City Park Bass

[carpflyguy 0]

Well done! Those sliders look great!

[Philly 0]

Kirk:

I had to check out the park size. My information was certainly out of date, maybe many years ago, like the late 1800s the Wissakickon Valley was the largest urban park. Now a days it's #27, your park is #5 and the park everybody thinks is the largest city park, Central Park is #134.

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Thanks Carp.

 

Philly, thanks for updating. I did a search and the only results I got for New Orleans was Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge as being #3 in the country. Nobody around here thinks about Sauvage as being a city park. Didn't see the New Orleans City Park as being listed.

 

Oh, well. Just saw a report with picture on Lousiana Outdoors of two guys with a an 8.3 and 7.3 lb. bass. Unfortunately, the 8lber was photographed in the guy's driveway. The 7 lber was released after the photo.

 

Kirk

[Philly 0]

Kirk

It was included along with the city park on the list I googled. It was interesting that only the Wissakickon Valley was cited for Philly if they included all of Fairmount Park which the Wissahickon Valley is part of. The Wissahickon is a tributary of the Schuylkill River which runs through the city, plus a couple of smaller parks with creeks running through them that drain into the Delaware River and one with about four lakes we might have moved up a spot or two on the list.

[Stevester 0]

Kirk,

 

I lived there back in the 70's. I thought that you could fish the golf course ponds when when there were no golfers out. But then it has been almost forty years since I left. There also used to be some good sized gators in a couple of the ponds, much to the consternation of small pet owners whose property bordered the course.

 

Steve

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Interesting Philly, sounds like a nice place.

 

Stevester, when gators get over 4 feet, someone is called to remove them. The golfers didn't mind you fishing, but the park police would write a ticket if they caught you. I used to ride a bicycle onto the courses and was never stopped. Then, when I got a car I had to park on side the road across from the course, first time, park cop was waiting for me and gave me a ticket. That was the early 1980's. My dad used to take us there in the 70's and the closest we got to fishing the courses were a few spots where you could fish a section of a pond that was off in the rough area.

It is really nice now compared to back then, believe it or not. Amazing what a few million federal relief dollars will do when it is spent on improvements opposed to being pocketed as often is the case with the city - then again, the park is not owned by the city - thank goodness.

[Big Fly Bob 0]

Wow Kirk, you really started the season off with a nice one.

 

We have lakes all over the state that range from 8 to 80 acres that are called soil conservation lakes. Most were built in the fifties and most are on private property. There are 5 close to me that have been incorporated into cities. Although most get heavy fishing pressure, they are my favorite places to bass fish. I usually fish them out of a kayak and have had to develop some different techniques to be successful and usually do very well.

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Bob, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then. So, what different techniques do you use? This park is about to get a bunch of pressure. A guy took an 8lber out and the week before another guy caught and released a 7lber.

[portlyjoe 0]

Nice fish Philly! if that creek produces fish like that, why go anywhere else?

[Big Fly Bob 0]

Kirk, I almost always am fishing in the evenings after work, usually less people to contend with. The fish have been deeper most of the day and I know they will move into the shallows to feed as the light lessons. I start off in 4 to 6' of water around brush where I feel the bigger fish stage up waiting until they think it's right to move on in to the shallows to setup in feeding stations where they know the food will come to them. I use large weighted rabbit strip lizards on a mono tip line. As the sun gets closer to setting, I move toward the shallows and start fishing top waters. Yesterday was my first time out this year and I missed several fish while fishing deep. Reflexes not up to par yet this year. I finally stuck a decent fish, about 4 lbs. later, on a 5/0 popper, that gave a very good account of itself. It was in a feeding station that I have caught dozens of good fish at. Here's picture.

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Damn Bob, that is nice! Thanks for sharing your strategy. I just loaded a mono tip line on a few weeks ago. The fish that started this post off was caught on it but the mono tip had nothing to do with it in this instance as the fly landed just over a grass bed and I only twitched it once before the fish ate. I do look forward to fishing it more and trying to get those fish to eat my floating flies swimming under the surface.

[C LeBo 0]

Philly,

Is that a green sunfish in the third picture?

[Philly 0]

C LeBo, that's a rock bass. I've caught them up to 12 inches up in Vermont, but they don't get that big around here. There are green sunfish in the creek. Since the sunfish tend to spawn in the same general areas, I've caught some interesting hybrids, like a bluegill or pumpkinseed/green sunfish mix or a bluegill/pumpkinseed mix.

[Blackwater Virgil 0]

Small waters of all types are often overlooked pearls, and the only way to know if there's any fish in them, BIG fish, is to give 'em a try. Here in the rural south, farm ponds vary even more than we humans do. Some are just troughs for cattle, or neglected water holes, while some are managed well and produce some amazing fish. The Ga. Sportsman magazine wrote up an article on a nearby pond that's pretty famous for producing OVER FIFTEEN POUND bass. The following weekend, the place was crawling with big 18-19' bass boats, but none of them caught anything interesting. A buddy has caught two over 15 in that pond, and another guy I know got one over 16. But it's a long, rather boring process if you want one, They seem to be the most patient fish I've ever tried for. UNLESS of course you use huge live shiners like the guy with the 16 pounder did. He wasn't there but about 30 minutes total, including boat launch time and all! Yeah, he ATE that fish, too! But what else is new, eh?

 

Don't overlook smaller waters. They'll surprise ya' sometimes.