Pond Appreciation

Eli (5) paddling big brother Nathaniel (16) on the upper pond.

Pond outings get discussed fairly frequently on this blog, so it seems maybe I should tell a bit more about the ponds we most often fish. I speak of going to "the ponds" almost as if they are ours, but only because the property owners are gracious enough to let us treat them that way. They allow us free access to the ponds and the canoes on them at any time, and Nathaniel often keeps his johnboat by one of the ponds. I'm very grateful for that privilege.

The property, which is only about 4 miles from my house, has three ponds on it, all fairly small. Two are man-made. One is a natural beaver pond. Each has a unique personality.

We spend the most time on the upper pond, which has good access to from the bank or from a boat. It has three houses on it and a small beach area, where my family also swims during the summer. It has plentiful bluegills with a good mix of sizes and big numbers of mostly small bass with a few big fish in the mix.

The middle pond is the smallest and just downhill from the upper pond. No boat lives there and it's a bit of a walk with a canoe, so we mostly fish it from the bank. It gets more grass (and this year dollar pads) than the others and has some flooded timber on the far side. We often scoot down to it for a while if the upper pond bite is slow and we usually can wrangle in at least a couple of bass.

The beaver pond is our favorite because it is natural and has a wilder feel, despite being on the same property and really not being that far from the other ponds. It's shallow and full of stumps and produces good fishing for bass and bream. However, it has been very low for several months now -- almost too low to get around and fish -- so we're concerned the dynamic could have changed and that it could be reverting to a swamp. Hopefully. Mr. & Mrs. Beaver will want more water again soon and will do some engineering work.