond Fun

[Dusty_T]

Finally ended up at the old standby farm pond yesterday for the first time this year on the tube.

One would wonder why someone who tubes once or twice a week would wait until late July to hit such a jewel....Well - because the place is cursed, and murphy's law is in full effect.

2 years ago I broke 2 poles and got my car stuck in the mud. Last year I got chased by cows (bulls among them) and cut my leg all up on thorny bushes right after ripping my pants in half on barbed wire fence.

Did not plan on going there yesterday, but as fate would have it -- while getting lost for an hour on dirt roads trying to find a new fishing hole (it was on the map I swear) -- I found myself within a mile of my haunted hollow....

After losing drag on one of reels after a couple of small bass and losing said reel (and pole) to the drink (dumb mistake)....and fighting the wind for a few hours, I was able to manage the largest couple of Crappies I have caught this year....so it was not all bad





After I had another mishap that allowed all of my minnows to escape and the tangle-up from he$$....I did not want to quit after all that work and just went ahead and caught about 30 or 40 healthy sunfish until my worms and jigs ran out.






Was able to make it back through the fields and to the car without anymore mishaps. Looking forward to going back soon
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[Saberfish]

[black][size 3]No one ever said that good fishing didn't come at a high price.[/size][/black]
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[size 3]Sounds like you have found a "honey hole", a pricey one, but none the less, a honey hole.[/size]
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[size 3]Good report[/size]
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[tubeN2]

That sounds like the fishing hole from hell! I like spots like that myself.

If you plan on going back, make sure to have your full body armour and you might be better if you take 2 piece poles with you. That way, you won't be as disappointed in take your rod home in more that one piece.

All in all, it looks like you still had a good time and got some fish to boot.[cool]
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[Fishheiser]

Nice crappie Dusty. Are those two different fish in the pics or the same one? Its sounds like you were lucky to get out of there alive. The wind did seem to be blowing hard yesterday.
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[Dusty_T]

They were 2 "twins" caught within 10 minutes of one another. The one I am holding out was about 1 inch longer than the first one. Notice in the pic where you see the left front of my tube....and the "missing" rod holder....yea it was a rough day...If I had not "kicked" the rod holder off during launch...I would have had somewhere to rest my pole that is now on the bottom of the pond.

The anti-climatic part was that the "lost rod" was an ultralight....So I was stuck catching all of those blue gills and crappie with my medium power rod....not as much fun as the UL Oh well, the first Crappie was just around 14"....so I still missed MA by 1".....Back to the drawing board [cool]
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[Bluegillman]

You had a better day than I did. I caught two bass in four hours of tubing.......
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[davetclown]

sounds like my spring, every trip full of snagglepusses, hope I have them all exited stage left....

I love fishing farm ponds, but one must take care to not over harvest them if they are not fed on a regular basis. it is easy to desimate the preditor "adult fish" and turn an entire pond in to a stunded school of bait stealers.

On my own lake after a day of fishing I give my offering of thanks, "a cup of real fish food for lake fish" I go to a local fish farm to get it, this way I know I am also putting back and creating even more respectable catches for the next trip.

Another old farmer years ago tought me that fish eat their own young along with all the young of every other species. in otherwords if they can get it in to their mouths its food. This holds true with bass and trout. At the trout farm they showed us that the 9and10 inch trout had to be kept seperate from the 12and14 inch trout, if not the smaller ones would get eaten.

some of the biggest fish I have ever seen have come from farm ponds. this is one reason in michigan farm pond fish are not eligable in our yearly fish regestry for sizeable fish caught.

broke my first fishing rod on a thirty inch bass in a farm pond. I had many years of pleasure attempting to catch him, and broke my heart when he died and I found him laying on shore one spring after the thaw. That is how I got to know how long he was. 30 inches in lenth and 19 1/2 inches in girth. It was a monster. Its been dead now for 29 years this past spring.

I never landed him, grandpa kelsey caught him in another pond down the road and planted him in his pond one winter. I had fished for him for nearly 10 years, seen him hundreds of time, had a hold of him only a couple times. but what a way to pass the time for a kid.

any way nice specimens you have, respectible by every means. and thanks for the share and bringing back old memories...
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[road]

Nice report Dusty! Sorry for your loss. I think sometimes those little miventures makes the trip most memorable.

Glad ya got out to fish. BTW would you like me to send the wife your way? I bet she can read the map while your driving. You did say that little pond was in Calif and not the Dakotas ... Right? [cool]
You may have to keep turning the map for her though.
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