Weekly Fishing Report: February 27, 2023
Fishing Conditions & Updates for Maine & New Hampshire
Week of February 27, 2023
It was a busy weekend with cold temps and snow bringing a lot of anglers out onto the ice. Fishing reports have been quite good, with many anglers, shops, and guides reporting great catches of panfish, trout, and even salmon in parts of Maine. It appears that the cold weather, at least nighttime temps, will stretch the season out a bit longer than many expected. Most of our reporters say that while snow on the ice isn’t good for slush conditions, it will likely slow down any melting from warm days and more intense sun, which should help.
Greg Cutting at Jordan’s Store in Sebago had good news to share. “Sebago Lake is frozen,” he said. Greg said it froze over early Sunday morning. Obviously, it isn’t safe to fish, but Greg thinks the next week of cold weather and the coming snow could very well thicken it up enough to walk out and fish. “I don’t think the big bay will hold, but the lower bay will likely be fishable after the coming snow and a few days of cold weather,” he tells us. Greg also said that Hancock and Tricky Ponds are still producing fish, as is Moose Pond and Thompson Lake. He said that people have been catching a bunch of lake trout in Thompson using small glow jig heads with plastic shad bodies.
Vern at Cobbossee Bait in Winthrop reported some excellent ice conditions and fishing. “Everything is really great for ice fishing up here. We’ve got four inches of snow on the lakes, and we’ve got anywhere from 10 inches to 16 inches of ice,” he said. Vern says there were only 20 fish caught of the 400 that were stocked for the Jack Traps Derby, so there are a few extras swimming around for those interested. He said there were a lot of derbies going on last weekend, so there were a lot of fish caught.
Full-time New Hampshire fishing guide Tim from Tim Moore Outdoors told us that ice conditions have improved slightly on Lake Winnipesaukee. “Cold weather has helped build some ice. Right now, I’ll take what we can get. We’re so far behind what we should have, we are definitely going to have an early end to the season unless we get a freak cold spell that lasts longer than the last couple. We need a good base to get us through the warm March weather and we don’t have it. Doom and gloom aside, the fishing has been picking up. It feels like we are through the mid-season and post-derby lull,” he said. Tim says his clients have been catching a mix of lake trout, white perch, smallmouth bass, and they had a bonus rainbow trout in 30 feet of water over the past week. He says the fish are coming on a mix of tip ups with live smelt and jigs. “30 feet of water has been a good depth for us. Leech flutter Spoons and 1/8-ounce Blade Spoons have been producing,” he told us.
Jason MacKenzie at Pawtuckaway Trading Post in Raymond reported a busy weekend. “It was pretty busy with a lot of people heading north to Winnipesaukee and people on Webster Lake. I haven’t heard any reports back yet, so I can’t speak to how they made out,” he said. Jason was hopeful that the cold weather would hang in there a little longer.
Because of inherent time restrictions of gathering fresh, up-to-date information, editing & producing this report in a timely manner, occasional errors or marginal information may slip by us. We try our hardest to provide accurate information. We urge readers to use this report as a tool to increase their fishing pleasure and not to rely on as their sole resource. First or second-hand information is offered by fishing guides, commercial fishing charters or party boats, bait & tackle dealers, well-known successful anglers, and state & federal fisheries and natural resources enforcement officials. We also welcome and use reports forwarded to us by fishermen that use this report. - Kittery Trading Post Fishing Report Editor