Spy pond in Arlington

Hello,
New to the forum. Excited to be here!
Used to fish Spy a few years ago. Place looks unreal! Lots of grass, lillies and deep shorelines with nice overhangs to cast at. Place was a bit disappointing to say the least. Since then i have heard that chemicals to kill weeds have disrupted the quality fishing that was here 15+ years ago.
Did the bass die in there or are the bass appetites just surpressed do to the chemicals? Anybody fish here this year? Hopefully this place will come back. Would love to try this place out again since i live fairly close.

Spy is a s*** hole now. Nothing like it once was. They kill everything in there with chemicals. There are still some good bass in there, but I would not waste your time. they stock it with fingerling bass every year, pretty much an admittance to killing everything.

Thanks kman for the quick reply. So sad to hear this place is still in the dumps. It's funny you say they stock fingerling bass, cause that's all i remember catching. They were all under 10inch & there weren't many of them. I remember hearing stories in the 80's and even the 90's of 7 & 8lb's getting caught. The monster on the wall in Arlington bait n tackle supposedely came from there. Super sad cause it's one of bassiest looking places around.

I fished Spy pond back in 2012, the summer my first son was born. My brother and I like to pond hop for bass, and at the time i was going through the old masswildlife.gov website, back when it was useful and easy to navigate. I remember the lost of local ponds they had with easy to read maps and detailed info of each body of water.

So I came across Spy pond, and we took the canoe out for a day trip. We didn't catch anything, saw a lot of big carp and some bass. I remember I was in awe not how clear the water was. I also remember there were a lot of weeds.

It looked to me to be a fish holding paradise, especially with the fact that at one point it was stocked with Tiger muskies....

Anyway, like I said, we ended up getting skunked, but it was a bright blue sky dawn in gin clear water, so it was tough fishing conditions.

I woukd go back and try again. I didnt like that there were signs everywhere warning that you shouldn't even touch the water because of how contaminated it was.

Sad to think we pay $30 a year just for access to fish ponds like these, and alot of them are polluted and have consumption advisories, or in the case of Spy, you shouldn't even come in contact with the water.

Maybe there are larger fish in there eating the bass...

Been there 5 times this year. Caught a handful of fish every time all small except one that was a little over 3. They just stocked it this year with tiger muskies so at least in a could years well have another trophy to go after in there. I live right down the street and would rather do the mystics or arlington res then spy.

Early morning topwater has been pretty decent as of late, mostly 14-16 inchers, but last week there seems to have been fish kill going on. I fished later in the evening last Monday, and I saw quite a lot of dead white perch and an overwhelming stench of ammonia. Pretty disappointing considering how it's one of the only local places that I can walk to. The fishing has been alright though you just can't touch the water lol.

Anybody know why they stock the tiger muskies in Spy? Either angling purposes or to control the perch population maybe.. or to control another high populated problem species? I don't hear of too many people catching the muskies in Spy. Guess they go to deep water from what people say.
Wonder if anybody ever found a dead tiger muskie ever in there due to poisoning or any giant bass floating and decaying

Been there 5 times this year. Caught a handful of fish every time all small except one that was a little over 3. They just stocked it this year with tiger muskies so at least in a could years well have another trophy to go after in there. I live right down the street and would rather do the mystics or arlington res then spy.

I get bigger ones each year there are plenty of trophies in there.

The reason why the stock tigers is because another state had extra and Spy was one of the 3 ponds selected to get a few.

There is a pamphlet produced this year by the state floating around online regarding the future of pike/muskie stocking...

As I recall it said that they would get around 3000 pike or muskie fingerlings each year from another state (CT or NJ ... I forget) in exchange for trout from the Mass program...

It also said that they were only stocking 2 or 3 ponds per district to concentrate the fishable populations...As i recall this year Muskie went into Chauncy, A1, and Spy. Last year pike went into Quinsig/Quaboag/Cheshire...? or something like that...

I know of large Muskie being taken from Chanucy ... obviously the previous posts picture shows predators grow large in Spy...

Anyway....just some info...looks like after many years of neglect the state is beginning to take pike/muskie seriously...

Looks like Spy Pond is definitely worth some fishing.
Maybe the Pike/Muskie are stunting the bass growth? (not that I mind)

Nice fish Mike! Ive never been afforded the opportunity to catch one but heard they give a great fight. I might have to stick it out and try more for musky then bass in there haha.
I hada spot i was catching 3-4 lbers almost every outting last year and nothing that sixe this year.
As for why they stock tigers is because of the abundance of panfish in there.

I remember hearing years ago that they stocked lake Quannapowitt in Wakefield with tiger muskies to control the perch population. The perch ate the carp eggs. And the carp help control the amount of plant growth. The motivation was to insure the carp populations. Not sure how true this is...just heard it a couple times in the past. Maybe the same for Spy. When in my boat in Spy, there certainly was large populations of carp racing through the shallows esp around the route 2 side. I would assume the spawning bass don't appreciate huge population of carp

Thanks for posting that pic of the tiger musky. What a stunning fish!

How long ago was the musky you know of it of Chauncy caught?

Where's the tiger posted? You mean pike?

I know a few people at mass wildlife and from what am hearing NJ is loving the salmon and might be a lot more stockings to come in the future and not just fingerlings