Melvin Pond Fishing near Poultney, New York

• Overview

  Look for Melvin Pond in the Washington County part of New York. It lies 646 feet above sea level. At 12 acres it is the sort of place you fish for an evening rather than a day. Poultney lies 3.1 miles from the water. It is 63 miles to Albany, the nearest city. More in the same country: Browns Pond (0.9 miles), Hills Pond 1 mile, Dunbar Pond (1.4 miles), Crystal Lake 1.4 miles and Ryan Pond (2.2 miles). It sits near the edge of the county, so check which rules apply.

• Where to Fish on Melvin Pond

  Depth is not on record here, which means reading the ground instead. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. Bays and points beat straight shoreline every time on water like this. Survey and observation records for Washington County include brown trout, white sucker, tessellated darter and pumpkinseed. These are county-wide records, so not all of them will be in this water. Read Melvin Pond before you fish it and the day goes better.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The range across the year is 19°F to 70°F. Winter shuts things down for a spell, then spring reopens them fast. Ice fishing carries the winter, and the water opens about early April. Break-up near early April, freeze-up near mid December: that is the shape of an average year. From the thaw to midsummer the fishing improves week by week. That shapes the year on Melvin Pond.

• Tackle & Baits

  Public data does not answer the access question here. No slipway, car park or made path shows up nearby in mapping, so treat access as rough. A small crankbait along the drop and a worm in the thick stuff cover the bass. Where access is informal, keep it that way by behaving. Where the way in crosses private ground, ask first. For a change of water, Browns Pond is 0.9 miles distant. Check the position on Melvin Pond before loading the car.