General view of Chaffin Pond
Chaffin Pond is a pretty 13-acre body of water located in the heart of the business district of North Windham off busy Route 302 (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map 5 C2). The pond is part of the Windham Parks and Recreation’s 123-acre Donnabeth Lippman Park. Click here to obtain a map of the park and its pond.
The shoreline of Chaffin Pond
The main access to Chaffin Pond is via Chaffin Pond Road, which is located off Route 302 north, just before the Sherman Williams paint store. You can drive a car all the way to the small parking lot at the end of the road. The pond does not have a boat launch and is best fished using a kayak or canoe because the shoreline is mostly swampy and/or heavily vegetated.
Lots of dead trees along the shoreline of Chaffin Pond
My son Joel and I arrive at Chaffin Pond at 4 pm. The sky is completely overcast; it’s supposed to rain later on this evening. I’m surprised to see the high number of dead trees along parts of the shoreline, from what seems like root drowning. This situation causes the shallows to be littered with submerged wood, which provides great largemouth bass habitat. On the other hand, the amount of floating and emergent aquatic vegetation is relatively sparse. The water also has the color of weak tea.
Come to daddy…
I’m immediately impressed by the general setting, and Chaffin Pond does not disappoint. We both fish with 5” purple-colored soft stick baits, our all-time favorite bass baits. Joel hooks but missed a fish on his first cast, whereas I hook and land a largemouth bass on my second cast. How neat is that! The action is fast and furious for the next hour. The fish are all congregated in the shallows, either right up against the bank on structure or further out on the edges of aquatic vegetation. We land a total of eight largemouth bass and miss at least as many. All our fish are relatively small (12″-14″) but aggressive. It’s clear that this pond does not get much fishing pressure. Unfortunately, we need to leave to check out the next pond on my list and reluctantly paddle back to shore. This pond is a keeper!
The result: I landed four largemouth bass (12”-14”), and so did Joel.
Was the information in this blog useful? I invite you to share your thoughts and opinions. Also, feel free to discuss your fishing experiences at this location.
