Fishing at Mill Pond Park

Summer just wouldn’t be complete for many Brighton residents without pulling at least one fish out of Mill Pond.

Local artist and children’s book illustrator, Mike Glenn Monroe, said that he remembers spending countless hours fishing at Mill Pond as a boy.  In fact, it was those hours spent down on the boardwalk, and those boyhood memories that served as inspiration for one of downtown Brighton’s newest sculptures, a four-foot long sculpture of a blue gill titled “It’s a Keeper,” located near the Imagination Station playground.

Indeed, fishing roots go deep at Mill Pond Park, with this year marking the 25th annual Optimist Club Fishing Derby that took place last month. Each year, parents and their children line the shores and walkways of the park for the derby.  It’s an event that, for many, marks the true beginning of summer.

I personally have not had much luck this year at Mill Pond Park.  In fact, during my last outing the only thing that happened of significance was meeting a very large snapping turtle that befriended me and watched me fish for twenty minutes or so.

Though I haven’t had much luck myself, I have seen other seasoned Mill Pond fisherman pull some big monsters out of the water.

One of the hotspots where I spied an older angler pulling fish out one after another was on the board walk closest to city hall. This particular fisherman was going for catfish and successfully pulled two whoppers out of the water while my bait sat in the water, soggy and bored.

Brighton resident and long-time fishing buddy, Jordan Foster, had more luck than I did that day and caught a large-mouth bass on his first cast. He threw his line right into a mass of seaweeds and instantly had the fish strike his line.

“Holy bass, I think I caught one,” he exclaimed in astonishment as he reeled his line in, his rod bending in agony. He pulled up a nice little seven inch large-mouth bass, which turned out to be our only catch of the day.

Something important to point out about fishing at Mill Pond Park is the abundance of weeds. It is quite frustrating to cast and immediately hook a “grass bass” and therefore ruin you chances of catching a fish with that cast.  

For this reason, I think it’s a good idea to follow the older anglers lead and fish almost directly under the boardwalk.  There aren’t as many weeds if you drop your line down over the side of the rail and move the rod back and forth to add movement your bait.  This is what that gentleman was doing, and he clearly had better results than I.

A better area to fish if you plan on casting out into the water a little ways is off the dock behind Hungry Howies, as there are fewer weeds down that way.  

From city hall, as you walk towards the dock behind Hungry Howies, look over the right side of the boardwalk near the historic Old Village Cemetery to see a colony of blue gill beds.  Most of the fish are pretty small, but it’s neat to see the beds that are woven out of weeds.

I’ve seen people pull all sorts of fish out of Mill Pond: Large and small-mouth bass, blue gill, sunfish, huge carp and catfish.  

Even if you don’t get lucky on the next outing, the amazing Monet-esque landscape gives you a beautiful consolation prize at dawn or dusk.