Mashpee and Wakeby Ponds
Encyclopedia
Pond
A pond is a body of standing water, either natural or man-made, that is usually smaller than a lake. A wide variety of man-made bodies of water are classified as ponds, including water gardens, water features and koi ponds; all designed for aesthetic ornamentation as landscape or architectural...
s in Mashpee
Mashpee, Massachusetts
Mashpee is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 14,006 as of 2010.For geographic and demographic information on specific parts of the town of Mashpee, please see the articles on Mashpee Neck, Monomoscoy Island, New Seabury, Popponesset, Popponesset Island,...
and Sandwich, Massachusetts
Sandwich, Massachusetts
Sandwich is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 20,675 at the 2010 census. The Town Hall is located right next to the Dexter Grist Mill, in the historic district of town....
. When considered together, these two ponds cover 729 acres (3 km²) and constitute the largest freshwater
Freshwater
Fresh water is naturally occurring water on the Earth's surface in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers and streams, and underground as groundwater in aquifers and underground streams. Fresh water is generally characterized by having low concentrations of dissolved salts and...
pond on Cape Cod
Cape Cod
Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...
. This pair is 85 feet (25.9 m) deep at its deepest point.
These kettleholes are fed by groundwater
Groundwater
Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock...
and have no inlet
Inlet
An inlet is a narrow body of water between islands or leading inland from a larger body of water, often leading to an enclosed body of water, such as a sound, bay, lagoon or marsh. In sea coasts an inlet usually refers to the actual connection between a bay and the ocean and is often called an...
stream
Stream
A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...
s. The ponds' sole outlet
Outlet
Outlet may mean:* An electrical outlet* An outlet store or outlet mall* The pelvic outlet* A type of instance variable used for graphical user interface programming in the OpenStep / Cocoa environment* Outlet, Ontario, a community in Canada...
stream, the Mashpee River
Mashpee River
The Mashpee River is a tidal river on Cape Cod in Mashpee, Massachusetts.The river arises in Mashpee and Wakeby Ponds, flows south a short distance, and drains into Pirate's Cove on Popponesset Bay on the Nantucket Sound...
, flows south to Popponesset Bay
Popponesset Bay
Popponesset Bay System is a group of bays located at the towns of Mashpee and Barnstable , on Cape Cod, Massachusetts with a southern shore bounded by water fromNantucket Sound....
.
Boating
Boating
Boating is the leisurely activity of travelling by boat, or the recreational use of a boat whether powerboats, sailboats, or man-powered vessels , focused on the travel itself, as well as sports activities, such as fishing or water skiing...
access to the ponds is possible via a state-maintained concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
launching ramp off Route 130 in Mashpee. The ponds are heavily used for boating
Boating
Boating is the leisurely activity of travelling by boat, or the recreational use of a boat whether powerboats, sailboats, or man-powered vessels , focused on the travel itself, as well as sports activities, such as fishing or water skiing...
, swimming, bass fishing
Bass fishing
Bass fishing is the activity of angling for the North American gamefish known colloquially as the black bass. There are numerous black bass species considered as gamefish in North America, including largemouth bass , smallmouth bass , Spotted bass or Kentucky bass , Guadalupe bass Bass fishing is...
and trout fishing
Trout
Trout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...
.
Ice fishing and fly fishing take place on these waters in addition to bait-casting. In 2006, a few fish pulled from Mashpee and Wakeby Ponds won awards from MassWildlife's Freshwater Sportfish Awards Program. Among these were a 7 lb (3.175 kg) white catfish
Ictaluridae
The Ictaluridae, sometimes called Ictalurids, are a family of catfish native to North America, where they are important food fish and sometimes as a sport fish. They include fish commonly known as bullheads, madtoms, channel catfish, and blue catfish....
and a 1 lb (0.45359237 kg) sunfish
Centrarchidae
The sunfishes are a family of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the order Perciformes. The type genus is Centrarchus . The family's 27 species includes many fishes familiar to North Americans, including the rock bass, largemouth bass, bluegill, pumpkinseed, and crappies...
.
Attaquin Beach
Attaquin Beach
Attaquin Beach is a beach at Mashpee and Wakeby Ponds in Cape Cod, Massachusetts....
, a youth summer camp
Summer camp
Summer camp is a supervised program for children or teenagers conducted during the summer months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as campers....
, and homes line the ponds' shores.