Hello everyone, my name is Leanda Fontaine. I’m an aquatic biologist for MassWildlife’s Western District region, and I’m going to give you a quick rundown of our Go Fish Mass interactive map.
A welcome window will come up asking if you’re looking for great places to fish. Two key icons will help you on your journey: a purple pin that shows each water body we have, and a “Customize” button at the bottom that lets you filter your results.
Click “OK,” and it will bring you to a statewide view of all the information we have on water bodies across Massachusetts. If you click on one of the pins, it will bring you to a specific water body. We have pins for lakes and ponds, as well as for rivers and streams. For example, this is Walden Pond, located near Concord, Massachusetts.
With so many options across the state, it can be overwhelming. There’s an easy way to filter results using the “Customize” button at the bottom. When you click that, it opens a window with six key features that we can go through in detail.
The first is “Featured Sites,” which are locations handpicked by staff that have good, easy access to the water and are popular for fishing. There’s also an option for boat access, indicating whether there are ramps available for launching a boat, kayak, or canoe.
You can filter for water bodies that are stocked with trout, either in the spring or fall. There’s also an option for a digital depth map, also known as a bathymetry map.
Another option shows water bodies that have a pond map and summary, giving you a quick overview and key details. Finally, there’s an option to show catch-and-release areas across the state.
You can toggle any of these filters on or off. For example, if you select boat access, the map will narrow down to only those locations.
Now, let’s say I’m from western Massachusetts and want to go ice fishing this weekend. I’m looking for a good spot where I can cut some holes in the ice, set up tip-ups, and start jigging.
I’ll zoom into western Massachusetts and use the “Customize” feature to narrow things down. I’ll select “Featured Sites” and “Digital Depth Map,” since I want staff-recommended locations and information about underwater structure. That helps me identify safe areas and places where fish are likely to be.
With those filters applied, I can zoom in further and choose a location. Let’s select a lake. If I want directions, I can click “More Info,” which will link to Google Maps and provide directions from my location to the launch site.
If I zoom in on the pond, I can see the bathymetry lines—these are depth contour lines, and each one represents a change in depth across the water body.
If this spot looks good and I want to visit it this weekend, I can go back to the information bubble for that water body, click the three lines, and add a marker.