The Legendary Pond

There is a dredger pond that has become sort of a legend to us; we will call it the "legendary pond. Many are the stories we have heard, the problem being it wasn’t easy to get into. That is until Charles went there, drove right in and started fishing it.

His story was that they were kicked out for gate lock up but that the company worker also told him that he “didn’t know what happened there after he left,” which meant access to the pond. In one afternoon Charles and his friend got into 30 bass. They vowed to keep it a secret from other people, but Charles is my boy so the next morning we hit the dredger pond. 

Sunrise

There were two ponds, one of them the size of a small lake. Amazing that you wouldn’t ever realize this size of a body of water was out there unless you were intentionally looking for it. 

first fish of the day

Long and skinny bass

First couple of casts for Charles near a drain and he had the first bass on. A few minutes later I cast out a minnow imitation on a spin rod and I had a fish on as well. I was pretty happy. Funny thing about some of the bigger bass, they are skinny, kind of unhealthy looking as you can see in the pictures. 

Eating something off of the bottom?

2nd fish

A few feet away I had another fish on. A smaller bass but definitely more of a fighter.  Charles made his way further around the lake. I switched to a buzz bait to see if I could provoke a topwater bite. I also had “Bonecrusher” with me, which I fully intended to use later in the day. 

Fish of the Day

Charles called to me from far away and I ran over only to see him catch a nice bucket mouth. Even though it was a bigger fish, it was also thin. Almost looked like a post-spawner but we’re in September so I doubt it. There are blue gill in there but I wonder if they don’t get a lot to eat? They seem to attack baits pretty aggressively. Charles also caught a nice panfish that looked like a cross between a perch and a green sunfish, does anybody know what it is? 

Perch/green sunfish mix?

At one point I heard a noise behind us and I looked only to find what I initially thought was a coyote and eventually realized was a dog. The owner was a worker for that company and told us to leave and not to come back or that he would call the Sheriff. 

Quick one for the road!

I couldn’t leave with only two fish so Charles told me to toss one more while he packed everything up. I ran back up with a bluegill colored ratl trap, and after a few casts I had my last fish of the day. 

So the fabled pond is a producer. It It has hungry sometimes unhealthy looking fish but I know if we would have stayed a bit longer, we would have really slayed them. Not sure if we will be back there but we sure will try. 

Total Fish: 3 Largemouth Bass