Quaboag Pond

Quaboag Pond, a broad and shallow 558-acre pond on the Brookfield-East Brookfield line, is known across Massachusetts for its trophy pike. MassWildlife stocks it with pike whenever it can (seven times since 2013) and says fish over 20 pounds are caught now and then. Most of them come through the ice, along with crappie, pickerel and largemouth bass, some of the bass over 7 pounds.

When to fish

• Winter: the main season. Most of the big pike, and plenty of crappie, pickerel and bass, are caught through the ice.
• Summer: bass and pickerel along the Quaboag River's shores and weed beds, and bullhead in the pond itself.

Where to fish

• The whole pond is shallow: it averages 6 feet and bottoms out around 15, with weeds common anywhere under 10 feet.
• The Quaboag River: navigable by motorboat up through the Quaboag Wildlife Management Area to the Long Hill Road crossing, with weedy shorelines for bass and pickerel.
• The southwest shore: undeveloped, inside the Quacumquasit Wildlife Management Area, with shore access.

Getting there

The town of Brookfield runs a large concrete ramp with parking for about 30 trailers off Shore Road on the north shore, and there's shore fishing along Shore Road. A cartop launch with a 12-car lot is off Lake Road at the pond's south tip, next to South Pond. There's a mercury consumption advisory for the pond's fish, strictest for largemouth bass. You need a Massachusetts freshwater fishing license; pike have a minimum length, and small lead sinkers and lead jigs are banned in fresh water.