no fish

[TyGuy02]

So I caught wind of a stock pond. Went out to the lake and no fish. No baitfish, NOTHING! The flasher was literally dead. The pond (not very good at estimating size but maybe 20-30 acre) was supposed to have a ton of 14-16 inch eyes. I don't think the person I heard it from was lying because I heard from his parents that they were out and didn't catch anything either.

Could the fish in this little pond be schooled together chasing the few baitfish in some corner of the lake? I drilled 10-15 holes in a quarter-area of the pond (I had the wife with and she isn't too mobile on the lake, she gets frustrated because she seems to believe that location and depth make no difference).

So my question is, if there is fish in the lake, is the only option to drill a test hole every 100 feet?

[Chad Peterson]

I would. The only true way to know is drill as many holes and start looking.

Question for you TyGuy..................How deep is this stock pond?

Sniffer

[motley man]

Find the deepest hole in the pond.

[TyGuy02]

Of course there's no map and this one time was my only time, but I was in the middle and it was 18 FOW, which I thought was quite deep for a tiny bowl-pond. Which is my guess why the DNR picked that pond.

--Just in case anyone is wondering I would never post where this lake was on here or to the world, and it's a legal pond to fish.

[mskyfshntchr]

One thing I have found in some small ponds- in the winter the bite is about 45 minutes before dark until dark. It may be possible this pond is that way.

Also, I fish a few ponds in the summer that you can not find the fish in the winter. These are ponds where you catch fish on virtually every cast in the summer!

So, who knows where they go sometimes!!

[BobT]

Why would the DNR bother stocking such a small body of water with walleyes? Doesn't seem to be the type of structure walleyes would do very well in so it would be a very poor efficient use of budget dollars.

[Acemac]

its a stock pond were they grow eyes for stocking its not stocked its were the fry start.

go out at night or in the morning mid day eyes in water like that is going to be near imposible. find the deepest place you can and set up around 2pm and sit till 7pm.

[Reservoir Dawg]

Are you sure nobody else knows about this pond? doesn't the DNR open these ponds up for unlimited fishing so they can restock it with fry?

[tunrevir]

Oftentimes, these are great first ice spots but because they tend to be shallow the fish become lethargic and tough to catch later in the season due to low o2 levels. The reason the DNR uses small ponds like this is that they tend to stock and take prior to iceup with the notion that the ponds will winterkill and will promote a viable option for fry and fingerlings to grow with reduced predation by larger fish.

Tunrevir~

[Great Outdoors]

If you're fishing a pond that small with the amount of snow we have, the oxygen level may have dropped to a very low amount.

Don't fish more than 3-4 feet below the ice, as that's where the most oxygen will be.

There isn't much (if any) oxygen at lower levels.

If any odor or sediment is present when you drill a hole, move from that spot.

Keep moving until you drill a hole that has no odor and clear water.

Worst case is that the pond has "winter killed" because of the lack of oxygen.

[DTro]

You have to hit these spots first ice. Like others have said, the lakes are used specifically because they are shallow and make it easier for the DNR to recapture after stocking.

I'd say you would be very lucky to find any type of action on these types of lakes right now with the low oxygen and small numbers of fish left that haven't been caught already.

[TyGuy02]

makes sense with the low oxygen levels why nothing was moving. Early ice is a good thing to remember on a pond like this. I know when I was a young kid, my father and I would fish on a pond that was similar. The only difference was that the one when I was a kid was MUCH MUCH smaller. Honestly, it was maybe 100x150 feet in size! We always had luck in the summer but not in the winter for maybe that same reason.