Catfishing is the perfect way to casually catch some fish and have a good time.
It is much simpler than other sport fishing, and you can have plenty of success at your local community or farm pond.
But to maximize your success, and fun, you need to know how to catch catfish in a small pond.
The vast majority of small ponds are man-made bodies of water, and typically have roughly the same build.
They will be very shallow, usually between 4-10 feet in depth. These ponds are very round or square in shape, without any true coves or points.
There are also very few trees and bushes along the shoreline, which means there are very few laydowns and wood structure in the pond itself.
Even if the small pond is a natural body of water, it will still generally have these same characteristics.
The early morning and late evening hours are definitely going to be the best times of day for small pond catfishing.
In these small ponds, the catfish don’t have much depth, structure, or shade to protect them from the sunlight.
So they don’t like moving around very much when the sun, and temperatures are high.
But during the low light periods of the day, catfish will get a lot more active and search out food much more.
Every once and a while you can even catch a catfish on lures, although it is usually by accident.
So can you catch catfish during the mid day?
Of course you can. If you put a tasty piece of bait right near a catfish, it will eat it, even during the hottest periods of the day.
And putting your bait near them is the key. You should move around and recast your bait much more often during the day time hours.
Catfish aren’t as active and won’t be cruising around looking for food during this time.
So you need to take a many casts in as many locations as you can until you find them.
I would recommend recasting your bait 10-15 feet to the side every 10 minutes.
This will ensure that you cover lots of water and give the nearby catfish time to eat the bait.
Catfish are primarily bottom dwellers and they prefer cooler, darker water.
This water keeps them cool, hidden, and since they don’t rely on sight to find food, they have no problem finding forage in this water.
So even though small ponds are going to be very shallow, there is usually one area of the pond that is the deepest.
Even if it is only 1-2 feet deeper than the rest, that makes a huge difference, and catfish will usually stack up in this area.
The easiest way to find the deep areas is to tie on a sinker or weedless lure.
Then cast out and let it sink to the bottom. Count how long it takes to reach the bottom.
Repeat this all the way round the area of the pond, and whatever location took the longest is the deepest water.
To be honest, the bait you use doesn’t matter quite as much when fishing in small ponds.
They don’t need as much scent because there much less water to dilute the scent.
And there is not as much natural food available for the catfish in small bodies of water.
As the saying goes, “beggars can’t be choosers”.
The catfish don’t have the freedom to pass up an easy meal because they have a lot less forage options than catfish in bigger lakes and rivers.
So I would suggest cheap and easy bait choices rather than expensive or labor intensive baits.
Nightcrawlers and grocery store catfish baits will serve you just fine.
Again, you can get a lot more simple and easy with your catfish rigs when fishing small ponds.
There’s no current or deep water that require specialized setups. My go-to rig is the slip sinker rig.
It keeps your bait on the bottom while allowing the catfish to freely pull your bait.
But sometimes, I literally just tie on a circle hook and call it a day.
As long as the water depth is below 9-10 feet, you don’t even really need a sinker to get your bait to the bottom.
