Pond Behind Shopping Center

[DanMarino]

Last year I discovered a storm water settlement pond near a shopping center that had lots of green sunfish in it. However, that pond is about a 25 minute drive away from home. So last night I wanted to see if I could locate a different pond closer to home that might allow me to do some quick fishing trips for bluegills, sunfish, or possibly a bass. So after a quick 7 minute drive in the car I parked at the local shopping center and walked down to the storm water pond in back of it.

It was a nice looking place and had evidence that a beaver might be around, due to some gnawed down trees. Sure enough, the beaver did a loud tail slap once I made my way down to the water's edge.

I only had about 30 minutes of daylight left so I tossed a floating foam pink spider. I was rewarded with immediate fish activity of bluegills pecking at the spider, but not taking it. I switched over to a pink spider on a smaller hook and caught 2 really nice bluegills. Very bright yellow chests and they took the fly hard and gave a nice fight.

I noticed that the smaller pink spider fly didn't float after a few casts. So I'll have to try and add some more pink foam to the top of it and see if it will float better.

I also noticed that lots of bluegills were pecking at the loop at the end of my floating fly line. For some reason they were pecking away at that loop knot, I guess thinking it was a bug.

Anyway, I'm glad I found a new pond close to home for some quick trips. I'll head back there this summer to see if I can catch any bass out of it.

13

[Shady]

Nice! I guess I'm lucky to have a nice little stormwater pond within walking distance with decent bass and gills

[DanMarino]

Cool. You are lucky Shady. I can walk to a portion of the Patuxent River from my house, but the fishing is difficult with not a lot of fish in that stretch. Catching bluegills with an occasional bass is way more fun than just bluegills.

[Mark]

Ever wonder how fish get into those storm ponds?

I do.

Some years ago I was fishing in Melbourne, FL in a housing development pond behind my in-law's house. I was having a great time catching bass and bluegills on the fly right from my in-law's backyard. The neighborhood still had a row of houses under construction. One of the developers checking job sites saw me catching fish and came over to speak to me. I casually said it was nice of them to stock the pond. He said, "We didn't. Fish just appear in all of our company's housing development ponds."

I suppose the fish arrive via eggs from birds' feet and perhaps a few transplants from neighborhood anglers.

[DanMarino]

I always wondered how the fish get there too Mark.

[bignose]

Let's just say that I am skeptical about fish eggs being transported to bodies of water on legs and feathers of waterfowl. Snails, and microorganisms, maybe.
At times this resembles the "spontaneous generation" myth of biology.

Example: Sunfish, Crappies and Bass are nest builders, and the eggs are not free floating, yet these fish species are very commonly distributed. Trout, and Dace are also nest builders, and they bury their eggs in gravel substrate in streams. The eggs are not readily accessible to the feet of birds, and the fry are free swimming almost immediately after hatching. Trout fry remain in the substrate until their yolk sacks are absorbed.

Carp, on the other hand, along with Shad, and Rock are broadcast spawners, their reproduction activities spread free floating eggs over a fairly large area.
Carp eggs, like the goldfish I breed at home, have eggs that are briefly adhesive, and will stick to things within a couple of seconds after being fertilized. The fry, after hatching out, cling to subsurface objects. Striper eggs need to freely tumble in moving water to hatch.

Perch lay eggs that adhere to branches and objects in the water, much like amphibians. Possibly...........

I am of the opinion that eggs and fry would dry out way too quickly to allow transport in this manner.

I'd say that in 99.9% of the time, transport is accomplished by some sort of human action.

BTW, Goggle didn't have an answer for this.

[Mark]

I'd say that in 99.9% of the time, transport is accomplished by some sort of human action.

Like snakeheads I presume.

[perchy]

I'd guess the fry get carried into these bodies of water from flooded streams/drainage ditches during heavy rains and flash floods.

[Shady]

I've been told that (atleast in howard county) most of the retention ponds are stocked with fish in order to keep the bugs down...

[bignose]

I wouldn't be surprised if they put Sunfish and Bass in these ponds for that reason....makes sense.
Sunfish to eat the bugs, and Bass to eat the stunted Sunnies.
Some of these ponds aren't much more than large puddles.
I do recall that HoCo Rec and Parks stocked some Red Eared Sunfish (Shellcrackers) to act as snail control in a couple of ponds. They get pretty big, but I haven't been able to catch any on lures. (Snail Fly pattern?). LOL

Or like that 30 pound Blue Cat I found in March, dead, in a local pond 5 miles North of Columbia, somebody probably had one in their live well, and thought that it would make an "interesting" addition to the 5 acre pond! Something like that could have cleaned the pond out. I also saw a White Perch caught there, so somebody is "augmenting" the livestock.

Hey, I've transferred Yellow Breasted Sunfish and Smallmouth Bass from the Pataspco into a small pond I had access to 25 years ago. Somebody else put Crappies in there. The Sunnies cross bred with the Bluegills and reverted back into regular Bluegills, The Smallies spawned once of twice.......I haven't fished there in 20 years or more.

Recently, we've seen a population increase of the very pretty, smallish, Green Sunfish. I don't think they were stocked, just a population shift. They are similar in pugnacious behavior to the equally pretty Pumpkinseeds.

[DanMarino]

So if in Howard County the ponds get stocked, who is stocking them? Howard County, or the builders? Is it a law that they must be stocked. Interesting topic and discussion guys.

[bignose]

HoCo Rec and Parks has stocked the ponds under their management, with bass, and sunfish.
I am not aware of any ongoing pond stocking operations, currently.

I was told that Rec and Parks had to poison a couple of their ponds due to a severe goldfish infestation.

Columbia Association doesn't do anything.
The State of Maryland stocks Trout in Lake Elkhorn and Centennial Lake. By late May, the few survivors die because the ponds get too warm.

I just think that a lot of this is just random guys with buckets.

[Yak Fish]

I've been told that (atleast in howard county) most of the retention ponds are stocked with fish in order to keep the bugs down...

I've heard the same thing. I had a pond just like this right behind my old house. In fact, there were a couple of them. You could catch blue gills all day long. I often walked out back and spent a few hours there catching endless blue gills with the occasional perch and bass. I'd watch the herons work from early spring through the year. Turtles were everywhere. It was really nice. I moved 6 months ago and I miss that place, but the good news is the Gunpowder River is less than a mile away and it's full of the same stuff as well as trout.

[Mark]

I was told that Rec and Parks had to poison a couple of their ponds due to a severe goldfish infestation.

Stu,

My two friends here were offended by your use of the word "infestation."

P1020737.jpg

[bignose]

How about a swarm, or pestilence?
Perhaps horde or scourge?


img_0956.jpg

"Hey move over, I need some elbow room!"
"Shut up, dumbass, you don't have any elbows, you're a goldfish!"