Killer Catfish in Cape Cod?

Far from the tourist havens of Hyannis, Sandwich, Dennis and Yarmouth; deep in the interior of Cape Cod, there are extraordinary beaches that visitors to the 64 mile long island never see. They encircle the waters of a lake several miles distant from the popular oceanfront resorts clinging to the big sandbar - Cape Cod Bay on the one side and Nantucket Sound on the other. The vast tract of more than 900 acres of brackish water, rotting logs, and a billion insects is as far inland as it is possible to go.

Formed in 1938 when The Great Northeast Hurricane knocked down half the trees of the lower cape and gouged out a depression five miles long and one mile wide - it quickly filled with water. In some places it’s only as deep as a fisherman’s boot while in others it seems bottomless – though it’s probably about as deep as the Provincetown Pilgrim Memorial is tall – 252 feet.

Despite the murky water you can see deep enough, to gape at the submerged remains of row after row of trees clipped off near their bases by the force of the hurricane, and left to stand forever in the muck, like lonely corpses staring up at the surface with blind eyes.

There are no roads to get to the lake, which the locals call “Kaycee Pond”. Surrounded by thick pines, sharp vines, and dense brush, the only access to the vast, muddy swamp is by trudging through a quarter mile of living tunnel formed of weeds, twisted trees, hedges, and swamp grass. 

There are no homes circling the lake, no camps or campsites, and no RVs or vans. The land around “Kaycee Pond” is home to many thousands of creatures, but not a single one of them is human. 

At first glance the pond looks serene.  The brown water gently laps at the hundreds of exposed tree stumps and rotting logs that almost seem plentiful enough to form a footbridge from one end to the other.    

Fat frogs sit unmolested on soggy timber, snapping out their tongues at regular intervals to entrap buzzing flies who themselves got fat from sucking on the decaying matter that washes onto the beaches. Foxes, coyotes, deer, and other animals drink at the edge of the water, but only if they are very, very thirsty.  They know by instinct that the calmness of “Kaycee Pond” is merely a Halloween mask that can be whisked off in an instant.

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