Cleaning & Repairing Fishing Locations, 1/1/22

I had some errands to run this morning, and decided to take time today to do some maintenance to some of the local spots we fish. First stop... a private spot we fish called the "Hidden Pond". The entrance gate was literally falling down, and it looks as if someone had been picking it up off the hinge pins and going in. Here's a few pics of it prior to repairs, a couple of pics of the pond that is wwaayyy down in the woods, and the repairs gate as snn on the way out...

Bottom hinge totally off the peg on the LH side... This gate is HEAVY. If you pick it up off the pin, one person can't align it well enough to return it to the hinge.

The whole gate was on the ground and about to crash. The RH gate's top hinge was pulled totally out of the pole.

Top hinge on RH gate was pulled out of the large support pole.

I repaired the gate, and rode down to the pond to check it over. While I was there, I tossed a beetle spin a few times and picked up this little bait-size guy :-)...

 

Heading out, here's how the gate looks now. Let's see how long that lasts :-)

Next, I headed over to the private spot we call the "Secret Pond". I stopped in a couple of days ago to check the patch, and found lots of trash. Today, I brought some of those large DOT bags and my "picker upper" tool, and cleaned it up a bit...

It wasn't too bad, only about 1/2 bag of trash. All clean here, time to move on...

The final stop, and the worst, was at the Hwy 97 bridge overpass at Moccasin Creek. Wow, what a mess. People should be ashamed to make such a mess and leave it. We fished here recently, and it was like standing in the trash dump. The people who do this are the ones that give the rest of us a black eye. They're exactly the reason why many private spots are lost, and I can't blame the property owners! I go 2 large bags of trash, just front around the riprap at the base of the bridge. Drink bottles and cups, plates, loads of beer bottles and cans, energy drink bottles, fishing bait bags and cups, piles of fishing line everywhere, KFC and MCDonalds wrappers and packaging, swisher sweets and marlboro boxes, a huge fishing net(!!), and stuff I couldn't figure out. I mean, damn...how freakin' sorry can you get? Whatever, it's cleaned up for now. There's still enough trash up top near the guard rails of the bridge to fill 2-3 more large DOT trash bags, but that was all I could do before dark. At least the fishing area is clean for now...

Hidden Pond, 4-12-20

Debbie and I hitched up the Jon Boat and headed over to a private spot we call the "Hidden Pond" on 4-12-20. It was a great day outside...a little overcast, very breezy, and only about 70 degrees. I was curious if the LMB in there were on the beds, had hit the beds early, or had not begun to bed, yet. 

Debbie started out using a tried and true bait we've come to use for bluegill and black crappie on a micro rig... It's assembled from a a#0 gold beetle spin rig, a 1/64oz white crappie jig head with red eyes, and a Smokey Shad shadpole grub. The micro rig is loaded with 4lb flouro line. She immediately started snatching in the gills and crappie. 

Meanwhile I was throwing a fluke, a shad jerk bait, crawfish, rattle trap, a finesse worm on a Texas rig, a small dive bait, and a 5" Yumdinger stick bait. The bass lit up on the stick bait...none of the bass caught had a raw tail from bedding, only one had a plump belly, and they were mostly up near the bank where the bluegill were hanging out. Either that had hit the bed way early, or it just hasn't happened there, yet. 

Here's a few pics from the great day on the pond...

 

Hidden Pond, 12-27-19

Debbie and I hitched up the Jon boat, and headed over to the "Hidden Pond". This is a great little private farm pond owned by a friend. I was playing with different baits, but Debbie focused on a 5" Yum Dinger rigged weightless. Here's a few pics...