Fishing Retention Ponds

A good fishing trip is great. You can go to someplace you have never been and catch a type of fish you have never caught. The problem is most of us can only afford to go once or twice a year. I want to fish everyday, that is where the neighborhood ponds come in. In Houston we have a real problem with flooding so most new neighborhoods have retention ponds. Many are being used as green space for the families who live there. Some have trails around them with benches to sit, read and relax and playgrounds for the children. Most have a concrete bottom and sides to hold water year around and all have been stocked with some type of fish to control mosquitoes. Some are naturally stocked during flooding when the bayou dumps into the retention pond. Most also have fountains and waterfalls to help oxygenate the water for the fish as well as look and sound wonderful and relaxing.

  Joanna with a nice bass from a retention pond.

The hardest part of fishing a cement pond is finding the fish. With no visible structure and a smooth sloped bottom where do you cast? You have to look closely for structure. The fountain is of course a great place to hold fish. In the summer heat the fish will go for the extra O2 as well as the equipment, pumps, filter boxes and wires to use as structure. Some have pipes near the edges to allow water to go out from the pond as floodwaters recede back into the bayou. And some to allow the water flooding the streets to enter the retention pond, these can be very productive. If water if flowing into the pond from a pipe or waterfall, a bass will sit waiting to ambush any bug, fish or food as it falls into the pond. Some ponds will have rocks; dirt and other materials wash into the pond during floods so there could be structure near these pipes. Also the electricity to power the fountains will be along the edge so fish these wires carefully. Most will be covered with a plastic coating but you don't want to set the hook hard on a hot wire or you may not have a fun trip.

  Jim fishing a waterfall.

The most important part of fishing these neighborhood ponds is catch and release, for 2 reasons.  
Fishing a culvert.

The first is conservation. With hundreds of people fishing these areas there will be nothing to catch if everyone takes home 1 or 2 fish, let alone a limit. Bass take several years to reach 4 of 5 pounds and eat hundreds of dollars in baitfish and bream. Replacing a 5-pound bass can cost as much as $600.00 and most homeowner associations will not put that money in the budget.

  Fishing in front of a fountain.

The second reason to practice catch and release is the floodwaters that fill the retention pond during the year come from the yards and streets in the area as well as the Bayous. I know for a fact that this occurs as we have seen Plecostomus from White Oak Bayou in these ponds.
 

With pesticides, fertilizer in yards and chemicals from cars driving and parked on the streets, the fish could be hazardous to eat. Heavy metals are easily absorbed by fish especially catfish. The fish and wildlife departments put catfish on the list as dangerous to eat when heavy metals are dumped into lakes by pollution. They do not test neighborhood retention ponds, however when I asked a fisheries biologist about eating fish caught in and around Houston, his reply was he would not eat any fish from the ponds or Bayous anywhere around town. That was good enough for me. You may not get sick immediately from heavy metal poisoning. These types of chemicals will buildup in your system as you continue to eat fish from contaminated water. Lead, cadmium, mercury and other heavy meals can cause brain damage, birth defects and other life threatening conditions. Besides you can buy clean, safe, farm raised and wild fish at any grocery store.

  Alex fishing along a concrete bank.

Besides chemical contamination you also have to worry about biologic contamination. During flooding the Bayous will sometimes dump into these ponds. Many times the flooding will cause sewage treatment plants to flood into the bayous. I do not want to get ecoli, hepatitis or other disease from eating fish from contaminated water.

Fishing cement ponds, retention ponds and stock ponds can be very productive. I have caught 7-pound bass, extra large bream and catfish from ponds all around Houston. Make sure you fish like a Boy Scout, leave only footprints and take only pictures. I also pick up trash that may have blown into or washed into the area and pick up fishing lines and lure packages from other fishermen. Trash fishing line can cause bird and other wildlife to lose a leg or choke to death. It can be recycled with your milk jugs and save animals. That way everyone benefits from you being there. Take a friend or a kid and a camera and have a good fishing trip every day.

MARK