🌊 Watershops Pond

Watershops Pond is a lake in the city of Springfield, Massachusetts. Located in the Upper Hill neighborhood, it is the city's second-largest body of water, after the Connecticut River. Watershops Pond features 7 miles of shorelines and 186 acres. It was a major site for fishing, featuring species ranging from Black Crappie, Bluegill, Brown Trout, Chain Pickerel, Channel Catfish, Common Carp, Largemouth Bass, Pumpkinseed, Rainbow Trout, and Yellow Bass. The city after multiple lowering of the dam draining the pins for lengthy periods had destroyed the habitat. Not only had it decimated the fish population, leaving primarily pumpkinseed, calico bass, and carp, it also lost aquatic mammals such as the muskrat. The pond was formed by damming the Mill River, which flows out of the westernmost end and continues 1.25 miles until its confluence with the Connecticut River.