at age 66 I probably should be embarrassed to be asking this, but then again, at age 66 it takes a lot to embarrass me these days ;)! So my question: how do fish get where they get? I’m talking pan fish here, or maybe even carp. I live in a primarily urban area, and there are a lot of retention lakes and canals, and I often drive by wondering, “Suppose they’re any fish in there?” I suppose they would have to have been stocked at some point, eh? I guess, if there is the possibility of overflow from one to another during high water times, then fish could migrate from a stocked pond to one that hasn’t been stocked. Maybe something could crawl out of the mud, lose a leg or two, grow some fins and evolve? I mean, fish don’t spontaneously appear. Do they?
Prairieschooner,
I know someone smarter than me will be able to answer your question, but, I do know that ducks and geese can transport fish eggs from one body of water to another when the eggs are trapped in their feathers and pond scum wrapped around their legs, etc.
While fish do not appear spontaneously they do have help. Water fowl often help transplant fish eggs and mature fish will move with water flow. As long as the pond constantly holds water there is always the chance of fish. I will usually try the pond and see what I can catch.
Prairieschooner,
In most states years back, if there was a sustainable body of water, the fish and game agencies would stock it as a matter of routine. Probably something to do with keeping the water healthy and useful. Don’t know if they still do that now.
Then there is the ‘bucket brigade’ phenomenon. This is where regular old folks that should know better decide that they want fish in the water where they aren’t, so they go catch some where they are, put them in a bucket, and them dump them in where they aren’t. Most state game and fish agencies frown on this practice, but it still happens a lot.
As others have noted, fish can get into unstocked bodies of water by lots of means.
If you can legally get to it, I’d try fishing it. Those ‘retention lakes and canals’ can be hotspots that no else bothers with.
Good Luck!
Buddy
I know as a kid,I would throw fish I caught in any water closer to home or for my own little spot.
I’ll continue with the bucket brigade idea so ably started by Buddy. When I was in college, the school built a new pond. Several hundred guys eagerly asked what it would be stocked with. The answer was, “Nothing”. We were disappointed. We were really disappointed. Some of the fellows decided to remediate this desperate oversight. Judging by the result, “some” might have been “dozens”. The pond was only half an acre to an acre in size. It filled quickly enough and within a year there came a serious rain, about 6 inches one night. It is not to be surprised that the little pond, fed entirely by runoff, flooded. Dozens, even hundreds of fish washed out and died in the spillway. (The spillway was lined with rock and spread out as it went to cause the water to become more shallow and lose force. Judging by the stranded fish, it worked brilliantly.) There were catfish of several species, some over 10 pounds. There were bass, minnows, suckers, sunfish, and just about everything to be found in the area. School officials had a fit and spoke at some length about the irresponsibility of the student body. The student body pointed out, with considerable annoyance, that the school had no cause for complaint because they weren’t going to put fish into the pond anyway. At this point, school officials sheepishly admitted that the pond had already been given an experimental stocking at night as part of some research. How the official stocking party didn’t collide with at least one of the unofficial ones is unknown, unless it that the sentries used by the unofficial but energetic stocking parties. We suspect they operated during the normal sleeping hours of college students, ~ 8 AM.
The point (yes, there is a point) to this is that in a short period of time, hundreds of pounds of fish of many species appeared in a pond with no known witnesses. Four college guys in two pickups with several 30+ gallon plastic garbage cans in the beds, and a coed on the hill to keep watch and signal, can move a phenomenal quantity of fish in a single night. Or at least that’s what I’ve been told…
Ed
P.S. Having the two co-eds in bathing suits on a beach blanket, even in the dark, pretty much guarantees that nobody notices a few guys with 5 gallon buckets hanging out near pickup trucks.
P.P.S. Harold Blaisdell has a great story about 12 little trout and a bucket in one of his books, The Philosophical Fisherman, I think.
Some fish are where they are because birds like ducks get eggs on their feet and carry them and end up depositing them in other places. I have seen fish in long standing water.
Harold Blaisdell is one of my favorite fishing writers, and The Philosophical Fisherman is the best of them. It’s been years since I read it, and I learned a lot from it.
The worst you’ll get is funny looks, and around here that will happen regardless when you’re holding a fly rod. They quit laughing when you lift a hefty stringer of crappie and gills, though.
The only stupid questions are the ones that don’t get asked 
No Tig, there are stupid questions, trust me.
This wasn’t one of them;).
Buddy
This was my Father’s explanation when I was about three:
PT/TB 
I always say “A man who doesn’t fish is more likely to lie about something important.” I would expect your Dad to be truthful about most other things. Did he invent Photoshop’s earliest effort?
I know I’ve personally stocked bass in newly constructed farm ponds. Just can’t stand to see any body of water go to waste without gamefish in them. I understand ducks are responsible to getting the rough fish stocked.