spy pond 4/7/07

[e-sea-e]

headed out for a quick trip onto spy pond, a lake I have never fished before, but one I plan to fish quite a bit as I live very close by. Launched around 11, was on the water for about three hours. wanted to learn the lake, and catching anything would be a bonus.

I was suprised to find surface temps bewteen 46-48 degrees. tried some shallow water with soft plastic fished very slow or dead sticked in the warmest areas with no luck. Tried some topwater stickbaits the same way. no luck. tried some spinner baits in the shallows and along the nearby drop offs, no luck.

I then explored the lake to learn it a bit. There was a large area where the water was 3-5 feet deep, witha nice drop from 6' to 25' deep water very close by. As I moved around trying to learn the contour of the drop, the fishfinder showed a huge group of something suspended at 11-13 feet in 25 feet of water, just outside the drop. Classic largemouth early spring behavior, I thoguht I was all set. Dropped a 3 inch grub down at them and bang- something small. maybe a small bass i thought, but no, it was a yellow perch. Threw him back, and proceeded to catch about 20 perch in the next 30 minutes. I was hoping A tiger muskie would grad one of the hooked perch, but it never happened.

No bass, but alot of perch, and started down the road of learning a new lake. not a bad day.

[Slappy]

Some bumpy bottom in that pond. I have often wondered about trolling large cranks in the depths when things get warm. There are a few large tigers in there.

Often very good panfishing with a crappie bite that puts out jumbos some years.

[FishingMass]

Spy pond keeps pulling me back, largely because of a childhood experience where my canoe bumped into a large tiger or the biggest pickerel in history lolling on the surface (I believe this is what is was - it was about 3 feet long and freaked out and threw water all over us when we got real close) and a few days of catching decent bass and large pickerel off the cat-tails of the island and south basin.

I keep going back, and seem to leave a bit dissapointed though I really want to like this lake. My mind tells me there are big fish here, but there is somethign odd about it. Maybe it's the deeper structure changing how to fish this lake. I must admit, I'm still new to deeper patters, and tend to stick to senkos and spinnerbaits on the shorelines.

The south basin looks like it may be a bit pre-spawn flat area due to it's pretty shallow expansive area, and propensity for a lot of weed lines.

Anyone really figured out this pond at all? I'm not a bit spawn fisherman, but even to just understand the bass, I must admit i have yet to see spawning sites, and the shallow north cove always looks appealing, but I have never caught fish in there in my life.

[e-sea-e]

After my first foray last weekend, I am guessing at this point that the bass will spawn around the north side of the island iun the deeper water, it seems to have the right type of bottom. The south side looked muddy, wrong kind of bottom for spawning. Im thinking the fish are in the deeper water right near the island now, and will move up to the shallow water around both sides of the the island to feed but will spawn more on the north side, with more fish doing this as the water gets warmer. Of course, as I have yet to catch a bass in that lake, this is all conjecture at this point.


As for deeper water fishing techniques, this time of year the bass will hang suspended in the deeper water off the first main drop or around main lake points and also occasionally move up into shallows to feed, and eventualy spawn. I try to find the suspended fish first, just following the drops and points untill i see fish on the screen or an area that looks right. Once I find them I throw soft unwieghted plastics and let them slowly float down to the fish w/o really moving them at all, except for a twitch once in a while. The fishes matabolism is slow right now a slow presentation is a must. As the water warms, these fish will still spend alot of time in these areas, but other faster presentations will work, such as slow swimming a grub or tossing a spinner bait.

When Im fishing shallow this early, Im fishing the warmest water I can find first, throwing soft plastics at any wood or standing brush along the shoreline, again hardly moving the bait. Ill also throw a jig/pig, and fish it unbearably slow, letting it sit for 3-5 minutes before moving it about 1 inch. Ill also throw a jointed rapala, basically dead sticking it for 5-7 minutes at a time. as the water warms, I'll fish a bit faster. I wont throw spinner baits untill I find water at least 50 degrees. When using a spinner bait I will pound the shore casting at the shore and parallell to it, really pounding any wood or brush in the water. I will do all of the above in all areas of the lake, but the hit the warmest water first.

I think it will be fun to figure this lake out, and one thing that will help is some weed growth. I am betting that once the south basin gets warm, and some weeds come up, buzzbaits will be awesome on that lake. Once the water warms to spawning temps, I'll find the spawning areas.

I also think you may find some fish spawning in the deeper water where route 2 runs along the lake. that shore drops quickly and seems to have the right bottom, along with alot of wood on the shore. If the fish are spawning there, you would see any beds, they'd be too deep.

Fishingmass, If you hit spy again drop me a PM to let me know how you did, I'll do the same.

[Slappy]

It is only an average lake because it has so much deep water. To be a great LMB pond you need plenty of shallows.

By focusing on water less than 10' you can eliminate a good portion of the pond. Weedbeds and shore structure produce well, probably fewer fish than typical LMB ponds, but they tend to be slightly larger.

I don't fish there in the summer, but I do enjoy the pre-spawn crappie bite on the fly rod and I always bring a spinnerbait/worm rod when I go so I can hit some LMBs off the weedbeds.

I caught my largest tiger in the north cove that fm mentions, but they are caught all over the pond--I think they tend to roam the whole pond.

[Doublebait]

Great Bass Fishing across the street in Little Spy.
Tough to get in though. I have caught some real nice Bass there.
ssshhhh...

[FishingMass]

LittleSpy? I thought that was a drainage ditch! - If I'm thinking of the same place.

I hope you are not kidding - because I will take a peek. :)

[Doublebait]

When you take the exit off Rte 2 coming from 128 its on your left behind the chain link fence. You have do some creative parking

[e-sea-e]

are you talking about the little pond across rt 2 from spy pond, it kind of boarders the office park and has some houses on it, or do you mean the little pond acreoss the street from the alewife T stop, on the cambridge side of rt2?

[FishingMass]

Hah... o.k. I believe you.
LittleSpy it is. I'll check it out soon.

[Doublebait]

yes thats that one...park on the road where the IP is
Its also called Little
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=mass+ave+arlington,ma&sll=42.606674,-71.261444&sspn=0.467981,0.933838&layer=&num=10