Ford's Pond Fishing Reports 2021

[NKlamerus]

A year and 2 weeks ago I discovered my favorite bass lake in Oregon, Ford's pond.

I visited again today and had my first real kayak trip of the year, and caught my first bass of the year

Most of the day was 45-50 degrees, I caught 3 fish on a rattletrap before 3pm, but about then the wind completely died and the sun began to break the clouds, and it was over. Nothing worse to me than completely still conditions

Fish were moved up out of the deepest holes, maybe pre-pre-spawn, none of them had any signs of bedding but they were definitely healthy overall and been eating already.

The pond itself is a tad high, and cleaner than I was hoping, "Friends of Ford's pond" the volunteer group combined with the city have added 3 picnic tables around the walking trail and done a lot of brush clearing. There is also a plan to lay an asphalt trail around half the pond and allow handicap access from the lower lot, with eventual plans to add a visitor center/park on the southeast lot.

Glad to see it cleaned up, but I also expect it to see more fishing pressure than ever before.

 

[fromthelogo]

Congrats on the first bass of 2021. Glad to see you back in the yak!

 

[bass]

Awesome! I have not even begun to think about bass fishing. Not many small waters up around Portland that have decent bass populations. I just have to wait a bit for the water to warm up in the bigger waters. You definitely got my casting hand twitching

 

[NKlamerus]

I've seen a few good fish pulled from blue lake recently on Facebook, fishing real slow from the main fishing dock

As long as it wasn't a weekend you could definetly kayak it?

It gets way too busy on weekends with boaters and watersports

Or head this way and we can fish down here!

 

[bass]

@NKlamerus that is a great idea. I have never fished Blue Lake. I think it is pretty easy to launch a kayak there (I know you can bring your own this time of year, just not during the summer).

I looked and the drive to Ford pond is over 2 and 1/2 hours from here. That is more than I want to drive. However you have me thinking. I should look at fishing some of the coastal lakes. I can get to a handful of different lakes in 1.5hours. That is definitely doable. I have never fished any of those lakes up this way since I always just fish the Willamette, Columbia or Hagg once things warm and I am deep into bass mode.

If the wind forecast holds this weekend I will probably fish Merwin for kokanee but I am going to start some serious thinking about the coastal lakes (and blue lake).

Maybe some day we can meet somewhere in the middle somewhere and do some fishing!

 

[Fummus]

Thanks for the reminder about Fords pond. Grew up fishing it back before it was drained. Lots of good memories there. Had tried a couple of times from the north side bank in the last year or so, but not much luck (of course it was the wrong time of the year for warm water fish to be active). Wasn't sure if there was much in there worth catching, but your photo's prove that there is. You ever fish the far south end on the other side of the trail? I live in Sutherlin, but been focusing on Cooper Creek almost exclusively.

 

[NKlamerus]

I usually focus on the north and west sides, but have caught fish around the whole thing.

I have also portaged across the dam and fished the southern lake, which is technically half private? But did catch some fish in there as well

I'm loading up to head down there right now!

 

[Fummus]

Cool! be interested to hear how you do. I was thinking about wetting a line today, but not sure if I'll get past the honey-do's in time or not. There used to be catfish, bluegills, crappie, and bass in there. Aside from bass, what other species have you found there?

 

[NKlamerus]

There's definitely crappie, bass, bluegill and perch. Not sure about catfish, although it would make sense that there was

 

[NKlamerus]

Fished from about 11-3:30 and only caught one. I spoke with 2 other experienced fisherman, and they caught 1 as well.

Mine was probably one of the smallest fish I've caught out of there

All 3 fish were caught before the fog broke, as soon as that sun came out and the wind died, the whole lake died. No bait, no movement, birds stopped, everything stopped.

 

[Fummus]

I probably saw you there today. Was parked with my youngest at the SE corner where they're working on parking area. Saw a couple of yaks on the west side, and a third yak on west side of southern pond. Went back with oldest boy around 5pm and we made a few cast with crappie jigs from the north bank. No fish were harmed and jigs were sacrificed to the fishing gods, but was so nice out, couldn't feel too bad about things. Definitly gonna have to get my raft together and take it out there. Last year my youngest boy and I walked along the south end and had the most ticks I've ever seen in such a short amount of time. Gave me a strong desire to burn all of the tall dead grass on that end.

 

[NKlamerus]

Yeah I was on the west side of the main pond with a guy I met that morning.

Didn't know anyone was on the south side, I thought about portaging over.

 

[NKlamerus]

Busy morning! On the water about 8am, super foggy and absolutely still

Caught one on the frog and had another do a 180 in the air over it.

3rd fish slammed the frog, biggest of the day 4lbs 9oz

4th I missed

Ended up with 5 for the day, caught 3 more on soft plastics

I'm actually out here now but the wind before the front hit, easy 1' with some 2' white caps out there now. Not a fun ride back to the launch for sure

 

[NKlamerus]

Couple condition photos

 

[fromthelogo]

Those are all nice fish. Guess you didn’t forget how to catch Oregon bass after all that Florida action.

 

[NKlamerus]

Those are all nice fish. Guess you didn’t forget how to catch Oregon bass after all that Florida action.

Nope but I definitely need to slow down!

Missed 2 frog fish, one went completely over the top of it, and the other was my fault, missed the hookset.

 

[NKlamerus]

Flyer from Friends of Ford's Pond

Sutherlin must be better off with homeless camps than Springfield/Eugene

 

[NKlamerus]

Slow morning, caught 4 and broke off another frog. Not great

Arrived at 7am, 38 degree air temp and real foggy, had to take a 15 minute detour to go back and get my sunglasses.

Leaving about 11am, it's dead still again, which means I'm out! Thought it was going to be busier

 

[Clbagshaw]

Picked up this guy last night after work it weighted 3.46. My buddy i was fishing with also caught 2 that were around 2 pounds. We had lost a few as well. Also i caught it a on a chatterbait.

 

[NKlamerus]

Picked up this guy last night after work it weighted 3.46. My buddy i was fishing with also caught 2 that were around 2 pounds. We had lost a few as well. Also i caught it a on a chatterbait.

Nice one brother! Glad to see someone else fishing it here!