Ice Fishing Farm Ponds

[keystone]

When you first go onto a farm pond to catch some fish, where would you go. The deepest point or not. Most of the ponds are 14ft deep. And I just got a Vexilar FL18 and should I walk around with that to find the fish or not. Or should I just put the ice shante up and start fishing. When you walk on the ice does that scare the fish away?
Thanks

[andy j]

typicaly farm ponds, the deepest water will hold fish in the winter, usually the deepest water is closest to the dam. If you know of any structure in the form of wood, weeds, mademade structures, its always a good bet, some of the best ice fishing in the country for panfish comes from farm ponds, Thats pretty much all Dave Genz fishs. I usually drill at leat about a dozen holes, if it shallow water give the fish time to come back after being spooked, if there is snow on ice it helps. Go from hole to hole looking for fish, sometimes you won't mark fish until you call them in with your jig, use small ice jigs, will get more bites. Waxies and uralarva. Good Luck

[Matt Johnson]

Those farm ponds can hold some nice fish.

I like to punch a lot of holes and hop from hole to hole out on those small farm ponds. Often times those little ponds don't have a lot of structure and don't get too deep, so covering a lot of water and staying mobile is important to find and stay on fish. If there are any stumps or fallen trees that you know about then those are good spots to try if the water there is around 6-8 feet, assuming your pond is 14 max depth. The deeper part of the pond is another spot that should be focused on as well. Find the breaks and find out if the weedline stops, if it does, then fish the transistion area where it switches bottom structure, if it doesn't, then look for pockets in the weeds and fish those.

Those farm ponds are fun to fish, and they can be little gems loaded with fish. I've done real well on big bluegills on farm ponds.

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

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