Prospect Park

It was mid afternoon when I picked up my rod and headed to Prospect Park Lake.
In the fall, fish can be very active at this time of day.  Sometimes Golden Shiners,
Yellow Perch come to the party.  Depending on the rig I am fishing ; I can catch two fish at
a time.

Things were different this afternoon.  Fish were not holding in their old spots in front of the boat house.  So i dropped bead head nymphs down, straight down, from the deck.  Fish, even big bass like to hold under the deck at the boat house.

A drop and a very slow elevation of the nymph will get an aggressive take from
whatever is in the area.  This afternoon it was blue gill.  I had my forty dollar fly rod, from ebay
and the Ghost semi automatic fly reel from Spain.   I have had great difficulty dealing with the vendor of this reel.  The reel has an unusual method for setting the drag.  I do not recommend that anyone, unless you live near the shop, buy this reel.  The drag DOES NOT WORK and the vendor only supplies a picture of where the drag is and a tool that does not adjust the drag .  I think a video
might be helpful but there is none.

I finished the afternoon catching several fish and practicing my casting.

Hudson, New york

I went to a spot that I have fished for a number of years.  I caught my first stripper here
on a big flat wing fly at midnight.  This area is a contributory to the Hudson River.  Late at night, after a new moon, Stripe Bass follow prey into the fresh water to eat.  It is eerie fishing because it is pitch black and all I could hear was the sound of my fly rod moving against the wind in the darkness.
Every once and a while a big stripper splashes as it swims past.

But today I was here to chase big carp.  The owner of the boat launch, feeds corn, every morning to a big group of carp the come for breakfast.  A few years ago I managed to hook a monster that snapped my tippet like a tooth pick as it swam into the vegetation.

This day I saw only a group of bass and suckers.  In the past I would fish here in the spring.  At the end of the day I did find two carp lurking in the weeds. 

Mill pond

Wet wading at this time of the year is almost unheard of but with the air temperature
above 70 F; I stepped into the Mill Pond.  This pond is stocked by New York's Department of Environmental Conservation.

There are a variety of fish in the pond.  The pond is covered in vegetation but it can be fished.
A friend had told me that carp were active.  It appears that the pond is less than five feet deep and the bottom was firm more than thirty feet from the shore.

Me, knee deep in Mill Pond.  The water was surprisingly warm for it to be fall

I walked the entire circumference of the pond but saw no fish and it's a big pond.
Streamers, nymphs, nothing was working on this day.  So I dried off, packed my stuff and left.
"I shall return", as the nearby fishing shop states there are a lot of crappie in the water here.

Springfield Park in Queens

A buddy caught this striped bass in Springfield Lake in Queens today.  Springfield is one of three lakes in Queens which are tidal.  It is the second bass he has caught this year in a New York City park.  The first one was caught in Brookside Park.

Carp in the city with Dave Maynard - November 1st ,2017

Our next show - Carp In The City

Dave Maynard fishes for carp where ever he can find them and 
many times it's under freeway viaducts or with a backdrop of 
skyscrapers rather than mountains. Join us to learn how to 
catch these hard to catch fish.

Go to his 'ASK' page using the link below and ask him a 
question...

http://www.askaboutflyfishing.com/speakers/dave-maynard

Tune in, Wednesday November 1st to hear his answers...

RIO's InTouch Single Handed Spey 3D line

Spy Pond A kettle pond

A Kettle Pond


Spy Pond is near  Clay Pit Pond.  I did get my line wet but in late afternoon, on a very warm day, there were no fish actively feeding.  We did pass a pod of yellow perch that appeared to be holding as we passed over them in our canoe.

Spy Pond and environs. The rail line on the right is now the Minuteman Bikeway.

Geological history[edit]

Fifty thousand years ago, the area of Arlington where Spy Pond now sits was covered a mile deep in ice by the Wisconsin Glacier. Fifteen thousand years ago, the ice began to recede, leaving depressions or "kettle holes" in its wake. Initially filled with water from the receding glacier itself and then by natural runoff, the kettle holes eventually formed small lakes and ponds throughout the area.

Spy Pond is now fed by a combination of groundwater and surface runoff from the surrounding area. Spy Pond currently has an average depth of 12 feet (3.7 m) and a maximum depth of 36 feet (11 m).

The pond has a two-acre (0.8 ha) island, Elizabeth Island, which was privately owned (but undeveloped) until 2010, when Arlington Land Trust (in collaboration with the Massachusetts Audubon Society) agreed to purchase the property and set it aside for conservation.^[3]

Cultural history[edit]

On April 19, 1775, Mother Batherick, an elderly woman who liked to gather dandelions by Spy Pond, managed to corral and take prisoner six Revolutionary War Redcoatswho were fleeing their captured supply train.^[4]

In 1850, the Spy Pond Water Company began piping water to West Cambridge. The Spy Pond Water Company changed its name to the Arlington Lake Company when West Cambridge was renamed Arlington in 1867.

Ice harvesting at Spy Pond, from an 1854 print

During the Civil War the Union Army conducted training at Camp Sheppard near Spy Pond and following the war civilian rifle matches were conducted by the Massachusetts Rifle Association from 1875 through 1876 before their move to Woburn, Massachusetts.

The 19th century also saw Spy Pond become an industrial center as entrepreneurs sought to harvest the benefits of this natural resource for export. Spy Pond became a source for ice in the winter, cut into huge blocks for shipping, and pure water for nearby Boston in the summer. Businesses shipped Spy Pond ice as far away as India,^[5] installing huge amounts of infrastructure and equipment in the Arlington area in the process. This led to the development of the local railroad and large-scale manufacture of ice tools.

In the 1970s, the Wetland Protection Act was passed classifying Spy Pond as a great pond under Massachusetts law. Despite this classification, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts uses Spy Pond for drainage from Route 2, resulting in what Cori Beckwith, administrator of the Arlington Conservation Commission, describes as a "slightly hazardous" sandbar and states that "its [sic] costly" to remove.^[6]

Spy Pond sandbar

Wildlife[edit]

Canada goose at Spy Pond

Birds[edit]

Bird enthusiasts have tracked the native and migratory bird populations of Spy Pond for a number of years. They report that almost one hundred and twenty species of birds make their home in and along its shores at some point in the year. This list includes 32 swimmers and 86 non-swimmers.

Among the bird population, Canada geese are the most notable and controversial residents.

Fish[edit]

Spy Pond was stocked with fish through the 1990s, but budget cuts have meant no stocking since then.^[7] The pond contains a variety of species, including American eel, bluegill, carp, largemouth bass, white perch, yellow perch, pumpkinseed, black crappie, white crappie, and tiger muskellunge.^[8] However, according to Rodney Zukowski, owner of Arlington Bait and Tackle, given the 10–12 year lifespan of tiger muskellunge and their inability to reproduce, it is believed Spy Pond no longer contains them, as the last stocking was over 15 years ago. Bucket biologists [1] have illegally introduced northern pike in the last few years, some reaching more than 40 inches.^{[citation needed]}

Cryptid[edit]

An old Spy Pond legend tells a tale of a Komodo Dragon purchased off the black market in 1990 and released onto Elizabeth Island in the middle of Spy Pond. Children of Arlington affectionately refer to this cryptid as "Lizzie" or "The Spy Pond Monster".