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). Going north on Route 302, turn right on Chaffin Pond Road, right before the Sherman Williams paint store. The pond is part of the Windham Parks and Recreation’s 123-acre Donnabeth Lippman Park. Click here for a map of the park and its pond. A depth map is not available
Small but feisty
My 10-year old nephew Christian and I arrive at Chaffin Pond at 1 pm. I want to make up to Christian for the lousy fishing on the Tenny River yesterday afternoon (click here for more details on that trip). My son Joel and I had a blast fishing this pond last week (click here for details) and I hope that the largemouth bass are still willing to play today. The sky is partly sunny but afternoon rainstorms are forecast for later on today. It is warm (upper 70’s) and breezy, which keeps the bugs at bay. We start fishing with 5” soft stick baits along the shoreline on the right of the small picnic area. We have no biters for the first 15 minutes. Darn…It doesn’t look like we’re going to experience the bonanza from last week.
A winning smile for the largest bass of the day
But we keep at it, and soon the first largemouth bass flops into the canoe. By now, we have reached the large marshy area with all the dead trees located diagonally across from the picnic area. The bass are hiding in the submerged structure against the shoreline and amongst the lily pads that dot that area. We are getting regular bites, land some bass and miss several more. All is good and Christian is having a grand time. He still has to learn to control is excitement though. At one point, he hooks a 14” largemouth bass on the left side of the canoe but is so thrilled bringing it in that he flings the poor thing clear into the air and to the right side of the canoe!! The anticipated rainstorm is showing its angry face on the horizon. I decide that it is time to go, grab a bite to eat, and move on to the next pond on my list. Christian is in seventh heaven: he has caught as many bass as his uncle, but more importantly, he also caught the two largest fish. His confidence soars. I really think the kid is hooked for life and I LOVE it!
The results: Christian and I each landed four largemouth bass (largest =15”) in 2.5 hours of fishing.
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.
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used to work at hannaford in windham and walked here almost every day. caught my first and only double here. fish on front treble and back on popper only got 1 in kayak. water turns over here quick. ive caught bass first week of april here. also caught a few of the brookies on my mepps when bass fishing. caught some nice brookies when it was open to ice fishing. my son caught an 18″ first byear they put them in. talked to the town a number of times about making this more kid friendly with park right there. remember old days of hauling canoe or ice fishing gear from gate.
September 6, 2018. Thanks for your input. Chaffin Pond in Windham is indeed closed to ice fishing, at least that’s the way it’s been for years. Just for the heck of it, I checked the 2018 fishing rule book and noticed that it is no longer closed to ice fishing (i.e., the CI = closed to ice fishing notation is gone)! Guess where I’m going ice fishing as soon as the ice is safe this December… 😉
i save my late nov. and early dec. fishing for otters in standish. had some amzing days there with a fly rod and spin rod. after freezes tipups and some great jigging. even caught 5 casting my jig rod into open water 1 day.
think they changed the law last year. never got around to going there. check with me on where to ice fish on the pond.