>>615807Also the autumn trip to PA was pretty fruitless this year. Bad timing considering the weather patterns in the week leading up to the trip as well as the week during. Still it was a pleasant and beautiful time of the year to be up there.
>>612040Depending on your location you might have less even luck that I did. Unless there are nearby bodies of water (neighbourhood ponds, canals, etc) that house fish those retention ponds aren't likely to have fish in them. If they do it would be due to a few possibilities. They may have been intentionally and legally introduced as a means of controlling pests like mosquitoes, they may have been introduced illegally by another fisherman as a means of creating a fishing hole, or they may have found their way there on their own when high water/flood conditions created a temporary path from a nearby body of water.
Around here the majority of retention ponds are usually created to slow run-off and make up for the absorption no longer provided by the trees/grass that were once present. A few feed into or are fed by local watersheds and conditions have occurred where they were able to naturally develop fish populations. Many however are devoid of fish. Neighbourhood retention ponds are often even stocked and open to the public (or at least the immediate community). The ponds in shopping centres not so much. It isn't uncommon for those to be fenced off. I'm not too keen on property laws but a fence seems like an unwritten "No Trespassing" sign but if there is no actual sign the worst that'll probably happen is you'll get asked to leave.
As for private property and licensing (
>>615170) some states still require you to have a freshwater license in order to fish on private property. It's worth checking regulations to be sure before fishing a pond in the back of some business park unlicensed. Last thing you need is a passing by officer fining you.
