Southwest Missouri a treasure trove of ponds

Ken White/Daily Mail/ Kevin White with a bluegill he caught from a local pond.

Nevada Daily Mail

While traveling across the different areas of Missouri, it's hard not to notice all the small ponds, which were built to provide water for livestock.

If a pond is larger than a half an acre, you can almost bet it holds a good population of largemouth bass, bluegill and maybe channel catfish.

Submitted photo/ Youngsters try to catch bluegill at a local farm pond.

These ponds are a nice option with fish that often will inhale most any lure that passes them. The fishing can be as hot as the weather in July.

There are thousands of ponds here in Southwest Missouri. Since most of them are on private property you will need permission from the landowner to fish them. Also, there are ponds and small lakes on public land, like Conservation areas.

Having fished many of them, there are also many I haven't fished. The beauty of fishing ponds is that they're usually never crowded.

Not all of them are good bass water, but nearly all of them contain bass. In some cases, like the one I fished recently, a complete lack of fishing pressure has resulted in stunted largemouths that rarely reach 12-inches. Some of the larger ponds may hold bass as large as five pounds or better.

Tom Jackson of Sedalia, once told me that if you don't have a pond to fish in, you might befriend someone who owns a pond or two. Offer to help maintain the pond by doing things like pulling out unwanted cattails in the spring ---- to drop a cedar tree in for fish habitat.

Another good idea is to help cut or trim trees and shrubs from around the pond. Share some of your catch with the pond owner and he will be glad to see you fishing.

In most ponds, both bass and bluegill are usually stocked as well as channel catfish. Jackson once told me about using grasshopper for all three species of fish. One day at Blind Pony Lake, we caught all three species by using hoppers under a bobber. We caught lots of fish without opening up a tackle box since the bait was available around the water's edge.

One day several years ago, I tried a pond with a fly rod. Targeting bluegills (another fish you will find in most ponds) after catching a dozen nice-sized bluegills ---- when I hooked a fish that obviously was not a bluegill. It was a bass and after a battle, it was landed. Not having scales with me, it had to weigh over five pounds, a nice fish in any water.

Before the sun set, I had caught more plump bluegills and three more bass in the two to three pound range. All the fish caught hit a small wet fly. The bass were released to fight again, but the tasty bluegill made a big meal for the family.

Like Tom Jackson, when I go after bass in ponds, I use a baitcasting reel with a 10-pound test line and a rod with medium-action. It works well when using spinner baits, plastic worms as well as a topwater lure.

My largest bass caught from a pond weighed just over 10-pounds. The story behind catching that bass almost didn't happen. On a late spring afternoon, I was early for league bowling so was looking at a nearby pond when I saw a big bass jump out of the water and catch a low flying blackbird.

Forgetting about bowling and since I had my fishing gear handy, I put a Hula Popper on the line and walked over to the pond. On first cast, no sooner than the lure hit the water, a big bass swallowed the lure and the battle was on.

Unkown to me at the time, there was a small crowd watching the fight. Finally landing the big bass, a big cheer went up as I held up the big fish.

You can fish many ponds from the bank, but sometime weeds that might hold ticks and chiggers become a problem. You can fish with ease by using a small boat, canoe, kayak or float tube.

Like bass anywhere, the fish are in shallow water during early morning and late evening periods. That is when spinner baits and surface lures work best. During much of the day, a plastic worm will catch a lot of fish.

Pond fishing in Missouri can be a good adventure, challenging and productive.