Are these things state owned and non public or can you fish em? Seen a few on maps and havent ever driven out to check one out. Anybody know?

They are privately owned. They are inspected and maintained(the dams)by soil conservation. I have had the pleasure of fishing in several of them and have not found a bad one yet. Make sure you get permission.

So the ponds themselves are owned by the private land owner, and the state just comes out to check on em?

That is correct. My aunt owns one and some friends own another. I used to be able to fish in another but it sold and the new land owner would not let me fish. I even offered to pay and he said i did not make enough money to fish in there. My personal best five fish limit came out of one, that weighed 32 lbs. I have seen 14 lb fish come out of these soil conservation lakes.
Good luck in getting permission. You may make some type of offer
to manage the lake or pay. I never keep fish out of these lakes unless it is to clean some to take to the owner.

Yup. All privately owned. Some offer memberships, some are unofficially open to the public, some are absolutely no fishing per the land owner. Growing up, we fished several of these, and still have access to about 8 of 'em. As far as the fishing in them goes, they vary from very few and small fish, to overstocked, to just plain lunker laden. Some have catfish, some have bass, some have crappie. Just like fishing a big pond pretty much.

Thanks for the info guys!