Nice Bass from No-Name Pond off Highway in Rockland County
 

So I was working out of our office in Purchase, NY and was planning to fish Rye Lake after work. Unfortunately a meeting went over and I only had about 20 minutes to fish so I called an audible and decided to try a pond I eyeballed from 287 every time I am headed for the Tappan zee bridge. I know nothing regarding the ownership of this body of water or weather it even had fish in it but decided to give it a try since it would require a minimum detour maximizing fishing time. I only had two poles already rigged and no other tackle (baitcaster with a spinnerbait and Med-light spinning rod with Texas rigged/weighted zoom brush hog). I think the pond may have been a quarry of some sort because there were rock piles and sand along shoreline. The pond is basically a square so I going a corner and then just cast parrallel to both banks trying to keep my lure 5-10 yards from land about where I could no longer see the bottom. Caught the fish pictured below with the brush hog. He snapped my line as I was pulling him on to land but I reacted quickly and jumped into the water and basically pinned the fish into the muck with one hand while I searched blindly for his mouth with the other so I could lip him. I ruined a nice pair of loafers but the fish was worth it! A few other hook ups but wasn't able to land anything.

Re: Nice Bass from No-Name Pond off Highway in Rockland County
 

Love the dedication jumping into the water to grab a bass nicely done, sometimes ya just gotta do things like that in order to catch 'em. And don't worry about the loafers, Those can be replaced at anytime.

Re: Nice Bass from No-Name Pond off Highway in Rockland County
 

Well I have lost a bunch of good fish lately and the last decent bass I did catch I never got a pic because while I was fumbling with my phone i dropped the fish. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, however, I happened to be balanced precariously on top of a laydown 10 yards from the shore and the fish fell right back into the water and swam off......No way this fish was getting away without a picture.

Re: Nice Bass from No-Name Pond off Highway in Rockland County
 

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That's awesome. Good save.

Be careful with those ponds of ambiguous ownership. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the last time I stopped to look at a small pond, a fat lady jumped our of her truck and started chasing me through the woods. Luckily, the trail started going up a steep hill and she got winded running on her short, pudgy legs. I was able to out-distance her and get away.

You definitely want to keep the location of that pond a secret. There are some serious bucketeers in New York. Especially from Brooklyn. They'll have that pond emptied into a few coolers by the end of the summer, leaving you with nothing but small sunfish.

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Re: Nice Bass from No-Name Pond off Highway in Rockland County
 

Since you can see the pond very clearly from the interstate anyone looking to clean it out probably would have already. The reason it hasn't been decimated by bucketeers is likely because it is private property. I sort of suspected it was, as one street that provided access Had no parking/trespassing signs, but there were no signs where I parked and accessed the water and the gate was wide open (oh yeah, a fence surrounded the whole pond...) so I was planning to play the clueless guy from out of state if confronted by either a property owner or authority. If I wasn't only planning to fish for 15-20 minutes I would not have bothered.

Re: Nice Bass from No-Name Pond off Highway in Rockland County
 

based on that outfit im 100% certain you would have pulled it off. that's gotta be the nerdiest looking fishing photo ive ever seen it made me real life LOL

im WFH today the river is stuffed with small pumpkinseeds. when I say small im talking like smaller than a swimbait

Re: Nice Bass from No-Name Pond off Highway in Rockland County
 

Hahah, I was in such a rush to get on the water that while I removed my jacket and tie I forgot to undo the top shirt button. I was not trying to make some sort of hipster fashion statement. With that said, Dont think I didn't factor my business attire in when I decided to risk fishing a potentially private or restricted lake.

Re: Nice Bass from No-Name Pond off Highway in Rockland County
 

Oh man! What kind of loafers? Hate when that happens! Good catch on the road dude! Nice looking BUCKETMOUTH!:D

Re: Nice Bass from No-Name Pond off Highway in Rockland County
 

Google earth baby!! Gotta love hunting down them ponds of the beaten path! Even if they are private...oops! Never know what you will find!!

Re: Nice Bass from No-Name Pond off Highway in Rockland County
 

Yeah you mentioned it happened at Round valley not too long ago. Never knew they put trails in there.

Re: Nice Bass from No-Name Pond off Highway in Rockland County
 

lol Back in my teens, we used to fish the six-acre pond in front of General Electric. A couple of those days, we caught more than 200 bass between two of us inside of an hour. Finally, the gig was up. I went at night. Age 17, I was too inexperienced to know parking my car roadside and putting on the blinkers, as if to say, "Leave me alone, just broken down," simply invited trouble. I'm out there bloopin' the surface and catching bass, when a huge van comes around side the building with search lights. I dash into the high grass and dive down as lights pass over me. Then two squad cars arrive at my station wagon on the road. I'm hiding out a good five minutes when I hear an officer on loud speaker, "Bruce Litton, we have your driver's license. You can come out now." I had left my wallet on the seat, car unlocked. They were smart enough to figure I was fishing, so I come walking out, hands up, a gesture of combined respect and laughing self-mockery. I had half a six-pack they took from me, no further questions, just, "Please don't do this again."

Can you imagine the repercussions in today's Draconian "America."

Re: Nice Bass from No-Name Pond off Highway in Rockland County
 

nice....way to scratch the itch....i always have a rod in the truck