Hardy Pond, Walhtam, MA Fishing Report

Hardy Pond 4-20-2011

With a bit of a lull in the winds lately, I figured Wednesday night was a good chance to get out for a couple hours in the Jon boat. I bailed out of work a bit early and headed over to Hardy Pond for a couple hours of fishing since it's only 5-10 minutes away.

The temperature was in the low 50s with a slight wind, overcast and dark. Water temps were around 52.

I spent the first half hour fishing some shallow submerged boulders with a lipless crank and a jerkbait with no takers. I fished the dropoffs around there as well, also nothing. I was marking fish, but nothing was biting. The dark and somewhat murky water probably wasn't helping the jerkbait bite either.

I moved to a different spot and started fishing a stretch between two points, still with the jerkbait and lipless. After another 15 minutes to hauling water, I put both away and picked up the jig rod. I then went looking for laydowns, stumps, and brush. There was a lot of brush, but no fish biting in it. I found a small downed branch near some brush in a foot or two of water. As I pulled up to it, an older gentleman living there chatted me up about the fishing. Right as he walked away and wished me luck, I felt a thump and set the hook on a nice keeper. I almost asked him to hop in the boat and bring his good luck with him =)

I kept going on my quest to find nice laydowns, and found a perfect looking tree trunk. No fish. I fished some brush near it, and while dragging it back out over branches and junk, another keeper size fish swiped at it but didn't hook up.

I started working my way back in, but wanted to check out the part of the pond I've never fished much. It's shallow and weedy as hell in the summer. Apparently there are also some underwater rocks, because I slammed the trolling motor into one of them, but no damage done. Nothing going over there.

At this point, it's about to get dark and I start jetting back to the launch. I make one stop at a decent looking laydown and toss the jig to the outer limbs. The line is draped over the branches, and I don't feel a thump but something registers as an unexpected feeling or look, so I set the hook. I hook up with a nice fish and wrestle it out of the tree. I get it to the boat, and it's a solid 3lb 7oz chunk. I can't really explain how I knew I got bit, it was just a feeling that something wasn't "right". Nice to see that the instincts aren't completely rusty!

With a nice cap to the evening like that, I head back in. The weather is getting cold as hell as the sun goes down, and I only smacked one more boulder on the way in!

Not bad for a couple hours out. Hardy Pond is still not being super productive for me, but it's so nice and close that it's hard to beat. Maybe I'll keep at it a bit more this year and figure it out. The 3 1/2 was the biggest I've seen pulled out of there so far.

• Added By: michaelk on 04/22/11 01:05 PM
• Location: Hardy Pond, Walhtam, MA
• Report Date: 4/20/2011
• # of Hotspots: 1
• # of Photos: 2
• # of Fish Caught: 2
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