I had to retrieve the planters full of flowers on some family cemetery plots today, so my younger son and I made a road trip to the Springfield area.
It was a beautiful day - - blue skies, temps in the low 70's.
Once our "chores" were done, we travelled to Van Horn Park to fish the pond there - - which I dimly recall held some good-sized carp back in the Pleistocene era of my youth in the 1980's - - and arrived around 12 noon.
According to one of the locals that we spoke to, the Pond still holds some decent carp, along with a few bass, but all we managed to catch were a couple respectable sized sunfish apiece - - and I cannot say I saw any of the other fishermen there do any better.
Next, we drove to Granby Road in Chicopee and fished the river for a couple hours.
We started about half way between the dam and the Davitt Memorial Bridge and slowly made our way upstream.
The water was surprisingly low, and the action was slow, but eventually we succeeded in landing a half dozen smallmouth bass (all on the small side) plus one big sunfish just below the dam.
Unfortunately, we had to leave around 4:30 PM to attend a family gathering - - and didn't have quite enough time to try my preferred spot about a half mile downstream from the Davitt Bridge, where I suspect a larger smallmouth or two might lurk, so we'll have to save that until next time.
