Briant Pond

[thomaskgrosvenor]

Sometime, a few days after Christmas, over my winter break, while I was out and about, I stopped at this pond called Briant Pond in the Summit/Millburn area. Not wasting too much time, I threw my bobber/jig set up all around the pond. It was not that small of a pond, but I am fairly certain that it could not have been more than a foot deep anywhere I casted.

Since the summer, I did a lot of fishing in different ponds and don't recall such a shallow pond of this size. Even though, by definition, ponds are shallower than lakes, the approximate 1 foot depth, even out towards the middle, struck me as unusual.

Does anyone know anything about this pond that they wouldn't mind sharing?

[FASTEDDIE29]

There's a few bass and panfish. The city of Summit stocks it with Trout for a kids derby and there's also some good sized Carp in the pond! There's fish to be caught in that little pond.

[lukenic]

Originally Posted by FASTEDDIE29

There's a few bass and panfish. The city of Summit stocks it with Trout for a kids derby and there's also some good sized Carp in the pond! There's fish to be caught in that little pond.

Two dfferent ponds. The summit PAL stocks the pond on the Muni 9 hole golf course with trout. Briant pond has shrunk significantly over the last several years. Use to catch monster carp on floated bread before the ducks and geese took over.

[logs22]

Originally Posted by thomaskgrosvenor

Since the summer, I did a lot of fishing in different ponds and don't recall such a shallow pond of this size. Even though, by definition, ponds are shallower than lakes, the approximate 1 foot depth, even out towards the middle, struck me as unusual.

Have you ever been to Lenape Park Pond in Kenilworth? I believe that pond is even bigger than Briant and I have seen herons barely knee deep standing in the center of the front pond. I have explored that pond extensively and the only places I have found where the water is over 1.5-2 ft deep (meaning maybe 3 ft deep) are the channel between the front and back ponds and by the outflow way at the end of the back pond.

I think the lack of any depth has really harmed the fish population as from what I hear Lenape Pond used to be very productive and also not nearly as shallow. The whole body of water is now an all you can eat buffet for the birds and because of this I think most of the bass are not reaching maturity. Combine that with bucket brigaders pulling out the remaining mature fish and you are left with an empty pond and I have one less place to fish locally.