Pond Fishing in Early Spring

By Joel Walters

In the early spring, hitting a local pond can be the best bet for putting a few sunfish on the table. I have been dying for a good bluegill dinner, so this past Tuesday my dad and I decided to try to a pond near his house that has been stocked with bass and hybrid bluegill. He had been there a couple of other times this year and pretty much knew how to approach the fish. Tuesday was a beautiful sunny day in the 70′s, but that made the fishing a little harder. The harsh sunlight had the fish a little spooky and the water temperature was still very low. The pond is about an acre in size and fairly clear. Other than some algae on the bottom of the pond, there is no discernable vegetation in the lake for cover and the fish seem to either hang around the dock or just cruise around.

As we baited up and made our first casts, we tried to hang back ten feet or so from the bank because the fish scattered when we approached the water. My dad was casting a chartreuse grub on a lead head and I had a Gulp green imitation minnow. On my dad’s grub, the fish seemed to hit the bait on the way down after the cast. He soon had a couple of nice chunky bluegills for the basket. I soon had a hit on my minnow running the bait along the bank with a slow retrieve. The fish hit very slowly though. Just a little, tap, tap, then letting the line go slack to see if they will take it the rest of the way.

I missed most of my hits, but my dad seemed to be doing pretty well. A lot of my fish hit so slowly that when I finally did get them hooked up, they were only barely hooked. I think I might have had better luck with some live bait worked under a small float. I could have worked the bait more slowly. As it was, I was having a hard time working the bait slowly enough and not drag a bunch of algae up from the bottom. On one retrieve, my pole doubled over from the weight of a great fish. Line stripped from my reel, but then the bait flew out of the water. Attached to the hook was a large silver scale from one of the huge grass carp that patrol the pond.

After a couple of hours, we had ten nicely sized bluegill for the basket and we headed back to clean them.

There is nothing like the beautiful sweet fillets of big bluegill taken from cold water. The next day I took out all of the fillets and decided to try an easy recipe my dad had given me. I always have been a flour and corn meal guy, but this recipe seemed really good. First I took some Panko bread crumbs and seasoned them with salt and pepper. My dad usually adds lemon pepper, but I didn’t have any. Next, I beat an egg and filled a third bowl with flour. I dredged the filets in the flour, then dipped them in the egg wash, and lastly covered them with the Panko crumbs. I then placed them in a large non-stick skillet in which I had a small amount of oil heating on medium-high. After 3 or 4 minutes a side, the fillets came out golden brown and wonderful. Simple and delicious.