Hey, Keith here.

You probably drove right past a bass pond today and didn't even know it was there.

Those flashes of light through the trees along the interstate? They're not just drainage ditches.

Many of them are full-blown fisheries sitting within walking distance of a service road, holding bass that rarely see a lure.

They also hold some of the most productive water you will ever fish. 

Today, I will explain why these ponds have so much fish and show you how to find them too.

As you would know if you read last week's newsletter, when construction crews built the interstate highway system, they needed fill dirt to elevate the roadbed.

Rather than haul it in from somewhere else, they dug it right there on site.

What they left behind were scattered ponds running along the length of the highway, and decades later those holes in the ground have matured into fisheries that most anglers roll right past at 70 miles an hour.

I have been fishing these ponds for years, and the pattern never gets old.

You spot a flash of water through the tree line, do a little homework on Google Earth, find a service road, and show up to a pond that has probably not seen a lure since the last time someone stumbled across it by accident.

That kind of water is worth chasing.

On my latest fishing trip, I found a two-mile section of interstate off I-10 in Mississippi with six ponds. 

I set out that morning looking to fish most of them but only hit one because of how many bass I caught there.

The highlight of the day came when I tossed my Texas-rigged Lab Series Flat Worm out into the middle and worked it back slowly.

BAM! It felt like grass, so I didn’t even bother setting the hook.

I just reeled in the line a little, and then it happened. I spotted the line move and swung!

Since I was using an ultralight rod I had to play with it for a while, but after three jumps it tired and I was able to lip it from the bank.

I didn’t have a scale with me, but I guessed it looked around four pounds. 

The biggest advantage interstate ponds have over most other small bodies of water is pressure—or the complete lack of it, rather.

These ponds do not sit next to a neighborhood. 

There is no worn path leading to the bank.

Most people never fish them simply because getting there requires a little extra effort, but that extra effort pays off in a big way.

Some folks may not even realize they house fish. After all, how do they get in there?

It’s simple, actually. Cranes and herons that walk the shallows of other ponds land in these ponds. The fish eggs stick to their legs and are left in the new ponds.

From there, all it takes is time!

I have found that bass in low-pressure water behave differently than fish that see lures every weekend.

They are less wary, more aggressive, and far more likely to commit to a bait on the first cast.

This isn't just theory; I've fished interstate ponds where the bass acted like they had never seen a plastic worm before.

That confidence is rare on public water.

Beyond bass, these ponds can hold strong crappie populations in the spring and catfish through the summer. Once you find a productive one, it is worth revisiting throughout the year.

Getting to an interstate pond requires a little planning. You have two options, and one of them is clearly better than the other.

The shoulder approach: You can park on the highway shoulder and walk through the tree line on foot. That works, but it is not worth the risk. Parking on an interstate puts you and others in a genuinely dangerous spot, and no fish is worth that.

The service road approach: Most interstates have service roads running parallel to the highway. Those roads will often put you within easy walking distance of the same ponds you spotted from the fast lane. You can park safely, grab your gear, and reach the water without ever setting foot near traffic.

When I scout a new stretch of interstate, I always identify the service road access before I ever make the trip out. If there is no clean way to get there from a side road, I move on to the next pond.

Before Google Earth, finding these ponds took real effort.

I remember saving grass-cutting money as a kid to buy a satellite map of my area, and that one purchase opened up more water than I could fish in a season.

Today the same scouting takes about 10 minutes on a laptop.

Pull up Google Earth, cruise the interstate corridor you want to fish, and start identifying ponds along the route. You are looking for a few things:

Mark your spots, make the trip, and start fishing water that most people don't know exists.