[Cronced]

Over the summer I tend to not take my boat out as much. Snook are usually my main targets and with the closed season I usually just leave them alone for the most part. But I do still love to get out and fish, just not all day long in the summer heat.

My recent solution has been to go pond hopping around my new house up here in Port Saint Lucie. Just driving around to check out my area, I can see dozens of ponds and that brings back that urge I had as a kid to fish every one of them. I told my mom about it and she quipped that I have been "reduced to bass fishing"...

Well!

Not all ponds are the same and some hold better fish than others. Most of them have plenty of forage and the key is deeper water. Any pond that has a bit of a ledge and a drop off will hold quality fish, and I'm surprised by the size of fish that come out of some of these ponds.

As far as structure goes, anything in a bathtub sized piece of water will hold fish. Drainage pipes are good places to look, along with any type of vegetation, shoreline trees, rocks... anything can and usually does hold something.

Early and late, I'll throw a horny toad because I love seeing bass blow up on a top water lure. Brighter times of the day I throw an unweighted fluke, a Yum swurm or a flash mob junior.

Here's a couple from the last few days. Nothing fancy, but they sure are fun.

 

[Backcountry 16]

Very nice I live in swfl and have a small pond in my backyard that I catch fish out of. Love the frog.

 

[crboggs]

Sometimes when I get the itch real bad I'll throw a small gurgler or popper on the 5wt in local neighborhood lakes. I envy the guys in areas that hold peacocks. Wish we had them here.

 

[fjmaverick]

I havnt tried fishing in the lake in my community. I see people try from time to time but I have never seen anyone catch anything. Except the hawks they pick up 3-5" fish and fly away with them. That and I imagine the otters we had cleaned up some of what was there.

 

[Snookyrookie]

Lucky enough to have a pond in the back yard that has Peacocks and snakeheads. Picked up a nice 24” snakehead last night that wanted to jump 3 times. They are both good fighting fish, I don’t even look for largemouth any more.

 

[fjmaverick]

View attachment 84252 Lucky enough to have a pond in the back yard that has Peacocks and snakeheads. Picked up a nice 24” snakehead last night that wanted to jump 3 times. They are both good fighting fish, I don’t even look for largemouth any more.

Do you kill the snakeheads?

 

[Cronced]

View attachment 84252 Lucky enough to have a pond in the back yard that has Peacocks and snakeheads. Picked up a nice 24” snakehead last night that wanted to jump 3 times. They are both good fighting fish, I don’t even look for largemouth any more.

I still haven't gotten a snakehead yet. I dont think they have many of them up here in Port Saint Lucie. Nice fish!

 

[Snookyrookie]

Do you kill the snakeheads?

No. FWC says you can kill them, harvest them, or catch and release them now. I have killed several of them I’ve caught in the lake and cut them open to check their stomach contents in the past and not witnessed a large amount of fry and the Bass populations have actually increased in the lake the last few years we’ve had snakeheads.

 

[Snookdafied]

Over the summer I tend to not take my boat out as much. Snook are usually my main targets and with the closed season I usually just leave them alone for the most part. But I do still love to get out and fish, just not all day long in the summer heat.

My recent solution has been to go pond hopping around my new house up here in Port Saint Lucie. Just driving around to check out my area, I can see dozens of ponds and that brings back that urge I had as a kid to fish every one of them. I told my mom about it and she quipped that I have been "reduced to bass fishing"...

Well!

Not all ponds are the same and some hold better fish than others. Most of them have plenty of forage and the key is deeper water. Any pond that has a bit of a ledge and a drop off will hold quality fish, and I'm surprised by the size of fish that come out of some of these ponds.

As far as structure goes, anything in a bathtub sized piece of water will hold fish. Drainage pipes are good places to look, along with any type of vegetation, shoreline trees, rocks... anything can and usually does hold something.

Early and late, I'll throw a horny toad because I love seeing bass blow up on a top water lure. Brighter times of the day I throw an unweighted fluke, a Yum swurm or a flash mob junior.

Here's a couple from the last few days. Nothing fancy, but they sure are fun. View attachment 82612 View attachment 82616

Very nice! I need to get out and do more of that type of fishing.