More times than not, I just want to feel the raw power of an aquatic creature testing the limits of my tackle, and I don't care how it is achieved. While the rewards of a day spent on the open water, scouting structure and rotating presentations are tremendous, success on a large body of water requires planning, execution, and a bit of luck. For those of you seeking instant gratification in your fishing endeavors, look no further than the pond off the third tee of your local golf course! You think I'm kidding?! I don't blame you. Seriously, I didn't believe it myself. That is, until I got the marbles to stuff my ultra-light spinning rod down the driver slot in my golf bag!

Flashback a few years... back to the days when TNN Outdoors ruled Sunday nights around America. Some of us recall a short-lived program titled "Go Fish," starring Fish Fishburne. This show featured the most outrageous character ever to grace the cameras of outdoor television. We're talking about a man that not only dipped wads of night crawlers in his lower lip for the sake of entertainment, but also slayed hoards of monster fish. He is awesome, but I digress. My life changed the evening that I watched Fish Fishburne step off the fairway of a golf course and cast along the bank of a small pond. There is no way the show aired every fish he caught that day. It would have taken hours. To prove the madness he had stumbled upon, he casted a golf ball, rigged with a hook, into the center of the pond and dragged out an absolute behemoth of a bass.

"Ridiculous," I thought to myself. This guy is a crazy bastard, no doubt, but there is no way bass of this caliber were coming off of a public access golf course. I mean, was this a magic pond? Did they stock it for the show? I was pretty skeptical.

Fast forward to the summer of '07... when my eldest brother's bachelor party found me packing my golf bag - right next to my fishing pole. Already running late, I figured no one at the course would notice as I slipped past the clubhouse and tossed my gear in the cart. Aside from all parties involved in Matt Petersen's Ball and Chain Classic, no one saw a thing. The opportunity to test the waters did not present itself until the ninth green at the Northvillle Country Club. I bypassed my putt in exchange for a series of casts into the crystal clear pond. Immediately upon impact, my weightless plastic worm was swarmed by a school of ravenous bass! BOOYAH!!! I nonchalantly yanked four or five small bass from the pond in a matter of about one minute. I did this until the rest of my foursome caught on to my antics. My attention quickly turned from my showing off to utter disbelief as a monster bucket-mouth lethargically emerged from a weed bed. I fluttered my worm about two feet from his face. He hammered it with authority while smaller bass had already begun to strike! Like taking candy from a baby! This cycle continued as I fought off swarms of smaller bass to get to the true soldiers of this tiny pond. It was an absolute joke how easy it was to land these fish. They behaved as if food was never an option and anything that entered the pond had to be consumed. This particular encounter ended with countless fish, a handful of 3+ pound bass, and a now shredded soft plastic worm.

Enough with the storytelling! How can we duplicate the success I had last summer? It's so easy! Here are a few things to consider in fishing public ponds:

-NEVER overlook a pond!- No matter how small or exposed a pond is, there is a great chance that it holds heavy slabs of fish.

-Tie on soft plastics- My most successful pond outings have all included weightless, weedless soft plastics and topwater plugs. Most ponds are loaded with weeds and the your biggest challenge will be staying out of them.

-Be stealthy- Make your first casts before you even approach the banks. Fish can see you, stupid! They can also feel you stomping your clumsy feet on the ground. Walk easy and cast down the banks before the fish sense your presence and become picky. If you venture into the golf pond arena then don't worry. They coexist with humans and out-of-bounds tee shots everyday and won't even care that you're tossing them a fake meal attached to a string.

-Have fun!- Pond fishing is an absolute riot! Go out with your buddies and have a first to five fish contest or take your prissy girlfriend with you so that she understands why you skipped your movie night last weekend. This is also the right place to introduce youngsters to fishing. The action should be hot and the excitement is contagious!

Grab you pole and grab your driver. If you are going to dish it out for a round of golf, you might as well get your money's worth by dragging in some heavy hitting bass from the pond that stole your ball!

Steven Petersen

OutsideHub.com Staff Writer

spetersen@outsidehub.com