Weekly Fishing Report: April 15, 2024
Fishing Conditions & Updates for Maine, New Hampshire & Massachusetts
Haddock and Acadian redfish are on fire right now, as is salmon and lake trout fishing. Smallmouth bass are beginning to bite better, but no reports of them moving shallow yet. There is a lot of trout stocking going on lately. With trout season in lakes and ponds opening in New Hampshire on the fourth Saturday in April, many are already picking their opening day spots and gearing up. No flounder reports yet, but they should be kicking off within the next week or two. We are busy gearing up for our annual Fish, Paddle, Hunt event April 25 – 28. This one is going to be a great one with tons of seminars and appearances, demos, giveaways, and our annual Shimano/Daiwa/Okuma salesman sample sale happening Saturday, April 27 (8am – 6pm) and Sunday, April 28 (9am-3pm).
Greg Cutting at Jordan’s Store in Sebago reported quite a few salmon being caught lately. “Sebago and Thompson have both been producing some nice salmon. Sebago is seeing some really healthy fat salmon, but not super long yet. I saw one caught at Thompson that was about four pounds. The smelt are in the river, so that’s a great sign. They’re still jigging lake trout out here on Sebago, and they’re hammering them. Most people are jigging in 115-feet of water. One kid caught 22 lake trout jigging the other day. There is also a lot of bait on the bar out off the Songo River. One guy came in who caught eight salmon out there and another guy caught one that was around 21-inches long. Some nice fish.
Captain Tim Tower of the Bunny Clark Deep Sea Fishing in Ogunquit was into the haddock, most of his reports have been of big haddock, with Sunday’s trip being the exception. He posted the following report on his website: “The fishing was good overall, no better than that. Most legal fish landed were haddock. This time the haddock were on the small side. Legal landings also included seven pollock, thirty-three and nine cusk. Released fish included seven small cod, seventy-five sub-legal haddock, about a hundred and fifteen sub-legal pollock and sixteen sub-legal haddock. Carter Thomas (NH) lost a porbeagle shark. They drift-fished and anchored. Bait was best.”
“Peter Melendy (NH) was the fisherman of the day. Ian told me that he was high hook with the most legal fish. Peter also won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 4.75-pound haddock. That is a small fish but a very typical pool winning fish for this time of year when haddock is the target species. The second largest fish was a 4.5-pound haddock caught by Jacques Wagemaker (NH). There was a tie for third largest fish, both haddock and both 4.25 pounds. Cole Melendy (NH) caught the first one while Emily Eisenbray (NJ) caught the later one.”
“Other Angler Highlights: Andy Eisenbrey (NJ) caught the first fish to be weighed today, a 3.5-pound haddock. Noah Melendy (NH) caught the largest cusk at 4 pounds. Joel Meunier (NH) landed the hard luck award for becoming the high hurler of the trip.”
Full-time New Hampshire fishing guide Tim from Tim Moore Outdoors was busy with his boat but has had a couple fun fishing trips in his boat. “It’s been a crazy spring, that’s for sure. There seems to be a lot of salmon around. They’re the typical 2-year-olds that we expect to see this season, with a few bigger salmon around. Some real nice rainbows this year too. I’ve been trolling mostly streamer flies lately but smelt is hot right now. Most of the fish are in the top 15-feet of the water column,” he said.
Alan Nute at Winnisquam Country Store in Tilton reported lots of activity. “Things are picking up. More people are getting out, especially with Mass vacation week this week. People seem to be doing well. A lot of bait is working well. Smelt, shiners, and even night crawlers are all catching salmon and lake trout. I heard of some people catching well with the Top Gun spoon, orange with black dots, and some orange streamers, like the Fire Smelt. Orange seems to be the hot color right now. A little sun might call for some flash when we have it. Tour ponds will be opening soon. I know they have been stocking a lot,” he said. Alan says they have plenty of smelt and have some bigger ones coming in later this week.
Captain Les Eastman at Eastman’s Fleet in Seabrook posted the following report from Sunday on their website: “1600 Fishing was off today, still good, few boats excellent, but not like it’s been. No boat did bad, just not the bonanza it’s been. MJ, LV, AB and SCL did excellent, LAM and LMA just good, not like it’s been. MJ, LV and SCL were strictly red fishing.”
Pete Santini at Fishing Finatics in Everett posted on their Facebook that more trout have been stocked and they have sea worms. “Brookline Reservoir, Crystal Lake in Newton, and Lexington Reservoir stocked with rainbows.”
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