So there's this thing, phenomenon might be the word ? Not sure. Regardless we have alot of bodies of water here , creeks rivers ponds ect , that peoel call "dead". You'll ask "hay that little creek below the church, anything in it ?" And most of the time folks will just wave you off and say " naw that thing is just dead , full of snakes and sticks".
So most just plain won't touch them. And those who do well they get pretty irritated pretty quick and leave them alone.
Me however, idk ever since my parents would let me take my bike away from the house more then a mile I've always loved fishing these little "dead creeks". The main one being mabye a half mile from my house below the church. Was recently redone dude to the bridge being rebuilt. Banks are covers with that rip rap rock now so eveyone complains even more about it. But it's made it much harder for people to dump their gut piles and deer hides in so I'm pretty happy about that.



These places are usually some of the most beautiful little micro ecosystems full of bio diversity but most seem to really miss out on all this. Few different kinds of birds are living and nesting uned the bridge now all sorts of small critters make their homes in amongst the rocks . All's the various native plant life and of course the fish.
Have always loved the variety of species these little bodies of water will hold. Beautiful pumpkin seeds, blue hill, trout like chubs, various shiners bullheads and channel cats to name a few all call these litl places home but usually their just not easy to catch. Seems to miff alot of people because the methods they always use and that always work just usually don't work in these waters. Big bobbers and heavy weights that sound like a dang meteor hitting the water seem to be one of the main things. Finding the little strike zones is another. Some times they may only be a small 3'x3' area you have to drift your bait into for the pumpkin seeds. Sometimes it's just a little bitty Eddy in the current where those Chubb's like to hold. Other times it's an under cut bank the cats like to sit and ambush by. And sometimes it's just right by the bank ,mabye a foot off your rod tip where the big blue gills are feeding. It's all just a big problem solving exercise and I think that why I enjoy it so much. Just makes it all the more special when you do get something.
Sensitivity and a little finesse go a long way with this kinda fishing. Waggler floats with a decent shot pattern has become my secret weapon. A small hook and a bit or worm presented right seems to her about anything I want these days

Even built a rod for this kind of shing a while back. 7' med action long handle. Good more making casts and working around all the brush but now too long. Cast let it drift, watch the bite set and repeat, usually don't have much of a signal so I'm "forced" to sit and just soak in nature.





One of my favorite little shows to watch with a regular bobber you'd usually not even notice these bites. With Eres I can see when a fish farts net to my bait lol




Just taking it all in for a little bit



Most of the time I'm not catching cooler fulls of slabs or trophy bass or anything. Usually just little guys like this. Basically just bait , but ..idk makes me happy , makes the whole 2min drive or 15min walk more then worth it so


Anyhow just some pictures and random babbling

Looks like a good place to catch an otter

I uses to fish litle places like that when I was a kid. It was about b the fun not the size or quantity of the fish.

Lot of those "dead waters" may of been dead 30 years ago but they likely have plenty of fish now.

River I trap would literally of dissolved any fresh water mussels that got dropped into them. Now the mussels just have to worry about the otter and muskrat constantly wiping them out. Lot of fish in it now.

Around here, some shallow ponds, that are full up in the Spring, drop down to a small, muddy hole by Summer. They typically have a lot of young of the year fish and a few huge, old fish that feast on the YOY, when the water drops, leaving very few YOY for new recruitment.

A small shallow pond like that was completely drained and netted out, in late Summer, near Trenton, Ohio on Woodsdale Road. It had huge bass, sunfish, channel cats and carp, with virtually no small fish. The fish were stored in concrete tanks at the CG&E power plant, that owned the pond and then put back after the pond was dug deeper.

A lot of creeks and small streams are the same way. In dry weather, the fish all end up in a few deep holes, with dry creek bed between them. The large adult fish consume nearly all the YOY. Fishing in those deep holes is fantastic. During the wet part of the year, fishing in those creeks and streams is poor.

Keith

Thank you for sharing,Wolfdog91!

What about channel cats?

If you have the room a basic fly fishing rig is perfect for those areas...talk about finesse.

Had a pond across the highway that our parents wouldn’t let us ride our bikes to, but the day I got my license and could take the truck, we went. It wasn’t really a pond so to speak, just a hole with overgrown brush and trees around it. We’d seen it one day riding in the back of the pick up heading to a baseball game in another town.
We hadn’t been there 5 minutes when a county cop pulled up laughing asking us what we thought we were doing, like it wasn’t obvious, lol.
We told him we were fishing and he laughed again and said there ain’t no fish in this hole. Well about that time my buddy set the hook on a 5lb bass. That counties face was priceless. He asked if we had any other poles and he joined us. We caught about 8-9 others and he told us he didn’t know whose land it was, but if they called about trespassers he’d have to run us off, but until then we were all to keep our mouths shut about fish being in that hole, lol. Everytime he’d see the truck he’d stop in and fish with us. We’d only keep a few each outing. (That’s how we knew about the first fish that weighed 5lbs. Stopped at a little curb store that had a scale)
We fished that hole for years until someone bought the land for a business and put a fence around the entire area.
Little off the wall places like that have produced some nice fish for us over the years.