 Small Packages
Don't judge a good time by the size of the pond
Wonderful things come in small packages." my Mother always said when she found a little box with bow. This well known axiom can be applied to diamonds at Christmas and the small ponds that sprinkle the Texas landscape. When looking for fishing fun, don't overlook the small stuff.
Even though you won't break the state largemouth record (although you might), there are still plenty of exciting battles to be fought between fish and angler in the small stock tanks or ponds. A record 6.1 pound bass and several fives have been cought on my small pond and I have seen five pounders caught from ponds so small you couldn't even fit 5 boats on the water.
But if you rate them by fun per square foot of surface water, the smaller water bodies have more to offer in the way of smiles per mile. Lots of bass bream and crappie fight for every inch of water when there isn't that much water to go around. Every clump of grass or spot of timber holds fish.
Water clarity is not as big of a factor determining the ultimate size of the fish as is the amount of food available. Cloudy red stained cow tanks can produce five-pound bass; I've photographed them before. But, on the flip-side, I have seen over use by cattle destroy a fish population. They were making money on cows, not fishing.
Ponds with cover, trees and grass around them generally have larger fish than bare boned cattle tanks. You would be surprised at how much protien comes from bugs ad frogs that hang out in the weeds and trees near a lake. The grasshoppers alone can sustain a pond's fish through the summer. Plus the more cover the stronger baitfish and minnows populations will be.
-more to come -
|
