Does a Pond Hold Fish?

By Ian

  Everyone loves pond fishing. One of their many appeals is their accessibility. They are in or near almost every neighborhood. If you do a bit of hiking or go on Google Earth, you will find a pond.

  And pond fish are often unwary, too. They rarely will see fishing pressure, unlike most town lakes, which causes them to bite everything. Heck, I even caught a pond bass on a pine with a hook (topwater, of course).

  But does it have fish?

​  I've fished in ponds all my life, and there's three questions that I ask myself to determine if a pond holds fish... or not.

Above: C'mon, folks. Not going to have fish.......

  Size: That big puddle over there isn't going to have fish. The larger the pond, the more baitfishes and their food that it can support. Bass need food to grow, and therefore a bass would need a waterway large enough that it can support his food. 3/4th of an acre is a good minimum. 

​  Plus, bass need deeper water to retreat in during temperature swings. Small bodies of water are unlikely to hold deep spots. Also, small bodies of water overheat or freeze out quickly, much quicker than larger bodies of water. Temperature can kill bass in a small pond.

​  Conditions: After you got size covered, look at the pond's other conditions. Folks, if it dries up to a puddle during the summer, it's not going to hold fish. If it is gin clear and you can't see any fish, it's not going to hold fish. If it is extremely shallow, no fish. A tell-tale sign of ponds with no bass/fish that I use is the vegetation. If the weeds are extremely dense, everywhere, that could indicate no fish (fish, such as carp, will eat many weeds), or extremely poor pond management, which will eventually kill the pond's fish, but that's another story for another day. A horde of frogs, everywhere, is also a sign of a frog/bug only pond with no fish. Fish prey on frogs and tadpoles, bass, bluegill, etc. The frogs would therefore be not as so dense in a pond with fish.

  There you go. Of course, the real determining factor is going there is catching fish yourself.

Tight Lines,

​Ian