Bass Fishing Is Heating Up

[Marty Rogers]

Bass fishing is heating up in park district and forest preserve lakes and ponds across the nation. There are millions of anglers that don't live near known lakes, but they still get the urge to fish all the time. Have you ever caught a park district bass or other fish that is worth mentioning?

[Jim Gronaw]

Hey Marty...what would you classify as a 'park district' lake? Are they small, community or county owned waters with special regulations? What would their size, in acreage, be and how would you go about checking into them? I do a lot of fishing in private farmponds and in small, overlooked public lakes and ponds that most people tend to pass by.

[Marty Rogers]

Hello Jim,
A park district lake or pond is any body of water that the maintenance is charged to the local park district. In other words, if the city or town owns the property and the park district of that town keeps the grounds, then it is a park district lake or pond. The size doesn't really matter in terms of the definition.

The very exciting thing about these lakes and ponds, is that many of them were "created" in the 50's and 60's. The federal government was quick to help out with the stocking of these waters and for a while, they were popular fishing holes. As time rolled by however, these little gems have been all but forgotten. I read a story of a park district in Missouri that had a little pond and a man caught a 40 pound cat. This is happening all over.

You do need to look into the rules for each body of water since they can have different laws. For example, I live in Wheaton, IL and some of the ponds have a catch and release rule, but others have nice creel limits.

I hope this anwers your great question.

[Jim Gronaw]

Thanks, Marty...by that definition, I would say that a fair percentage of my larger fish, of a variety of species, would come from just such bodies of water.

I work at a county-owned park as a maintenance man and we have a 300 acre lake that we oversee and work with the MD DNR on various fishing related issues. I also fish several small lakes that are public but owned by local city or municipals and have outstanding fishing. You're right...most anglers run right by them in quest of 'bigger and better' waters. Many of the fish on my photos page are from these overlooked lakes.

[Marty Rogers]

You are a lucky man. If it was me I would have a pocket fishermen with me at all times! I am an addict and it is only getting stronger. I got kicked off of a local golf course once since I brought my mini-cast out when I was waiting to tee off on the third hole. I couldn't help it since I saw 100's of bluegills that were the size of my face!

[Rick]

Most of my fishing is in these park districts. They truly are some of the best fishing in my area. Here is a bass we caught a couple weeks ago with some help from Mr. Gronaw.

[Marty Rogers]

Very cool! Now that is a nice one. I went out this AM and it was foggy and cool, but check out what happened on my first cast!

CLICK HERE