Herb1947

I grew up on Gumpas Pond. When I was a kid it was a pickerel pond with huge sunfish and perch. in 1964 a local brought a pail of small largemouth and smallmouth bass from Lake Winnisquam and dumped them in the pond. By 1969 5-lb largemouth were fairly common. I've heard a couple of people have caught a smallmouth. I wonder if they were some of the original small mouth dropped in or have they managed to spawn. The pond is spring fed with a 45 foot deep hole on the west end of the pond that should be cool enough for smallmouths. Dropping the bass into the pond was a big mistake because it really screwed up the pond. There was a sucker or carp in the pond that I never saw any place else. They used to spawn at the pond's dam every spring drawing in huge perch that fed on the carp eggs. The carp are now gone from the pond along with a large black and red leach that once lived there. There were never any worms in the pond's fish until the bass were put in and now they are common. The huge perch and sunfish that used to be common have been replaced by small puny fish that could be the result of the worms or the bass. I can now see why putting fish into a pond is ilegal.