Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Half hour spent behind the strip mall

As many of you know my family and I have been caring for my mother in law who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s & dementia last year. It’s really limited my ability to travel… I’m NOT complaining, just giving background.

Anyway as a result I’ve been doing everything I can to find fishing opportunities close by my home and/or along my normal travel patterns. So what had been a joke meant to elicit a groan from the kids… us driving down the road and me pointing at some retention pond behind a strip mall or some such, saying “I NEED to fish THAT!!” is now a reality.

A couple months ago I got a crown at the dentist, and after they’d prepped me while they were building my crown in their machine I took my stumpy tooth and fished one of those ponds for an hour. I caught a little largemouth and lost what I thought was a little northern pike perhaps?

This pond is right by my kids’ school and 5 min from my house. It’s TINY, but after a few trips I found it had smallish largemouth, a variety of panfish, and TONS of goldfish/koi, some of which are absolutely enormous.

My daughter and I took UL gear and caught some darned nice panfish one evening. She really enjoyed that, and we’re going to bring a stringer next time.

Anyway this morning I had some time after dropping my daughter and before I needed to be to the office so I fished for maybe 30 min. What a multi-species experience; the last one was a real shocker but I think explains what I’d actually lost that first day.



Anyone ever think they could catch a goldfish on a Mepps?? I had assumed we’d need corn or something??



Pond has bigger than this and they’re fiesty. So cool!



I catch one or two of these guys, 12-14”, each time I go. Pretty fun!





I was hootin & hollerin when I saw this guy! So awesome! I haven’t ever fished for walleye but caught em as bycatch rarely. I bet the last time I caught a keeper was in like 8th grade! This tripped me out!

Obviously the goldfish were planted, and bass & panfish I know have sticky eggs that birds transport on their feathers, but is the same true for walleye? I must admit that before catching this walleye I’d seriously contemplated being some northern in to consume some of the goldfish…

One interesting observation was that the Mepps with a willow blade was running a lot deeper than the Colorado-bladed ones I normally fish. I think this really made a significant difference and was responsible for that walleye.

Fun times!!! This has really opened my mind to consider places I’d never have fished before!!

Congrats. Behind the strip mall or where ever it's still fishing. Got to do the best you can with what you have where you are at the time. I've been watching Creek Fishing on You Tube off and on for a couple of years. This guy has a hell of a good time bank fishing or wading mostly all kinds of small creeks all over. Some are in towns and cities some aren't much more than ditches. He keeps it in proportion using light or ultra light spinning gear and seems to enjoy it whether he's catching a half pound bluegill or a one pound bass. Anything a little bigger is a big deal. Based on the shows he usually gets a lot more fish than a lot of people with boats on good sized lakes, like me, and has a good time doing it.

Last show I watched he took $94 worth of change; went to WalMart, put together a decent economical spinning rig and went out and caught a bunch of fish on cheap lures and 4lb mono.

Thanks man; John was one who inspired me! I love his channel!

Ps

Ha creek fishing for changes$$

Love it

Dats a good day.

Any pickerel where you live?

Just looking at the pics look like a saugeye still some god eating.

Caught a goldfish that was around 20in out of a local lake I fished thought it was a carp at first then realized it had no barbels. Real fun fight it was.

Always a fun day when you catch more than one fish.

No pickerel I’m aware of which is ironic given there are so many lakes named for them…


How do you tell the difference feature-wise? I’m unfamiliar…

Ps- just did a little research… white tip on tail suggests walleye, yes?

Pull up the dorsal fin. If there are spots on it - it's a sauger. No spots - walleye.

Both kinda got a white tip on tail. Dorsal fin should tell as I can’t really see it the colors and more blackish is what i was looking at so I could be wrong.

https://midwestliprippers.com/2022/03/26/walleye-sauger-saugeye-whats-the-difference/

Do birds really transport fish eggs?

That’s what they say as it can stick to their legs, feathers, and beak. The new one is when they eat them they sometimes come out the other end.

There are TONS of ducks & geese that live there, and this morning I fished a few minutes again & caught maybe a half dozen little largemouth half of which had heron scars on their sides so there is that source as well.

Interesting stuff; love how nature works to perpetuate itself.

As long as they are legal and the legal length walleye that size are pretty good eating and have more meat on them than one would think.

Cool! Urban fishing is fun! Half the fun is just finding places to fish.

Regards

I really wish ida kept it but wasn’t sure what the legal length was.

Now I have even more motivation to go back!

Seems like a lot of predators packed in there with the Koi... they must be pretty good at defending themselves to have lasted and reproduced?

That’s a really good point.

I’ve seen guys catch carp on minnow-imitating lures while crappie fishing so I guess?

Years ago while we were winding down employment where we worked I introduced a coworker to fishing. Without much work to do we could take long lunches and fish ponds between roadways in the middle of suburbia. In one algae infested pond I saw a fin and tail of a big fish. I got snagged up but told him where to throw. He had the cheapest rod and a Zebco 303 and was terrified when he snagged a 10 pound largemouth. I pulled it out of the water for him.

I still have never caught one that big though Dad and brother have.

Pretty sure that pond got fished regularly by the locals after that. Until then we were happy to hit creeks and snag bream.

Eric you never cease in finding ways to get after it! Good man.

I swear I caught the same one last night and unfortunately for him I had my tape measure with me and he was exactly 15”



Gonna go in the fryer with the green sunfish & crappie I caught last weekend!

I am hoping there is more than 1 in that tiny pond!!

If you don't glow in the dark after dinner, you'll know the pond is relatively clean

No kidding!!!

PFAS & Mercury are big concerns in our area rivers, and I can see from the blooms in this pond that there is a lot of fertilizer running off of area lawns. Hoping that’s the extent of issues in this particular body of water. It’s too small to get testing from DNR & such.