The tiger was through the ice, I think there was a pic somewhere, either a paper or at Arlington bait. I personally hate Spy pond, haha. never had much luck there, and the weed treatment sucks. I agree with sd2, this time of year, the weeds are gonna be holding the most fish.
I can totally understand hating Spy Pond, it's a "challenged" water to be sure. I'm still fond of it because of proximity, the fact that my son absolutely loves Spy Pond Park and can spend the entire day there, including his ~1.5-2 hr nap when I can get my fishing in, and for the fact that the largest bass I have ever caught in Massachusetts, and largest fish from a kayak, was there last year on my 4th or 5th trip out in the new kayak (no scale, but it was 21" and very fat). I've had good luck nearby in the Mystics, but they are less pleasant to be out on than Spy, and now that my son has turned 3 I have started taking him out in the kayak with me (no fishing, though).
That's all the cover there really is at Spy, there aren't many trees or anything. just weeds and depths...
Don't forget the reeds...
Spy Pond is a good place to fish and has big fish. You cant judge a place until you have fished it many times. In the past there was tons of cover and lots of big fish. The chemical treatment has killed the cover and god knows what else. Where are the big bass if not in the cover ? Good question, not sure what the answer is..but I dont think they have all been killed off. This place produced huge fish in the past. In the cove over by the condos I caught 70 bass between myself and a friend. little bass that hit everything, every cast = bass. This was an hour before dark. These bass are not from Spy and are stocked bass. They are all exactly the same size and hit everything that moved. trust me guys they are stocked bass. The fact that they stock it after they chemicaly treat it seems to me to indicate that the chemicals surely have a fish kill %.
I knew the last 2 owners of Arlington bait n tackle pretty well especialy the guy before Dick. They can tell you that many guys have come in the shop with big fish to have weighed. These guys very often would then take the fish and dump it in spy because it was the closest lake. The lake ended up with many big bass from lakes all over and them big bass passed on the big bass genes to there offspring. In the past spy pond had a fishing derby every year, as a kid I was in at least 5 of them. The winning weight for bass was always over 6 lbs. My friend won it 3 times with bass all over 7 lbs. they hung on the walls of arlington bait for years.
like I said I dont know if the chemicals are killing off big fish or if its we dont know where to look for them without the cover. I have the email addresses of the guys who treat it and have asked some questions in the past. they seem like blockheads.
we fish our favorite places many many times and dont do well but we fish another place a few times and decide it sucks. Not always the case. For example we will throw our favorite lure a thousand times based on the fact that it has worked in the past, but when we try a lure we are not familur with we throw it a handful of times and decide it sucks, yet when we throw our trusted lures a handful of times and catch nothing we dont decide the lure sucks.
I have seen huge bass in spy especialy on the rt 2 side.
thats my 2 cents
I knew the last 2 owners of Arlington bait n tackle pretty well especialy the guy before Dick. They can tell you that many guys have come in the shop with big fish to have weighed. These guys very often would then take the fish and dump it in spy because it was the closest lake. The lake ended up with many big bass from lakes all over and them big bass passed on the big bass genes to there offspring. In the past spy pond had a fishing derby every year, as a kid I was in at least 5 of them. The winning weight for bass was always over 6 lbs. My friend won it 3 times with bass all over 7 lbs. they hung on the walls of arlington bait for years.
like I said I dont know if the chemicals are killing off big fish or if its we dont know where to look for them without the cover. I have the email addresses of the guys who treat it and have asked some questions in the past. they seem like blockheads.
we fish our favorite places many many times and dont do well but we fish another place a few times and decide it sucks. Not always the case. For example we will throw our favorite lure a thousand times based on the fact that it has worked in the past, but when we try a lure we are not familur with we throw it a handful of times and decide it sucks, yet when we throw our trusted lures a handful of times and catch nothing we dont decide the lure sucks.
I have seen huge bass in spy especialy on the rt 2 side.
thats my 2 cents
Nuttings lakes perfect for all around structure for fishing. Theres plenty of bass in there. They've got docks, rocks, weed lines and dropoffs. I love that lake, hard to put a bass boat in there though. perfect for a jon boat, and trolling motor. No GAS ALLOWED. Fish the island first, then the coves. Might be real weedy aroound this time tho.
So I hit up Nutting Pond today by myself and had a really fun afternoon. I arrived at about 4 PM... but before I describe my day I want to fill you you in on some other things first. I have caught most of my bass this year by just letting my lures sit still so I knew it was time for me to bring two rods to the party 
I don't have the money to get another rod/reel at this time so I decided to break out my very first rod I owned, an old school Zebco spincast... this thing is old! I respooled before my trip today because the line that was on there was easily over 15 years old. I loaded it up with one of my faves, 8 LB Stren original Clear blue.
So back to my trip today at Nuttings... I've got a my regular rod rigged up a Strike King Ocho and the Zebco set up with a Berkely Shakey Worm. I cast my Zebco out beside a big lily-pad bed and placed it strategically on a rock. I immediately cast out my regular rod in a different direction. As soon as I start to cast I noticed the Zebco start to bend! I tossed aside my regular rod and lunged for the Zebco, yanked back to set hook and start bringing em in. The drag is going nuts as I bring him in, it did not sound right.. Nonetheless I reel in for about 4 minutes and land the largey! Weighed him in at 2.5 lbs before I threw him back! and my Zebco was toast for the rest of the day, the spool was a MESS.
I stayed for another 2 hours or so and didn't get any more fish but I was very happy with the first one. I live really close to Nuttings so I will not hesitate to come back. There were a bunch of locals there fishing, and even two guys out on a boat, no one I talked to had caught anything except some guys son who caught some nice sunfish. Oh yeah I am on-shore fisher guys but I do appreciate the boat advice considering I do want to get a boat soon and sometimes have access to a canoe.
And here's my fish! Since I was by myself I had to photo it at this weird angle, but at least I got a nice background of the lake in the pic!
I don't have the money to get another rod/reel at this time so I decided to break out my very first rod I owned, an old school Zebco spincast... this thing is old! I respooled before my trip today because the line that was on there was easily over 15 years old. I loaded it up with one of my faves, 8 LB Stren original Clear blue.
So back to my trip today at Nuttings... I've got a my regular rod rigged up a Strike King Ocho and the Zebco set up with a Berkely Shakey Worm. I cast my Zebco out beside a big lily-pad bed and placed it strategically on a rock. I immediately cast out my regular rod in a different direction. As soon as I start to cast I noticed the Zebco start to bend! I tossed aside my regular rod and lunged for the Zebco, yanked back to set hook and start bringing em in. The drag is going nuts as I bring him in, it did not sound right.. Nonetheless I reel in for about 4 minutes and land the largey! Weighed him in at 2.5 lbs before I threw him back! and my Zebco was toast for the rest of the day, the spool was a MESS.
I stayed for another 2 hours or so and didn't get any more fish but I was very happy with the first one. I live really close to Nuttings so I will not hesitate to come back. There were a bunch of locals there fishing, and even two guys out on a boat, no one I talked to had caught anything except some guys son who caught some nice sunfish. Oh yeah I am on-shore fisher guys but I do appreciate the boat advice considering I do want to get a boat soon and sometimes have access to a canoe.
And here's my fish! Since I was by myself I had to photo it at this weird angle, but at least I got a nice background of the lake in the pic!
like I said I dont know if the chemicals are killing off big fish or if its we dont know where to look for them without the cover. I have the email addresses of the guys who treat it and have asked some questions in the past. they seem like blockheads.
Never fished either of these lakes but wanted to chime in for this part
I also agree that it is hard to say a lake sucks...many times I've caught nothing but watched a friend bag some big fish..if I was alone I could have easily said there were no fish to be had...
A lake near me has been getting treated with chemicals as well. This lake, Lake Wildwood, holds big bass as well with limited access
... I've personally got them from 3-4 pounds all the way up to close to 10 pounds...but with the cover gone now I've had to change tactics... One great way to find big bass when there doesn't seem to be any weed beds or cover is to look for the bluegills/sunfish. As the summer progresses the big bluegills keep spawning multiple times, usually near their early spring shore lined beds...they just keep moving out deeper so by late summer the bluegill beds are out to the 5 foot or more mark..and sure enough there tends to be some hungry bass around those beds looking for a meal. Just a thought if your having a tough time targeting the bass..try finding where those new bluegill beds are.
I managed this beast on Sunday in about 6 foot deep water among bluegills that I was fishing for. I took it on the fly rod with a small (size 8 hook) green/orange/blue hybrid fly I use to target calicos/bluegills/bass when roaming. The pics suck since I was alone and it was raining and all I had was my cell phone
. It figures off all days to not bring my camera which almost never leaves my side.
Nice fish Blackstone.I've fished places like this,the fish will seek any other cover available,anything,often there will be some branches or other cover that you didnt even know was there because they were covered in weeds.I fished a place like this a few weeks ago and it had next too nothing for cover,I would see anything in the water,a single rock, a can,one small 2 foot peice of birch stick laying on bottom,a 5 gall bucket in the water..anything will start holding fish.It never kills all the weeds so even a 1sq ft piece of grass will hold fish.I got 19 fish that day,no monsters but it wasnt hard to find fish,they just move to something else.Dont forget about the structure either,alot of times if the fish cant find good cover,they will start relating to structure more.And of course like Blackstone mentioned,find the prey and youll find fish.Next time you have a cooler of minnows look down on them and you will see they are scattered pretty evenly around,put a single rock the size of a golf ball in one corner and watch what happens.This holds true for all fish that relate to cover.
Nice Bass Mr. Carp!
That musta been awesome on a flyrod...what type of fly did you have one there?
Thanks and it was crazy fun, luckily it stayed low with no jumps. I am not sure how I would have fared had it shook me with that small of a hook, but it made it to my net...
It is a hybrid bug, meant to look like a few different things but nothing specific...I found the pattern in a magazine which talked about targeting large bluegills. With a few minor changes I found it works well for bluegills, calico's, pickerel and bass of all sizes..which makes it a great moving about/finding fish fly. I've had the best luck with a dark olive chenille with a bit of flash mixed in, burnt orange legs and some uv/pearl flash to make it sparkle.
The top pic is the fly, the bottom is my typical bass hunting box. I like Hopper patterns as well
If you are interested we can talk and I can do a photo tutorial on how to tie it, it is crazy simple. I don't wanna take away from this post.
Hey Shawn,
I fished Nuttings a few times last year. Real easy put in/take out for the car topper. the fishing was hit or miss. For Bass anyway, last time out I caught 11 picks and 1 Bass... . its not real deep, and the far end, which is left of the put in gets LOADED with weeds and pads. Not sure how anyone drowned in this place, I think the deepest I saw on the depthfinder was like 4 or 5 ft. Maybe he was short.... Anyway, the fishing was lack luster, and it is a windy little pond. I think the biggest I pulled out of there was 2.5, which was nice, but the next closest wasn't much over a pound. The access was on a residential road, on the side closes to burlington, so if you're coming from Burlington, you'll be banging a left before you get to the pond, then your 2nd or 3rd right off of that. follow that straight for 200 yards and the little parking area/put in is right in front of ya.... Good Luck bud!!!
I fished Nuttings a few times last year. Real easy put in/take out for the car topper. the fishing was hit or miss. For Bass anyway, last time out I caught 11 picks and 1 Bass...
. its not real deep, and the far end, which is left of the put in gets LOADED with weeds and pads. Not sure how anyone drowned in this place, I think the deepest I saw on the depthfinder was like 4 or 5 ft. Maybe he was short.... Anyway, the fishing was lack luster, and it is a windy little pond. I think the biggest I pulled out of there was 2.5, which was nice, but the next closest wasn't much over a pound. The access was on a residential road, on the side closes to burlington, so if you're coming from Burlington, you'll be banging a left before you get to the pond, then your 2nd or 3rd right off of that. follow that straight for 200 yards and the little parking area/put in is right in front of ya.... Good Luck bud!!!