New Hampshire Fishing Report

Fishing report for item #183.

Fishing Report:   June 20, 2005

Enthusiasm is still very high in most of the fishing locations that we’ve heard from today, ranging from terrific lake fishing for trout and salmon to some of the best striped bass fishing in memory. And bass fishermen last week found smallmouths available at all stages of their spawning and in both the shallows and offshore, making for some very interesting fishing.

New Hampshire Fishing Report: Chris Henson at Kittery Trading Post fishes New Hampshire’s trout ponds on a regular basis and likes the way the state has managed several of these ponds with special regulations for different goals. “Some of the state’s ponds with the ability to raise big fish have special regulations allowing only a two trout limit and special slot-limits on sizes. Most of these are brook trout ponds. Some of the ponds that have put and take fishing allow more liberal regulations, while all of the designated trout ponds do not allow fish (shiners, minnows, smelt) for bait in any form.” “Some of the fly-fishing-only ponds have both brookies and rainbows. White’s Pond in Ossipee is a good example of this and there’s some really good fishing right now at White’s, according to what we hear. Duncan Lake, another Ossipee pond, has a reputation for producing big rainbows and you can fish with both bait and fly or lure, but it’s a designated trout pond so no fish for bait. This pond has also been pretty hot lately.”
“Upcountry, especially in the Pittsburg area we’re hearing that Coon Brook Bog is producing some excellent brookie fishing as is nearby Clarksville Pond in Clarksville, a fly-only pond.”
“Nearer to the seacoast area, Stonehouse Pond in Barrington is managed for brookies. This deep and picturesque pond is fly-only. Lucas Pond in Northwood, one of the state’s few waters stocked with tiger trout (cross between brook and brown trout), is a designated trout pond that allows bait, fly and worms. So there’s an incredible amount of diversity in the
Granite State for both the spin fishermen and fly folks, and within those types of fishing there’s plenty of choices to please just about any taste.”
Chris talked about a factory rep that had fished smallmouths in New Hampshire during a recent visit and was very impressed that he’d found fish still in the shallows, out a bit on some of the offshore humps and well out onto the drop-offs, signaling that there were fish still spawning, some yet to spawn and some that had spawned, a very unusual situation.
“The stripers have been incredible but those people fishing live mackerel have been having a problem both catching the mackerel and having stripers just toy with the bait and not taking it with their usual gusto. But the people still using live herring when they can get them have found that it’s one herring and one striper almost immediately caught,” Chris ended. At Suds-n-Soda, Jason MacKenzie said that a lot had changed over the weekend in the leaders of their All Summer Long Striper Derby. Nick Cyr, fishing with Suds’ fishing department worker Kyle Walsh landed a 44 inch, 30.5 lb. striper on a live mackerel that placed him second in the
derby, while Kyle, who isn’t allowed to compete, had a 41 incher that went 27 pounds. The third place fish was caught by Todd Goss, a 42.75 incher that weighed 23.75 pounds. Several other big stripers came in to be weighed with most caught on live mackerel or live eels. “Mackerel became extremely hard to catch so a lot of fishermen were buying live eels, so many that we ran out early. We suspect that there
may be a few big bluefish in the area. They keep the mackerel schools on the move and too scared to hit,” Jason noted. He also said that a few people were catching flounder at Pepperell Cove and near the Wentworth Hotel, as well as off the docks on the Piscataqua at Prescott Park.
Bob Drago of Plaistow and his son Randy, along with my son Ted Pinney, had a great day on Saturday off of Hampton a few miles, fishing for both cod and haddock. Haddock were the largest part of their catch--fish in the three to six pound range with 14-year-old Randy hauling in the fish of the day, a 25-pound codfish. A lot of boats are finding cod and haddock well inshore of where they’d been in years. Outdoor writer Stu Bristol from Lyman, Maine and this writer chased some
scarce sea-run white perch in the Great Bay system. We did manage to land 18 of them, which ran to close to two pounds. The next day, our grandson Nate Griffin, fishing some of the same spots we were fishing and couldn’t find a fish. There aren’t many of them and you have to be lucky to locate a school. George Taylor at Taylor’s Trading Post in Madbury said that the nearby Madbury Reservoir “had really started to perk.” There were crappie hitting in the shallows, much later in the season then usual and some nice pickerel and bass being caught. “The local trout ponds are actually hitting their peak right now--quite late because of the cool weather. Lucas Pond in Northwood and Barbados Pond here in Madbury are both really producing. Lake Winnipesaukee is still providing early morning trollers with surface action. Both the Lamprey and Cocheco Rivers have trout in the freshwater and some
exciting striper fishing in the salt, especially the Cocheco. There was a 51-inch striper caught off Henry Law Avenue right in downtown Dover yesterday! Also the Dover/Eliot Bridge has been good for stripers.” Greenland fisherman Tom Decoster found some mackerel off the Isles of Shoals on Sunday, and while chumming in the macks, decided to throw out a couple of live ones under a balloon bobber. He and his fishing partner ended up catching several stripers with four keeper-sized fish and also landed four of several bluefish that hit their baits.
Jim at Martel’s Bait and Tackle in Laconia reported that Lake Winnisquam had another great day last week when the fish were really turned on. “One of our fishermen landed some very nice salmon and a lot of smallish lake trout and then hooked a monster fish that broke off his lure. The bass tourney held here last weekend provided some fast action on smallmouths. They are mostly off their spawning beds. The river (Winnipesaukee) has been slow. It seems the rainbows have left, there are a few bass in the river and the white perch are about 90 percent gone.” “Downrigging is probably the way to go right now for salmon on the big lakes, unless you get out there very early in the morning before the boat traffic picks up and the angle of the sun also drives the fish down,” urged Paul Garland at Hot Spot Outfitters in New Durham. “The typical salmon trolling spoons will start to work best now in those depths over 30 feet as well as sewed on bait. The bass are mostly off the beds so the fishing tourney season is well under way. For a mixed bag of great pickerel fishing and some largemouths that could scare you, the Merrymeeting River and marsh right nearby is just the ticket. Stick baits floated or diving, along with spinner and buzz baits will do the job. This is one great resource that has very little fishing pressure!” Alan Nute at AJ’s Bait and Tackle in Meredith produces his own flies and has a set of special ones that work well for downrigging-fishing. His series of what he’s named Winni-Squids work well behind a #00 size dodger rigged with about a foot of leader between the squid and dodger. He also has a fly pattern called the FireFly that has been producing big catches. “A couple of years back, we caught a seven pound landlock on our silver and blue Winni-Squid and our orange and gold Winni-Squid had accounted for several hundred landlocks over the years.
Maine Fishing Report: Dave Garcia at Naples Bait and Tackle on Long Lake in the Sebago region said that there had been some outstanding surface fishing for landlocked salmon on Sebago Lake last week. “The water temperatures had dropped due to the cold weather and the salmon reacted to it. Some of the fishermen were catching several fish each day, mostly trolling streamer flies and flutter spoons right near the surface. Even better news is that the fish were running from well over two pounds to close to five pounds--really fat, really pretty and full of smelt!” “Even though the Sebago togue (lake trout) fishing isn’t the fast and furious stuff of a few years ago, it’s still very steady. One of our customers that fishes togue regularly always seems to bring back four or five fish that are extremely pretty--and also full of smelt.” “The bass fishing has been good. We fished a tourney at Moose Pond in Bridgeton yesterday and we got beat by our son Tyson, who finished in third place with about 12 pounds of largemouths. One of the problems was that everyone was catching the same sized fish--all males about two and a half pounds. It kept the competition tight.”
“Brown trout are still hitting well on Long Lake, especially up in the Harrison end. They’re about 30 feet down over 60-foot depths. Sewed-on bait and crawlers fished behind a spinner are working for them.” In the Rangeley Lakes Region, Rusty Harvey at River’s Edge Sports in Oquossoc was busy, as they were having an open house to showcase their new addition. “There’s still some huge brookies coming from
Mooselookmeguntic, although a lot of the salmon there have been undersized. We had a brookie of over four pounds and one of over five pounds in here last week. The largest salmon are coming from Rangeley Lake, with one that weighed six and three quarter pounds taken last week. One fisherman had landed seven salmon from two and a half pounds and up using sewed-on bait off a downrigger at 41 feet. Aziscohos Lake had some of the best early season fishing in the area and continues to produce a lot of action on trout and salmon.” “Our rivers are mostly still running high but starting to drop a bit and should get better. Upper Dam was fishable with some salmon to 20 inches being caught. The Kennebago River was still up into the bushes but the Lower Magalloway had flows from 1,000 cfs to 340 cfs, with the lower flow being about ideal for that river,” Rusty ended. “We’re really having some phenomenal fishing here,” was the word from Penny Legere at the Maine Guide Fly Shop in Greenville, on Moosehead Lake. “The river fishing has been great. Danny (her guide/husband) had fished the West Branch of the Penobscot last week, and at the Big Eddy Pool, he had clients land salmon of four and five pounds. The East Outlet has also been great. Right now the river is running about 1,700 cfs and is getting wadeable. Danny had been fishing streamer flies there until recently and now with the caddis hatch has switched to caddis flies and doing very well. The Moose River is also full of fish, mostly salmon but with some brookies and they are well up the river from the Lake. Moosehead Lake’s fishing is good, but the fishing pressure has really dropped off,” she noted. At Saco Bay Tackle, Garon said that he’d never seen so many stripers. “I was out trolling a Sabiki Rig for mackerel and was doing okay, until the biggest school of stripers--I swear they were about four football fields wide, came by. Can you imagine fighting five stripers on a little Sabiki Rig? Eventually they all broke off but it was quite an experience!” “I ended up with 15 live mackerel for bait and then they left. Those 15 mackerel produced 14 stripers with four of them being over 36 inches. On the last fish, I had run out of bait but there was a dead mackerel that he coughed up. I stuck that on my hook and caught my fifteenth striper and then decided to quit!” Garon said that although there were still some shad at the Cataract Dam, they had become very fussy and were not hitting well. No bluefish have been reported in the Saco Bay area yet.

Masachusetts Fishing Report : Kay Moulton at Surfland Bait and Tackle on Plum Island reports that there were lots and lots of stripers there! “We had one party of three fishermen that were in here at 6am and fished until 7:30 pm. They started at the Ice Pick and ended up down at the rivermouth. They were into stripers all day and their estimate was that they’d landed about 90 fish! The shore and surf fishermen are also doing well with fish to 25 pounds being caught on bait. There’s been some bluefish at the mouth of the river, usually at the end of the tide. “We had an incredible Boston Harbor Striper Shootout striper derby,” was the word from excited Pete Santini at Fishing FINatics in Everett. “Seventy two boats were entered and just about all caught fish. The winning striper was caught aboard the T-SEA owned and fished by John Manganaro of Stoneham. He was fishing with his nine-year-old son Josh and friend Tom Cirilla. The 45.75-inch striper won them the top prize of $5,000 cash! All of the top three fish were caught on live mackerel, with the hot spot being off Gloucester Harbor.” “This was a big success for charity, as the proceeds of the event were turned over to the Curt Shilling Pitch for ALS foundation. After the event we hosted a wine tasting, and we brought in some noted chefs who prepared some of the stripers brought in. All in all, it was the best of the seven Boston Harbor Shootouts we’ve supported!”
Pete added that he’d fished Boston Harbor with outdoor writer Bill Olexa on Sunday and had to work hard to catch their 16 fish limit, but Pete explained that was because the bluefish had driven the flounder into hiding. He also noted that some big stripers were caught off Faun Bar on Sunday by trollers using the red Santini Tube-n-Worm Rig. Codfish are still hitting off Grave’s Light.

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