The Ole Pond
Ah, Probation Pond. A hard core angler’s humble yet all-inclusive abode, complete with blue tinted water, towering palm trees, and shopping cart reefs. Hungry? The catering is provided by the taco stand, and dessert is on wheels as the elote/raspado/paleta lady pushes her cart around the pond.
The first trip back to my aquatic sanctuary in 2025 started with all the hallmarks of a city pond outing. A rogue plastic bag skittered across the surface like an urban tumbleweed while a squadron of cormorants gave me the side-eye. The resident homeless peeps gave me the 'what's up,' while the distant sound of a police siren added to the ambiance.
And of course, no trip to the pond would be complete without the looky-lous. The types to ask, "Did you catch that here?!" as you're releasing a fish.
As I'm working my swimbait back to me and making another cast, I hear someone yell "Look look! That guy caught a fish!"
I curiously looked around to see which lucky angler had actually hooked something, since I haven't seen anybody catch a bass outta here in months, but didn't see anyone fishing except myself, which left me perplexed.
"Someone caught something?"
I kept on reeling the bait in slowly and made another cast. 15 seconds later, the guy and his buddy were gathered over my shoulder as I reeled my Deps back to the shoreline. As I reeled it out of the water and palmed it to get the snot off the treble hooks, one of the guys exclaims:
"Look look, he caught another one!"
"Naw man, this isn't real. It's a plastic bait. It's fake," I tell 'em, much to their disappointment.
"Ooooh. Hmm..."
and after a pause, the man says,
"What fish is dumb enough to fall for a fake bait?!
""A fish dumber than yourself, apparently," I thought to myself.
*
The swimbait didn't get any follows, unless you count the people who would follow me asking if I had caught that "fish" here while pointing to it. Ever since losing a good fish in mid December of last year, I've been trying to force feed the fish the swimbait, and one of my resolutions for 2025 was to not put all my eggs in one basket when I fished my local pond, so I brought another rod with me today. I had it pre-rigged with a bait and rig that brought me decent success at the end of 2024, and sure enough, on my first cast against some man made cover, I get a nice 3# to go. The fish was fat and healthy, apparently not missing a meal during the winter. Since fish here usually average around a pound, this was a good first fish of 2025 at my local pond. Hopefully it continues.
First Pond Bass of 2025
From pavement to pond—stay on the grind!
