Most farm ponds hold bluegills and bass, even though their main purpose might be irrigation or watering cattle. Find one stocked with fish — and that includes most of them — and you can have some great fishing. Riding the back roads to explore the country can often lead to such ponds and the adjacent farm house. But you still need a license to fish them, and you need the landowner’s permission.
What’s odd about all this is if you are fishing from private land on Chesapeake Bay waters or tributaries, you do not need a license. Check Page 30 of Maryland’s 2008 Fishing Guide.
“A person may fish for finfish without a license in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries if you . . . fish from private property as an owner . . . or a non-paying guest of an owner.” Note the latter “guest” part. You are a guest if you ask permission. This license exception does not apply to inland pond waters.
The inconsistency is unfortunate, but it is not the fault of the Department of Natural Resources. It is law, as set by the General Assembly, Section 4-604, according to Sarah Widman, regulatory administrator for the DNR.
With a law change, the idea of allowing fishing on farm ponds without a license might even make for more license-toters for the DNR, once people realized the fun the rest of us are having.
Let’s say you have a license-less friend you want to introduce to fishing. Now he or she has to shell out $20.50 for the occasional — perhaps one-time — privilege of lobbing bait or slinking a lure on a private farm pond. Or you have an out-of-state fishing friend camping for a few days in your spare bedroom and you want to entertain him without him having to buy a non-resident license.
Were it legal, the answer in both cases could be a private farm pond excursion, where you politely ask the farmer for permission to fish his pond and, of course, abide by all rules and conditions that he sets for this privileged piscatorial experience.
Of course, there are the state-sponsored “free fishing days” (June 7, June 14 and July 4 this year) or free fishing from DNR’s designated piers and bridges. (Check www.dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries for a list of these areas.)
You have to have a fishing license for all other public inland waters, including the many public lakes and ponds listed on Pages 21-23 of the fishing guide.
But fishing on farm ponds often can be the best. Last week, Chuck Edghill introduced me to a property with two farm ponds after gaining permission for himself and an occasional friend. Yep, we have our licenses. The fishing could not have been easier or better, at least after a slow start.
We were able to park next to the first pond, alternately fishing with fly and spinning tackle. For these bluegills and small bass, we opted for 3 and 4 weight fly outfits and light to ultra-light spinning gear for casting tiny 1/8 ounce lures.
While this pond is normally good, according to Edghill, this day was a little off. I got hits — and misses — of several small bass and a catch of a stocked yellow perch. Edghill took some small bass and bluegills on a marabou streamer fly, working parallel to the shoreline.
We moved to the second pond, where the water looked cleaner, fishier. On my first cast I hooked and lost a larger bass, then on the same small crayfish spinning lure caught some large bluegills followed by some good-sized bass.
Bluegills are better when they are big, and these bluegills were big. With their slab sides they are a great fish even when palm-width instead of palm-filling, and these overfilled any palm. We continued to catch a mix of fair-sized bass and big bluegills. It proved to be a great day.
There is a lot of fun to farm pond fishing, although it could include more introduction to fishing fun without a license, if the General Assembly would consider this option.
The key for any such fishing is to have a license and to be sure to ask for permission. Otherwise, it is called trespassing. And when you get caught, that’s not fun. It gets even worse if you don’t have a fishing license.
