I spend more than a little time staring at Google Maps on my phone or a computer — searching for parks, greenways, canoe launches and rights-of-way that front a creek or river or maybe have a pond or two on the property. And that searching revs up whenever I’ll be traveling by car and suspect I might have a bit of extra time.
If a spot seems to have potential, I pull up the satellite view and zoom close to see what I can discern about the character of the waterway and the quality of the access. I’ll also look at reviews to see what happens to be mentioned about fishing, but unless something credible seeming mentions fishing not being permitted, a lack of good reports definitely doesn’t keep me from stopping.
Some stops work out great, and I find myself wishing I had more time but am glad to have more knowledge about them for the next time. Others are very quick because they don’t turn out to be that interesting or possibly because the access area is small and other anglers are already fishing. Most fall in between.
I made three stops during a recent drive. One was to a spot I’d visited before so I knew what was there. It’s a canoe access with no other developed facilities, but it offers a couple hundred yards of river access, with easily waded shoals and bank access to big pools.
I caught two spotted bass, including one solid fish that hit a Pop-R, got some lure photos I needed for work, and enjoyed a nice little driving break.
The second and third stops were pure scouting. One was a linear city park along a river. It has ballfields, a playground, picnics tables, a walking trail, etc. No mention of fishing online, but there were obvious fishermen’s trails to shoal areas, and one other angler I spoke with said he catches trout and bass there at times.
I just fished one spot, and not for too long, but I caught one little redeye bass and got a few hits — I think from panfish. I was impressed by my findings and definitely will stop there again when I have more time.
The third was a Greenway trail along a creek. The creek was too small to see much on the satellite. As it turned out it was ditch-like and a bit muddy, with high banks and only a few gaps in trees to provide casting vantages. I didn’t stay long at all and probably won’t return to that one.
Interestingly, although it isn’t listed as a fishing spot and didn’t look that great, I saw three other fishermen in a short visit. All had backpacks and a couple of rods and looked like fairly dedicated bass anglers. I spoke to one angler who said it had good fish in it, but they could be challenging to catch, and he hadn’t caught any that day.
Of course, to me it’s less about what I find at any given spot and more about the value or searching out stops and keeping a bit of gear handy in my car and the fun of discovery.
Fishing on Foot 