Far less known to the area's angling public, however, are countless hundreds of seeps, sloughs and mini-reservoirs - or "sagebrush ponds" as a bass-fishing friend fondly calls them. Collectively, these undiscovered ponds provide some of the fastest and loneliest bass action in the West. You want examples? Try these:
A nameless stock tank near my home in southern Idaho produced 25 bass in the first two hours I fished there.
Four-mile-long Paddock Valley Reservoir northwest of Boise once commonly yielded 50 to 100 fish per day to skilled bass anglers and was "paved" with fish from end to end. Restocked in 2006 with crappie, bluegill, largemouth bass, and trout after several years of drought destroyed the fishery. It will take a couple more years for the lake to fully recover its reputation as a fantastic fishery.
Little Crane Creek Reservoir just north of Paddock was thought to contain only perch and bullheads until it was drained one year and left dozens of 4-pound largemouths stranded on its shores.
A trail-hiking acquaintance told me the old oxbow bends of the now-channelized Grand Ronde River in eastern Oregon are "loaded with 7-pound largemouths nobody knows about."
The sagebrush hills of eastern Washington are laced with lightly fished bass hot spots - Eloika and Newman Lakes near Spokane, Coffee Pot Lake near Harrington and numerous larger reservoirs now growing in fame as bassin' fever finally begins to hit this traditional trout/salmon/steelhead stronghold.
The upper intermountain West is traditional salmonid country. But over the last couple decades that situation has changed dramatically, with bass clubs and local tournaments now growing as fast there as elsewhere in the country.
People have discovered that bass, along with other spiny-ray species like crappie and perch, are fun to catch and for many, considered much better to eat than trout. All this increased public interest is a mixed blessing, since warmwater species grow slowly in these northerly waters and bass are easily impacted by overfishing.
Another reason sagebrush pond bassing has remained an open secret so long is that the region's relatively sparse population enjoys a staggering diversity of nationally famous fishing streams, lakes and reservoirs - mostly coldwater angling, but some big-water bass fishing as well.
Why search out some rancher's stock pond or a murky sagebrush reservoir when numerous blue-ribbon fishing waters are in your backyard?
Sagebrush ponds are small, scattered, undeveloped, visually unattractive (downright ugly), and of inconsistent access even for bank anglers, let alone those towing large boats. Most are characterized by swarms of smaller bass averaging around a pound. Fish size seems to be limited by cold-water growth rates and the absence of plentiful forage. Large numbers of sagebrush pond bass evidently result from lack of natural predators - their own bigger relatives perhaps, plus a scant number of anglers. The result in many ponds is extremely fast fishing for scads of hungry but smaller bass.
There are exceptions, however. For various biological reasons, some ponds (typically those with very erratic water levels) seem to have a high bass mortality and/or poor spawns so that only a few big fish survive over time. Such places draw few general-interest anglers chasing hot action, but may produce several real lunkers per day for the patient big-fish specialist.
A pond-fishing friend tells me he catches a couple of 5-pounders per day - and not much else - by working summer weed beds with oversized lures. Other ponds fall between these extremes of plentiful small bass and a scattered few lunkers.
In some areas, booklets and fishing maps available through tackle stores will direct you to better-known ponds and reservoirs. Up-to-date topographical maps are great for spotting promising-but-nameless patches of blue.
Finally, old-fashioned trial and error can pay off. Several times I've noticed inconspicuous seep ponds, river sloughs, cattle tanks and the like from a road, walked over for a few casts, and hit modest bass bonanzas literally within sight of state highways and county roads. Who knows what terrific pond fishing lies along roads further out in those sage hills?
Many sagebrush ponds exist on the West's vast public lands and are legally open to anglers but may not be accessible to big trailered rigs. Bank casting, wading or float-tubing solves the access problem in most such places. Canoes, rubber rafts and even rigid cartoppers also work well, since you can usually drive to such waters even if you can't launch a deep-draft boat across their muddy shallows.
Bass often become active in these shallow sun-warmed waters earlier in the season than do their counterparts in regional deepwater reservoirs, say about early April or even mid-March on the average. This provides knowledgeable Westerners an early escape from cabin fever at a time of year when little other fishing is available, and often quite close to home for the weekend angler.
I suppose they simply don't know what they're missing - or they wouldn't miss it!
Southwestern Idaho Fishing Report