We packed it up and headed to Gissberg Ponds....WHICH on the maps is listed as Twin Lakes Co. park! You can see this park and ponds from I5 on the west side of the freeway. It is just south of Smokey Point and just north of Marysville. There is lots of parking but the lot is closed at dusk with no other street parking. In the summer months these ponds are heavy used by swimmers...(signs do say swimming at own risk hahaha they are thicker than fleas in the water when it gets warm). There is a strip of land the separates the two ponds. On this strip there are picnic tables and some bbq pits? (might have been at one time..more like fire pits...but they are nice to have when you are fishing on a cold day)

The north pond is not as clean as the south pond, and you can find trout in the south pond. There was no action in the north pond while we were there. These ponds host trout (planted), bass and supposedly catfish...(big ones). Problem with fishing for the cats is that they only bite during very early morning hours or late at night...and with the parking area opening at 6am and closing at dusk, this makes it hard to fish for them. I was using a sliding sinker on a foot and a half leader with white anise marshmallows and worms. This combo seemed to work nicely. I was the only one getting any strikes at all. Seems that the trout circle the pond, so every hour the action would pick up. During one set of strikes I set one and was bringing it in, had him almost to the bank when I lost him. Soft mouths. At least my son got to feel my pole when I had him on.. was using size 10 hooks.

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