• Furnace
• Hobomock
• Little Sandy Bottom
• Oldham
• Stetson

Furnace Pond

General Information

Furnace Pond is a 115 acre great pond with an average depth of 5 feet and a maximum depth of 9 feet. Furnace Pond receives water from Oldham Pond and from cranberry bogs and drains into Herring Brook and eventually into the North River. The bottom is composed primarily of mud, and aquatic vegetation is extremely abundant. Most of the 2.7 miles of shoreline is developed with year round houses. Furnace Pond is extremely fertile and is subject to nuisance algae blooms during the summer. The pond is used as a secondary water supply for the City of Brockton as water is pumped from the pond during the winter months into Silver Lake.

Access

The pond is readily accessible from Route 14, about 1.3 miles west of Pembroke center. Roadside parking is available along Mattakeesett Street (Route 14) and canoes and small boats can be launched (70°49’39.67″W 42° 3’39.21″N). Please contact MassWildlife for additional information and/or restrictions pertaining to public access of Furnace Pond.

Fish Population and Fishing

The following fish species were found during MassWildlife surveys: Largemouth Bass, Chain Pickerel, Brown Bullhead, Yellow Perch, White Perch, Black Crappie, Bluegill, Pumpkinseed, Golden Shiner, Alewife, and American Eel.

Furnace Pond has a reputation as an excellent Largemouth Bass producer. Largemouths are clearly the dominant gamefish. They are of large average size with clunkers in the five to seven pound range frequently reported. The abundant weed growth makes them difficult to catch throughout the summer and fall months, but those who have mastered the use of weedless gear can expect good catches. Don’t overlook the panfish in this pond. White Perch are abundant and of good size. This is also a good pond for crappie (calicos), which are also abundant and of large average size. Furnace Pond has produced Black Crappie, Largemouth Bass, Chain Pickerel, Yellow Perch, and Brown Bullhead that meet minimum sizes for recognition by the Freshwater Sportfishing Awards Program.

Hobomock Pond

General

Hobomock Pond is a lake located just 2.6 miles from North Pembroke, in Plymouth County, in the state of Massachusetts, United States. Alternate names for this lake include Hobomak Pond, Hobomok Pond and Hobomac Pond.

Fish Population

Fishermen will find a variety of fish including perch, pumpkinseed sunfish, largemouth bass, brown trout, bream/bluegill, pickerel and sunfish here. 

Little Sandy Bottom Pond

General

Little Sandy Bottom Pond, also known as Little Sandy, has 1.23 miles of shoreline. Its depth averages 10 feet, with a maximum of 20 feet. It was original home to a colony of summer cottages, but it is now populated by year-round homes. Little Sandy Bottom Pond is a natural pond that rests at the top of a groundwater divide. It is not connected with natural surface water flow with any other ponds in the area. Most water leaves the pond as groundwater recharge. 

Fishing

Some of the fish commonly found in Little Sandy Bottom Pond include largemouth bass, white and yellow perch, chain pickerel, and sunfish.

Oldham Pond

General Information

Oldham Pond is a 235 acre natural pond located in the towns of Pembroke and Hanson. Oldham Pond receives water from a small tributary, cranberry bogs and wetland areas and serves as the headwaters of Herring Brook; its outflow drains into Furnace Pond which is located immediately to the south. The pond’s 2.8 miles of shoreline are heavily developed with houses and a summer camp. The pond has three wooded islands, the largest of which is known as Monument Island, and numerous rocky shoals. Except for the islands and rocky shoal areas, much of the pond is fairly uniform in depth with an average depth of 10 feet and a maximum depth of 15 feet. Aquatic vegetation, primarily submerged aquatics, is abundant. The bottom is predominantly mud except for the rocky shoal areas. Oldham Pond is an unstratified warm water pond.

Access

Boat access to Oldham Pond is provided by a town of Pembroke ramp located next to the town beach off Wampatuck Street, which is located to the north of Route 14 (Matakeesett Street) and Furnace Pond. The ramp is suitable only for small trailered boats, cartop boats and canoes. Oldham Pond is a natural Great Pond and under the Colonial Ordinances of 1641-1647 which allows anglers to pass over unimproved land on foot to gain access to the pond. Motorboaters are cautioned about numerous shoal areas which are not marked on the depth map.

Management History

Oldham Pond was first surveyed on July 12, 1912 and reported red (yellow) perch, hornpout, pickerel, and eels; and noted “many boys from Rockland YMCA Camp were boating and swimming” and ”Great many mussels in pond”. Prior to 1946, Oldham Pond was stocked with smallmouth bass, bullhead, white perch, yellow perch and chain pickerel. In 1937, a northeast section of the pond was closed to fishing for five years as a bass breeding area. Although once primarily a smallmouth bass pond, by the 1940s both largemouth bass and smallmouth bass were present. A 1946 survey reported alewife, white sucker, smallmouth bass, chain pickerel and banded killifish. A 1951 fish thinning operation removed 550 pounds of bluegill, suckers, eels and turtles; also caught and released were largemouth bass, chain pickerel, yellow perch, white perch, brown bullhead and golden shiner. In the 1950’s brush shelters were placed in the pond. A kill of freshwater mussels and fish occurred in August of 1999 due to oxygen depletion in the lower layers of the pond. Smaller fish kills in spring and summer due to disease outbreaks or oxygen depletion have also been reported since 1995.

Fishing and Fish Populations

Oldham Pond was last surveyed on August 23, 1994 and contained 13 fish species: Largemouth bass, pumpkinseed, alewife, yellow perch, bluegill, white perch, white sucker, banded killifish, brown bullhead, golden shiner, black crappie and American eel.

Oldham Pond should offer good fishing for largemouth bass and panfish. Oldham Pond serves as a spawning area for alewife that run up Herring Brook from the North River. The young-of-year alewives provide good forage for predators such as bass and pickerel. Boaters are cautioned about unmarked rocky shoal areas that are scattered throughout the pond. The pond has a heavy summer recreational use for swimming and boating by campers and town residents. 

Stetson Pond

General info

This 93-acre warm water pond is characterized by brown water with a transparency of five feet. Average depth 15 feet and maximum depth is 33 feet. Aquatic vegetation is fairly light. More than half (60%) of the total shoreline (1.5 miles) has been lost to development. The pond is located a half mile northeast of Route 58 near Monponsett Center. Access is provided by a dirt launch located off Plymouth Street. The launch is suitable for car top boats and canoes and is owned by the town of Pembroke.

Fishing and Fish Populations

Fishermen will find a variety of fish including pickerel, perch, bullhead, eel, white perch, bream/bluegill, pumpkinseed, grouper and largemouth bass here. 

Whether you’re bait-casting, fly fishing, spinning or trolling your chances of getting a bite here are good. So grab your favorite fly fishing rod and reel, and head out to Stetson Pond.