Weekly Fishing Report 5/30/22
Fishing Conditions & Updates for Maine, New Hampshire & Massachusetts
Week of May 30, 2022
We hope you all had a terrific Memorial Day weekend. We certainly had some nice fishing weather. Reports are good on everything that swims lately. Whether you’re a seasoned angler, or looking to get the kids out catching, now is a great time to be out fishing. Reports are good for panfish, bass, and trout. Lake trout and salmon fishing is still producing, although those bites seem to have slowed slightly for most. Striper fishing, on the other hand, is on fire! Paddle-tail shads, Hogies and Slug-Go style lures, topwater lures, and crank baits are all catching fish. We are hearing reports of fish over 40-inches being caught from Maine to Massachusetts.
Greg Cutting at Jordan’s Store in Sebago reported good fishing on Sebago. “They’re still catching a lot of decent salmon on Sebago. They aren’t very long, usually around 18-inches, but there are quite a few of them, which is good,” he said. Greg said many anglers are catching salmon on spoons and streamer flies lately. He says the lake trout fishing has been good, but the numbers aren’t what they were in years past. A sign that the efforts to reduce the numbers is working. Greg says the browns are still biting well on Hancock Pond and so are the bass. He also says local crappie fishing has been good and using small chartreuse jig heads with small soft plastics have been working well.
Dave Garcia at Naples Bait and Tackle in Naples says the fishing was very good over the past weekend but, believe it or not, the talk was on striped bass lately. “It sounds like the striper fishing is very good right now, especially in the backwaters along the coast,” he said. Dave says the freshwater bass fishing really turned on over the Memorial Day weekend. He also told us that now is the time to get out brook trout fishing.
Full-time New Hampshire fishing guide Tim from Tim Moore Outdoors reported slightly spottier salmon fishing but says that is to be expected this time of year as the salmon are transitioning to deeper water as it steadily warms. He says his frozen smelt or streamer flies are catching most of the salmon on his boat. Tim says the smallmouth bass fishing on Winnipesaukee is on fire right now with bass spawning in various stages. “You can literally catch bass using just about any of your favorite lures right now. The fish are staged in so many different areas of the spawning cycle right now. We’ve been having a blast with topwater lures, such as Whopper Ploppers and Daddy Mac Lures AB Bombs, early in the morning. As the topwater bite slows, a suspended jerk bait fished over 8-feet of water has been fun,” he said. He also told us that the stripers are in thick right now and it seems like everyone is catching. Tim says paddle-tail shads and Hogie lures are good, but with so many fish around you almost can’t go wrong. “Now is the time to get out and fish your favorite lure,” he told us.
Jason Brewster at Brewster’s Bait and Tackle in Portsmouth furnished us with the following report: “Spotty baitfish but solid striper play in the Piscataqua River marked this Memorial Day Weekend. Birds can be seen from the bait shop all over the Navy Yard and sea worms continue to dominate the flounder from Little Harbor to Gosport.”
Lon Berry at Berry’s Bait in New Durham reported that the bass fishing really turned on over the past week and the striped bass bite has been good on the coast. He says the salmon fishing has slowed down considerably from two weeks ago, which is to be expected with water temps on the rise. “The spawn is definitely on for the bass, there’s no doubt about that. Everybody is hammering them,” he said.
Mike Crouthamel at Wildlife Sport Outfitters tells us that the fishing has been very good in his neck of the woods. He says trout fishing in some of the deeper ponds is very good, with a lot of places receiving plenty of 2-year-old trout. Mike says bass fishing is hot and you can pick your poison as far as hot lures. “Everything is working right now,” he said. He also told us that the striper reports are very good lately and with so many fish around both bait and most lures are giving good reports.
George Taylor at Taylor’s Trading Post in Madbury reported a very good weekend in his shop. “Boy, we had a good weekend. We ran out of bait! Every place you can think of was producing fish. The bass ponds are hot and the trout ponds are all still producing trout. We even had great reports from Willand Pond over in Dover,” he said.
Captain Randy Drago of Codfather Charters out of Newburyport says, “The Merrimack River is chalk full of slot bass.” Randy says his clients are getting limits quickly on lures. He told us that he saw a few massive surface feeds with larger fish too. The biggest they have landed so far was a 39-inch striper. Randy expects the fishing to continue getting better as more fish move up the coast. Randy also tells us that the flounder fishing in the Gloucester area is worth the ride, with a lot of flounder around. He also says the haddock fishing “has been nothing short of stellar on New Scantum and even up past the curl.”
Martha at Surfland Bait and Tackle on Plum Island says that the striper fishing is still good. She says the sea weed that littered the beaches from last week’s wind has mostly cleaned up. “There are definitely some bigger fish being caught. It’s been a very good start to the season,” she said. Martha says they are hearing of 40-inch fish in the Plum Island Sound and in the Merrimack River. She says the hot lures this year seem to be all over the place. “We’re seeing lures that haven’t been hot for a few years catching a ton of fish. The Al Gag’s Whip-It Fish have been the top seller, but just about everything else is working well too. Tsunami Sand Eels, Albi Snacks, Bill Hurly Sand Eel Tails, Powerbait Mullets…you name it,” she said.
Pete Santini at Fishing Finatics in Everett reported very good fishing in and around Boston Harbor. He says the flounder fishing is good in all the known spots, such as Deer Island Flats. “There are pikes of flounder around right now, and a lot of bass. Tons of slot fish and fish up to 50-inches in town floating seaworms at night,” he said. Pete says there is a lot of topwater action between Long and Deer Island and there are mackerel off Nahant.
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