Paradise Pond, Princeton MA Fishing Report

Paradise Pond III - 6-28-2014

Equipped my kayak with a Lowrance X-4 fish finder Friday after work and headed to Paradise Pond to Ops Check it. Was at the pond at 0530 and put the kayak in the water and loaded up the gear. I also picked up another piece of fishing equipment that I stumbled upon during the week. A 6' Shakespeare pistol grip medium action casting rod. No one uses pistol grip rods anymore, but I tell you what, they are a freaking dream to cast from a kayak. Caught three pickerel and a nice largemouth bass today on that rod. It will definitely be serving it's purpose aboard my yak. When I got turned on to bass fishing in the mid 80's, pistol grip casting rods was pretty much all you could find. I had a Berkley Bionics 6' heavy action rod that was tougher than nails. I set a hook on a small pickerel with that thing once and made it literally fly into the boat. Always loved that rod, and it's a shame they don't make them anymore. I know why the long handle casting rods came out, you can get a hell of a lot more leverage and control on a fish with a long handle rod, but sitting low in the water like you do in a kayak, I can cast a pistol grip a hell of a lot more accurately. That may just be me.
The set up for my Lowrance X-4 was a little hard but it worked out nicely. More importantly it worked!! Battery box was made out of a Tupperware dish. Batteries consisted of two 6 volt lantern batteries wired in series to produce 12 volts. The lantern batteries powered the unit for a good 5 hours today without power output ever going below 12 volts. This was just a quick rig so I could use the fish finder. I am going to purchase a rechargeable 12 volt battery. It will easily take the place of the lantern batteries in the Tupperware box. I mounted the transducer to the stern of my kayak externally. It's mounted above the bottom of the hull, and totally below the water line. After launching and beaching the kayak twice today in the rocky shores of Paradise Pond, there was not even a scratch on the transducer and it picked up no weeds all day. I mounted the transducer to a piece of plastic cutting board and the piece of cutting board was mounted to the stern of my kayak. All holes drilled in the stern on my kayak were about 1 inch below the highest point on the stern and well above the waterline. I covered the back on the piece of plastic cutting board with marine goo before bolting it too my kayak. Bottom was held in place with gorilla tape until the goo cured. Cable for the transducer went through the stern and was plugged with Locktite Repair Putty.
The Fish Finder worked great. It's amazing, there are no spots in Paradise Pond that I paddled through today that are over 7' deep and the four fish I caught were all caught in less than 4'. Because the pond is so shallow, the water temp is going up fast. Got a feeling the bass are going to become extremely lethargic real soon.
Was a good day out, but I need to find me another fishing hole soon!!
Rode the Harley by the Mare Meadow Reservoir today after I got home from fishing to scope out some places to put my kayak in and go fishing there. There are plenty of places, but then there is this big sign posted saying to have to be a resident of four of five different cities that I am not a resident of, so that place is a bust. Going to go check out the West Waushacum Pond and the Quag to see what that place has to offer.

• Added By: fdw9652 on 06/28/14 06:31 PM
• Location: Paradise Pond, Princeton MA
• Report Date: 6/28/2014
• # of Hotspots: 1
• # of Photos: 1
• # of Fish Caught: 3
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