Uncle Seth's Pond

Today I will cover my adventures at Seth's Pond. Seth's Pond is located on the northern edge of Martha's Vineyard to the west of West Tisbury and is a popular swimming location.  The water in Seth's Pond is crystal clear and relatively cool, which makes it a prime habitat for cooler water species such as trout. Some of the species that inhabit Seth's Pond are: yellow perch, chain pickerel, largemouth bass, bluegill, and the pond is stocked with trout. At the top of the food chain are largemouth bass and chain pickerel. These two fish are quite different and have different ways of getting food. Chain Pickerel like to hide on the edges of beds of weed and wait for unsuspected prey to swim by before they swoop out and grab it with their very sharp teeth. Chain pickerel will eat pretty much anything, from bugs to birds to frogs and even their own species. Largemouth bass on the other hand, have practically no teeth at all and instead they have a very large mouth that they use to swallow their prey whole. They eat similar things like frogs, birds, and smaller fish. In Seth's Pond however the main food source for these two species of fish would primarily be yellow perch along with some bluegill and other small fish species.  This is important to know when selecting a lure.  I chose a Rapala yellow perch lure. This lure perfectly imitates a small yellow perch swimming. Here is a picture of that yellow perch lure alongside an actual yellow perch I caught in Seth's Pond.  

The one on the top is a large mouth bass that weighed around 3 pounds and the one on the bottom is a chain pickerel that was probably a pound or less. I caught both of them by casting into small coves from a kayak in Seth’s Pond.