Ponds and small lakes are rich, underutilized fly-fishing resources. These bodies of water range in size from fractions of an acre to a square mile and often receive much less fishing pressure than larger, bass-boat-friendly lakes. It is estimated that there are over 2 million such bodies of water in the United States. For me, discovering a small lake or pond is like finding an Easter egg. I’ve had fabulous fishing throughout the West by knocking on doors and leaving notes inquiring about access in rural mailboxes.
California abounds in small lakes and ponds that offer excellent fishing opportunities. Although we tend to associate these waters with agricultural lands in the Central Valley and Sierra foothills, you can certainly find fishable ponds all over the place. Cities have them. So does the high Sierra (although many of these are fishless). And so does our Coastal Range. When I was a young man cruising timber on the Lost Coast, I fished three waters beside the Pacific that remain favorites and that are now part of Humboldt Lagoons State Park, just north of Eureka. Big Lagoon, Stone Lagoon, and Freshwater Lagoon offer, depending upon which one you visit, fly fishing for sea-run cutthroats, stocked rainbow trout, coastal steelhead (ever catch a steelhead on a damselfly nymph?), and even warmwater species, including bass.
A Range of Opportunities
California’s character, its geological and plant diversity, its range of altitudes and latitudes, produces a wide variety of animal and plant communities, and also produces a wide range of lake and pond types. Combine that with “introduced” fish in barren lakes, and we have many species to chase and a huge number of places in which to chase them.
Up and down California, on both sides of the Central Valley, gravel mining pits and other quarries produce fishing opportunities if groundwater tables are high enough. In my own area, the Yuba gold fields cover thousands of acres, and the groundwater comes from the Yuba River. In high-water years, you can witness flows from one pond to the next through acres of rock rubble. It’s going on now. I’ve floated the Yuba to access off-river ponds so I could fish for bass and walked into others from the south. In the Oroville Wildlife Area, similar ponds exist. A less well-known region is Spenceville Wildlife Area northeast of Camp Far West Reservoir, where you can legally hike to a number of ponds.
Along Interstate 5 between Thornton and Lodi, Google Earth will divulge the location of four long ponds that were prematurely dug for the dubious and ill-fated Peripheral Canal. They contain warmwater species and tend to be heavily fished. Small-water opportunities also exist in backwaters of the Delta and the Sacramento and San Joaquin River systems, where oxbows get cut off. Grab a window seat if flying into Sacramento International, and you can see them. Farther afield, a fishing partner and I teamed with members of the Tahoe Truckee Fly Fishers and towed boats to the Picacho State Recreation Area on the California-Arizona border above Yuma. We used skiffs and kayaks to fish backwater lakes, often hacking our way through tules and canebrakes in scenes reminiscent of the Humphrey Bogart film African Queen.
In my area, the midelevation Sierra foothills, cattle ranchers need stock ponds, what are called “tanks” in Texas. Large and small impoundments offer opportunities to toss flies for warmwater species. All collect runoff, but many, often the best, have irrigation district water rights. Cooler, high-quality water keeps summer weed levels down and assists in aeration. I’m working with a rancher who is installing solar panels to provide power for compressor-generated aeration. Oxygen depletion in the warm months is the Achilles heel of smaller lakes and ponds. That’s why many pay-to-play private still waters stop angling in late June and resume in the fall.
Don’t forget vineyard ponds. In several cases, friends and I help during the harvest and crush and are granted access. In another, we framed a greenhouse for the owner in exchange for access. The property had three ponds and pheasant hunting. In a third, the grower appreciates our wine club memberships and foodie gifts.
I could write thousands of words about golf course ponds. They can produce large fish, but benefit from enlightened management such as a catch-and-release ethic, the culling of stunted fish, and weed control. Many are prolific warmwater fisheries with top-water possibilities, while others in alpine regions offer trout, often huge, if the water is managed properly. Access can be tough, though. Issues are liability, trespass, and interference with golfers.
Where foothill and Coastal Range opportunities come mostly from irrigation ponds of some type, up-slope Sierra areas have many small natural lakes, as well as smaller irrigation district and PG& E impoundments. I’m familiar with the Lakes Basin and Grouse Ridge areas and to a lesser extent the Trinity and Siskiyou areas. Some ponds can be reached in passenger vehicles, others in 4x4s, and always on foot with a backpack or in winter with snowshoes. We’ve also found vehicle-accessible lakes south of Sonora Pass and others reachable with same-day in-and-out hikes. A number of these lakes collect snowmelt and runoff coming off of infertile granitic soils and as a consequence have Ph levels slightly above a neutral 7, which makes them acidic, one consequence being less biomass per surface acre. This lack of biomass is a reason why some small alpine waters hold quantities of stunted fish.
Private waters managed as recreational fisheries, conversely, lack population-related problems. Many of us think of these smaller, private bodies of waters as places to take kids for a sure-thing fishing experience, not knowing that more large fish come from these types of water than from larger impoundments. A small lake near Santa Rosa produced an undocumented world-record bass. A pond three miles north of my foothill home produces three-pound and four-pound fish, and another 10 miles downslope yielded an eight-and-a-half-pound bass for my neighbor, all fly-caught fish that came with carefully cultivated permission to fish those waters. By the way, pay-to-play ponds that cater to fly fishers can usually be expected hold large fish.
Finding Small Waters to Fish
Public waters, by definition, allow public access. An easy way to find small waters is to check out the public parks — city, county, state, special district — in your area. Get their names and Google them online for fishing information (lack of such information, by the way, doesn’t mean there are no fish). And always make sure to determine whether angling is indeed allowed.
The more difficult task is getting access to small waters on private land. As I’ve mentioned, these often offer incredibly good angling. But you usually will need permission to fish them. Be sure to let landowners know that you are aware of their concerns for liability and fire safety. We’ve used wheelbarrows to carry in float tubes and gear, avoiding dry grass than can be ignited by catalytic converter exhaust systems. Don’t forget the catch and release ethic, unless a landowner asks you to cull fish. Carry out everything. If the landowner has an interest in learning to fly fish, offer help and send him or her flies or even a fishing outfit.
An early mentor was Bob Rogers, editor for Western Outdoor News. Starting out, I had lots of time off and was invited to travel with him often. We had access to both hunting and fishing on private lands. Why? Above all by showing genuine courtesy and respect for the land. Thank-you notes and gifts, not pretentious, but thoughtful, certainly helped.
Pond Tactics and Tackle
Once you’ve found a hidden gem, how do you fish these waters? I fish mostly with a 6-weight rod and floating weight-forward line, occasionally a clear intermediate, rarely with a full sinking line, going down a rod weight for small bass, trout, and panfish. Angling on foot makes things easy, and sometimes I’ll wade wet. On the larger lakes, float tubes, pontoon boats, and prams are great. Many landowners leave a skiff on the bank. A horse-country friend uses a small raft, complete with a solar-charged battery for his trolling motor.
Look for the same things that you would when breaking down larger still waters — they just may be more subtle and less obvious. Water temperature and weed growth tell a lot. Lake stratification and turnover are far less common than in larger waters. Smaller impoundments warm up quickly in the spring and cool off fast in fall. Cooler inflow from a spring, small seasonal tributary, or yearlong source will concentrate fish, whether they’re looking for food, oxygen, or comfort. Agriculture impoundments are not engineered to the standards of larger reservoirs and often have seepage that also collects forage, provides cool water, and attracts fish. At Battle Mountain, I found a six-inch channel emanating from an upper pond seepage. Its slightly cooler water brought fish to that cove. A weed bed with a vertical face yielded trout looking for Callibaetis nymphs, and the deepest water along the seeping dam face yielded some of our largest fish.
Structure holds fish, even if it is not as obvious as in a larger lake. Shoreline transitions such as rock to mud, weeds to clay, fractured rock next to anything, or downed timber extending into the water will hold fish. Reed carpets along a shoreline give clues. Waving reeds tell of bass rooting for damselfly nymphs climbing up the stalks. Approach carefully, and any bug tossed nearby will bring an explosive strike. Try a floating damselfly ly or dragonfly pattern. A chartreuse Sneaky Pete slider will interest the fish, as well, because reed edges hold frogs. These places can be magical. While I was focusing on fish foraging in reeds and the waves of undulating wildflowers in the background, something caused me to look up. I caught sight of a large mountain lion crossing the hillside, oblivious to my presence.
Foothill lake fence lines with entangled vegetation and woody debris are fish magnets and often produce large fish. Don’t forget logs and downed timber. I fish a 65-acre valley lake that had lily pads along parts of its shoreline. Cast to the openings and to indentations, however small. Another fish attractor is a rocky dam face, which provide places for fish to hide and from which to ambush prey.
Many ponds were built on a dammed seasonal stream. That original channel is another place to find fish. Extrapolate the channel route. My fish-finding rig for that slightly deeper depression is a clear intermediate sinking line with a two-tone black and red-tailed Woolly Bugger tied on a 3X-long to 5X-long straight-eye streamer hook. I trail a size 10 Phil Ryan Small Shad 14 inches behind it, tied off the bugger’s hook shank. As action slows midday further into the summer, fish hold in deeper water associated with that original channel. Crappies, bluegills, a rare channel catfish, and bass will take the small minnow imitation, as well as the wormlike bugger.
Beginning in late May, one can find small bass fry, newly hatched and less than an inch long. Bass are cannibals, but the fry bite is a tough one to fish. That same small shad pattern, sometimes tied on even smaller hooks and fished as the dropper under a silver or chartreuse popper, may turn the trick. Fry will hold close to shore or structure.
Terrestrial patterns also are effective, especially where shoreline vegetation is found. Ant patterns work everywhere, but perhaps even better in the higher-altitude lakes. The same goes for beetles. We don’t see ants much on lower-elevation grassland lakes, but be prepared to fish ant imitations at middle elevations and higher.
I’ve found that smaller foothill lakes fish well early in the spring, often earlier than bigger impoundments that get colder snow runoff. Watch for the early purple buds on native California redbuds. They tell you that fish have moved from staging to inshore prespawn. The end of the bloom suggests that fish are in or near postspawn mode.
As small lakes warm, though, weed growth becomes a problem, especially in agricultural impoundments. Fish openings and throw a weedless fly that rides hook up on the surface, such as a KD Rat or Schmidterbug. No light tippets here. As I noted, small lakes and ponds can produce big, big fish. Whether driving down country roads, flying above the Golden State, searching Google Earth, or watching drone video, I’m on the lookout for ponds and lakes that I can fish. Time invested in searching for smaller waters and cultivating friendships that will lead to angling access can be enjoyable in their own right. It may open up a new angling world.
