Google Earth & The Community Ponds

I was searching the TPWD website. I found 4 community ponds within 30 minutes of the house that were stocked in the late 90s with bluegill or sunfish hybrids.

I first searched for information on the Beaver Pond at Washington on the Brazos park. I found out it went dry in the drought of 2011.

Next, I started searching for information on Hillside Street Park in Navasota. It was stocked with 6000 hybrid sunfish in 1996 and 1997. I couldn't find any information so I went to Google Earth. I scanned back through the images and found there was water in the ponds in 2010 and 2011. So I decided to fish the pond yesterday evening.

The first fish I caught was a small green sunfish. Then a proceeded to catch a bunch of very small native bluegill and one small bass. This was not what I was expecting to find.

I went back to Google images and noticed that the picture in 2010 was taken in February of 2010. The picture in 2011 was taken in October of 2011. The next image wasn't until 2013. Closer review of the 2011 photo shows the water was lower than other years. So I would have to conclude it did get very low and killed all the hybrid sunfish. And somehow native bluegill, green sunfish and bass found there way into the pond.

Actually, all 4 ponds near me went dry. The TPWD never restocked any of these ponds with sunfish. The drought killed a lot of good farm ponds as well. What a shame, I can only image how good the pond fishing would be if the drought never occurred.

Awesome post Jamie. Good research on places to fish is one very important factor in finding and catching fish. Good job.

Interesting. Good post.

Thanks Chuck & Gitter Done,

The more ponds I fish, the more I find both green sunfish and native bluegill. I can't think of a single pond that I have ever fished that didn't have at least one of the 2 species. I read that Greenies can completely take over a pond at times and eliminate the other species of sunfish. I fish one pond that only has Greenies and bass in it, so there may be some validity to that statement. Exploring new places really adds to the enjoyment of fishing.

Greens can live in the worst of water conditions. They are survivors. I have heard that in small ponds they can literately take em over if conditions are right.

Greenies are definitely the pioneer sunfish. They thrive in conditions that other sunfish, most gamefish and lots of other non-game fish cannot tolerate. They are normally among the first species to repopulate a water after drought or some other habitat altering event and the last to be left standing if the habitat turns for the worse. Caught some of the biggest greeenies I've ever encountered on an abandoned farm tank that was probably no bigger than an acre. I caught greenies bigger than a pound and bass that averaged 3+lbs. Once a habitat gets big enough and healthy enough, other species take over the prime spots and push most of the greenies into a niche.

Congrats on your Google Earth find. Lots of folks on folks (especially bank fisherman) on TFF swear by it, but it has never been so kind to me.

Great information as always. I will keep that in mind when fishing new ponds.

Thanks Jagg

Awesome way to get information on water bodies! I have had pretty good successes using Google searching for new fishing spots.