Ford's Pond Fishing Reports 2021

NKlamerus · Apr 11, 2021

Went out this morning, arrived a little later than I wanted about 8:30, air temp was 34 degrees....

I was so distracted by the temps moving through that I never checked the wind! It was strong 8+ out of the NNW all day, eventually blew me off the water at 11 after catching 3 decent fish. All of them were tight on structure and came off a chatterbait

I ate lunch and portaged my kayak across to the smaller pond, caught one nice one, and left right after.

Met 2 guys fishing the Oregon Kayak Bass Fishing tournament (online/facebook), wish I would have completed! I was a 4 fish before one of them was on the board

Also met a few more locals, who all agree it's going to get tougher! Probably 5 or 6 kayakers and another dozen people on the bank fishing

Check out the weird blister on the third fish. What odd is it was matching on both sides, not sure if it's a parasite or infected wound from a talon?

Had a deer join me for awhile too

bucketman009 · Apr 13, 2021

Ever see any Crappie in there......I see some big bluegills there but never any crappie.

Clbagshaw · Apr 13, 2021

bucketman009 said:
Ever see any Crappie in there......I see some big bluegills there but never any crappie.

Nope can't say I have personally but it would not surprise me if there was a population of them in there.

NKlamerus · Apr 13, 2021

bucketman009 said:
Ever see any Crappie in there......I see some big bluegills there but never any crappie.

I have caught 1 nice one on a rattletrap, got it to the kayak before it shook off

Other than that nothing, but they are supposed to be in there

NKlamerus · Apr 18, 2021

I think I caught 7 or 8 out there yesterday. Started off real cool 38 degrees, fishing was dead until the afternoon bite.

By 930 it was 65 and dead still.

I returned and fished it from 3-730 and caught all of them in that time, fish were paired up, cruising the shallows, and I even saw a pair on a bed already.

Was throwing a fluke and a frog of course.

Water is super clear, and when it's dead still you can see everything, found a few new spots that will be awesome later this summer.

Best went 4lbs 7oz (last photo), and to counteract that I think I caught my smallest bass out of there as well

I missed taking photos of 2 fish, tried experimenting with holding them in my right hand, but my thumb isn't strong enough to hold them I guess

fromthelogo · Apr 18, 2021

What a hawg!

NKlamerus · Apr 24, 2021

What a day! I slept in through 4 alarms and got to Ford's about 8:30, dead still, light drizzle, maybe 1 other angler.

Launched and made a loop, can't believe how far grown the weeds are, there's quite a bit that has broke the surface already, and about 90% of the rest of the lake is a foot below the surface, one more week of sunny weather and she'll be swampy.

Missed my first 2 fish, both seemed smaller, one didn't have the lizard in it's mouth all the way for sure.

Switched to a senko and caught one within 2 casts

Continued to pitch on cover and ended the trip with 6 bass, 3 missed fish. Caught one with a real broken bottom lip, split right in half. Healed up though and seemed to be healthy fish overall

Best went 3lbs 4oz

Got off the water about 11:30 and went to platt and grabbed lunch

Came back at 2pm and the south wind was blowing strong 10mph across the lake, no way I could fish the evening unfortunately.

Clbagshaw · Apr 29, 2021

Also last Friday we stopped and night fished fords. I lost a big one pushing 6. My buddy caught a 2-3 pounder and other buddy lost one around 2.

NKlamerus · May 1, 2021

Got on the water about 6am, light rain, no one else out there.

2nd cast with a frog....boom! Unfortunately as I had switched my frog reel back to my Ci4+, and the anti reverse randomly doesn't lock up (super well used reel, time for retirement), the fish took off towards me and once the line was slack she was gone

I did redeem myself on the next weed pile though, only frog fish of the day. Everything else came on spinnerbait, chatterbait, senko, and lizard

Fish were super tight to structure, I was pitching under people's feet at the bank and catching fish. Most don't know how shallow they are, and how deep the banks are out there

VMC hooks are working awesome, not a single lost worm fish, didn't miss any of the hooksets either.

Caught one more fish that really needed some work, skinny, broken jaw, and super weak

Also found an old pepsicola glass bottle sticking out of the clay on a steep bank

NKlamerus · May 9, 2021

Sunday morning trip, not as much time as usual. Arrived at 630AM to dead still water with fog rolling off it

Immediately had a boil on the frog, connected with the next fish, then one more missed fish before switching to soft plastics

Stuck 6 fish after that, some close to 3 maybe 3.5lbs

Sunny for awhile, little wind here and there, some rain drops, pretty good mix.

NKlamerus · May 16, 2021

4 bass today and I spotted a crappie in the shallows, paddled over and caught it in the net! Fish were sparce, it was hot and dead still.

Bugs were pretty bad without the wind, dog days pattern has set in, fish were deep on holes and only ate reaction baits.

Weeds are about ready for full coverage, but even more surprising is the amount of algae in the water, little floating stuff absolutely everywhere out there

NKlamerus · May 22, 2021

Another 4! Fished from 630-10 this morning. Weather was still, overcast, and 50 degrees

The slop is pretty well spread out, going to be some interesting few weeks out there. Algae is still on the verge of destroying the water quality

I've heard/read about grants and money being thrown around, I hope the city/friends of Ford's pond has considered investing some of it into the lake itself.

All this extra traffic, removing all the shore debris and plants, more people removing fish, and something about the city dumping water from a pump station into it, something will need to be done

I give it a year before it's a hot puddle

Anyways, I missed 2 frog fish somehow, eve. With a trailer hook.

NKlamerus · May 30, 2021

Only 3 hours out there yesterday morning, one fish but at least it was a good one.

Weeds are all over, some subsurface, some starting to mat, but not enough to fish it as structure.

Really tired of the 45 degree mornings, may try an evening bite next week

NKlamerus · Jun 5, 2021

Rained out this morning after about 3 hours.

Slowly redeeming myself with my topwater frogs, both fish this morning slammed it. Had one more hit it and knock it in the air a couple feet, but never came back for it.

My old faithful Shimano Stradic Ci4+ finally bit the dust on that larger fish, had to hand line it in the last couple feet

NKlamerus · Jun 12, 2021

Odd morning to say the least, started with no wind and overcast closed In conditions

Sun and the wind started to break through, but the wind kept spinning around

Definitely too calm for the frog, I switched to a keitech and immediately lost 2 fish back to back in 5 casts. I was testing a new hook and it failed miserably

Switched setups and hook and immediately caught 2 more in the same spot.

Lost one on a frog and my new Shimano Vanford, it swam straight at me and I wasn't able to keep up, even with a trailer hook

3 more fish on a spinnerbait, burning it over weed beds, one really nice one! All the fish were fat and healthy though, found some crawfish molt laying on the shore, guess that confirms that there's crawfish in there

Snopro · Jun 12, 2021

Nice fish. Good looking pond, if I was closer you'd see me out there.

What failed on the Ci4+? Which hooks sucked?

NKlamerus · Jun 13, 2021

Snopro said:
Nice fish. Good looking pond, if I was closer you'd see me out there.[emoji38]

What failed on the Ci4+? Which hooks sucked?

Years of use it's finally just wore out, I kept noticing it binding, and then the gears started skipping. It's been around the country a few times, it was my go-to for inshore, freshwater, and offshore

I think they were mustad's, I've used them inshore for redfish and never had an issue but that was also different baits, I'll have to snag a photo.

NKlamerus · Jun 19, 2021

Not my best day. The wind was BRUTAL. I fished it about 4pm-9:30pm, really hoping the wind would break at sunset, but instead it picked up out of the west.

I knew it'd be tough, a local out there hammered it a few days this week, I could still see where frogs were dragged through the weeds

Ended the day with 2 fish, both hugging weedlines.

Had one more knock a frog about 5' in the air, but didn't actually grab it

Had another chase down my spinnerbait, come back for it at the surface, thought she missed it. Turns out the spinnerbait broke at the wire. Looked pretty decent based on the explosion

fromthelogo · Jun 19, 2021

Maybe you only got two, but they were two quality fish (by Oregon standards). I hate the wind too.

NKlamerus · Jun 26, 2021

Fished about 6:30 to 9 am this morning to beat the heat.

Fish were fired up! 6 fish, 2 more blow ups on the frog, one connected but immediately swan dived into a grass mat

Pretty sure I've caught the one with a bum lip before?

Bugs were pretty bad, wind was non-existent, I was loading up and the wind started blowing out of the south. Going to make the weed mats pretty bad

Caught all of them on my new-new Shimano Vanford, handled them just fine. Gotta get used to the drag, definitely tighter than my ci4