Urban sprawl has replaced neighborhoods with subdivisions. It got us out of cities, but didn’t put us in the country. It just laid more cement and drained ponds and wetlands – at least put them under the concrete. 
Sights of kids carrying a fishing pole and a can of worms, walking to “the pond” are not commonplace anymore, at least not for most of us in a metropolitan setting. Or are they?
Somewhere in most subdivisions, there are retention ponds – some for astatic reasons, some for flood control. These might be man-made but ducks and geese don’t know nor care about that, they just know it’s water and use it accordingly. They carry with them eggs, seeds and other things that cling to their bodies as well as things that drop from their bodies. In other words, they transport vegetation, aquatic insects and fish eggs from places that have them to places that don’t.
Most of us turn up our noses at fishing these ponds; me included. But for a quick fix and certainly to teach a kid how to fish, especially with a fly rod, they are a wonderful venue that is available without driving out of the sub.
Nothing takes the place of being on a trout stream, but for practice …well, any port in a storm.
TD