Hi, all!

I'll be out camping near the quabbin reservoir this coming weekend, hoping to do some snorkeling and maybe dipnetting. I know you can't swim in the quabbin, but you can fish and you can boat (but sadly not on one's own kayak, so my inflatable one will be unused, at least there). I'll be staying in the federated women's club state forest, which has some water as well, and there appears to be lots of water places nearby.

Does anyone have any specific suggestions for where I could dipnet and/or snorkel/swim to look at fish?

Either way, hopefully a waterproof camera I ordered will arrive before I leave Friday.

The two fish species we always found in Quabbin were banded killifish and rock bass. There are some Notropis shiners there too (I forget which ones) but they were always patchier in distribution, and yellow perch of course. The place is interesting as a form of unintentional wilderness even with the crazy "no swimming" mandate; with the number of otters and beavers in that system you know there's some serious mammalian effluvium entering the water.

Just say no to beaver fever.

Be very careful to review any regs regarding the res and all the little tribs. That place is very heavily patrolled, at least was years ago. No reason to be believe it's less, actually 911 probably made it more.
Not suggesting you would intentionally do wrong, just lot's of rules and they are touchy. It's Boston's drinking water so gets lot's of attention.
Also, be careful dipnetting in streams. Look for signs saying "No Fishing". There are protected landlocked salmon spawning streams and I don't think you want to 'splain to the warden why you got salmon parr in your bucket.

Can't speak to what you might catch, I know the area for sport fishing only. QUabbin has lake trout and landlocked salmon, neither of which are native. Also lot's of smallmouth bass. The streams are good for trout.

For extra fishy fun, you might consider running up to the power company dam on the CT river, right of rt 2. If it still operates [google it], they had a public viewing window in their fish ladder. It may not be too late in the year to see cool stuff. A billion alewives, bunch of shad and a chance of any and every species imaginable. WHen I was tehre last, some grad students were filming the fish and showed me video clips of everything from striped bass to huge trout to sturgeon.