WizarDave Fishes
Farm Ponds and Local Lakes
in Northwest Missouri
There are several small ponds and lakes around where I live.
Seen recently in WizarDave's bass
pond...
We have a very good 2 or 3 acre bass pond on the farm. We
have put numerous 5 pounders in it. I've also stocked it with hybrid bluegill. They are a
blast to catch. The best fishing is from a boat, but bank fishing is also good. There are
several other smaller ponds (Grandpa built them to water the cows he had.) I caught my
first bass on a rubber worm in the one north of the house. I caught my first bass on a
crank lure (Heddon Sonic) from the "yellow belly" pond south of the house. They
have all filled in and froze out except the bass pond. Some of the small ponds have lots
of crawdads, so that's my favorite bait for catfishing.
Lake Paho is within 10 miles. It has good walleye,
catfish, largemouth bass, and
crappie fishing. We haven't had the success there we feel
we should have. We've spent several nights catfishing. Usually only catching 2 or 3 a
night. We can usually catch 3 or 4 bass per outing. I've caught one itty bitty walleye
there on a plastic grub.
Some of the best fishing can be found from "forgotten" ponds. One of
our hotspots is my great uncle's pond. We used to catch several 3-5 pounders per outing.
Last year, they were somewhat smaller, but still abundant. On the corner next to my house
is a great kid's pond. It is full of stunted bass. If you don't catch a dozen an hour,
it's a bad day. There are numerous small farm ponds that have great catfishing, bass,
crappie, blue gill, you name it. We do some "conservation." If we find a pond
with stunted bluegill, we catch several and stock ponds with stunted bass. And vice versa.
There are lots of watershed lakes in the area. One watershed lake (we call the
Moss Pit) has great crappie fishing. Others have great all around fishing. Pitt's Lake has
great bassing. We are always successful there. I remember one spring, I had a brandy new
bright-orange willow leaf spinnerbait. I told cousin Bill there's a bass laying right by
that tree. One cast, one bass, need I say more? Lots of these lakes get heavy moss. We
have good luck using "rat" baits. There's nothing like catching a bass on
topwater!
The Ridgeway lake has good catfishing (jugging). Fair bass, good
crappie. We plan on fishing it more this year.
