I have a pond in my backyard that is a decent length, but only gets to be about two or three feet deep at the deepest spot. I discovered this a few years ago when I tried to stock it with bluegills that I caught in Minnetonka and they all died during the winter. However, although it can't hold fish, the pond has a ton of frogs and leeches in it that I use for bait. The leopard frogs aren't really useful yet because the bass and pike season doesn't open for a few months yet. However, bluegills love small leeches and crappies will even eat them sometimes (although leeches don't work nearly as well as small minnows).
To catch leeches, you only have to make a leech trap. This is a pretty easy and cheap affair. You need to find a container that you can punch small holes in. I found a plastic coffee can and punched holes in it with a screwdriver. Bait it with a piece of meat or fish (a lot of things will work - I use the body of a sunny after I fillet it). Put the trap in about a foot of water, just enough to completely submerge the trap. Before it gets light out, at around six, go out and remove the leeches from the trap (they leave the trap and go back in the mud when it gets light out). Keep them in water and put them in the fridge. There are many types of leeches that you can catch in ponds - the ones that work best for sunnies are about an inch long and black. Stay away from the really large or the multi-colored ones, they don't work as well.
Leopard frogs are great for bass and pike - they often work better than a live sucker in shallow areas. Hook them through the thigh to keep them alive and put them under a bobber with enough weight to keep them in the same place. As with all bait, make sure that the frog can't get down in the weeds to hide from the fish.
Crayfish work very well for both smallmouth and largemouth bass. As with frogs, make sure you know local and state regulations before using them for bait.
Anyway, I found a ton of leeches in my pond and they worked great for bluegills. I got out to Medicine Lake on Saturday and the place was packed... hundred of people fishing from the shore. Not really a surprise considering how popular the park is and the great weather. I was out for about an hour and caught about a dozen nice bluegills. I was kind of surprised there were any fish left at all in the area, considering how hard they are being pressured. I haven't caught any crappies recently but maybe I'll get out after them soon. As a side note, I have already been checked twice this season at Medicine. Make sure you are fishing with a license and you aren't keeping any fish out of season that you accidentally catch.
Other events this weekend... we got the boat out of storage! Really excited for this fishing season and it was awesome to see the boat all cleaned up and scrubbed down. We have a really nice set up and it really adds a whole new dimension to fishing if you have a nice boat. I also finally got an eight weight fly rod at Cabela's, along with some flies. Very excited to get some pike and bass on the fly when the season opens up. I'll probably do a separate post about the fly fishing later.
Tight lines,
Bradley
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