KTP Fishing Report

May 19, 2025
Despite the weather, the fishing is hot just about everywhere. Striped bass continue their migration up the coast and reports are better each week. Haddock fishing is still great, lake trout and salmon catches are excellent on Sebago and Winnipesaukee, trout stocking continues throughout New England, and bass reports for both smallmouth and largemouth are heating up daily. Our new upstairs fishing department is almost complete. Stop in to check it out and get rigged up before you head out.

Maine:
Greg Cutting at Jordans Store in Sebago reported great fishing, with some very nice salmon being caught in Sebago lately. “The fishing has been great. One guy sent me a picture of an 8.06-pound salmon that he caught, and I’ve heard of some 6-pounders. All the salmon this year seem to be on the larger size and mostly full of smelt, which is a really good sign. A lot of people are trolling shiners now that the smelt are pretty much done. There are still a few people trolling hardware right up near the surface. DB Smelts with the silver/blue color have been working great over here. The red/grey Ghost is a go-to streamer fly over here. The Sebago Lake Trout Shootout is this coming weekend. I’m sure there will be some nice fish caught,” he said.

Guide CJ Harmon of Burnt Meadow Guide Service in Brownfield reported some great fishing in the Sebago Lake area as of late. “Fishing in the Sebago Lake region is on fire for us! Everything from lake trout to rainbows are biting right now. Trolling for salmon with sinking fly line and live bait has been the ticket! The splake fishing on Trickey pond has also been very good to us trolling live bait in the mid to upper water column! Smelts are starting to disperse and headed back out to their regular nooks and crannies so find those schools and fish around them to be successful! Good luck out there—keep your rod tip up and your lines tight!”

Captain Tim Tower of Bunny Clark Deep Sea Fishing in Ogunquit published the following report from a recent trip: “The fishing was excellent, the catching was excellent, and landings were very good. Most legal fish landed were haddock with many good-sized ones and few small ones. Anglers were five haddock shy of the boats total catch limit today. Legal landings also included sixty-eight cusk, thirty-two redfish, a pollock, a monkfish and a cunner. Released fish included forty-eight sub-legal haddock, one small pollock, seven small cod and a handful of redfish. We alternated between anchoring and drifting depending on the success of each. On the last stop, I found a massive school of haddock that I anchored on. We left them biting with a fish a cast. Bait worked best.”

“Fred Kunz was high hook with the most legal fish today. He walked off the boat with the most bags of fillets and he didn't have the biggest fish. His largest haddock weighed 5.5 pounds. Steve Selmer (NH) was second hook. His two largest fish were both haddock, both weighing in at 6 pounds each. Frank Liquori (CT) won the boat pool for the largest fish with an 11 pound wolffish. This ties for the second largest wolffish of the Bunny Clark fishing season to date. The second largest fish was a 10.5-pound monkfish caught by Olivia Swenson (RI). With this fish she won the boat pool for the third largest fish. She only entered the boat pool for the third largest fish! This is the Bunny Clark's largest monkfish of the season so far. She also caught the fourth largest fish, an 8-pound cusk. And she caught the only two Maine state trophy haddock of the trip. One weighed 7.5 pounds. The other weighed 7.1 pounds! Those two haddock were the fifth and sixth largest fish of the trip! Olivia also caught a lot of legal haddock and could have been a third hook contender. I can't know this for sure as she was pooling her fish with her father. The third largest fish was a 10 pound wolffish caught by Barry Woods (ME). Barry did not enter the boat pool. This is the Bunny Clark's fifth largest catch of the season to date. Karl Joslin (NY) and Chris Silver (NH) tied in the contest for the boat pool for the second largest fish, both with haddock of 6.75 pounds each. Both fish tied for the seventh largest fish of the trip!”

“Other Angler Highlights: Neil Chamberlin (NH) didn't find me a halibut today like he usually does. But he did boat two haddock of 6 pounds each. Ziggy Pudlo (CT) caught a 5.75-pound haddock, his biggest fish. Christian Swenson (MA) didn't come close to the success of his daughter. But he did boat the only legal pollock. It weighed 6.5 pounds. Bethanie Johnson (MA) boated a 6-pound haddock, her biggest fish. She also did very well on the haddock count. And then there was Allen Foster (NY). He did great all day long. Haddock after haddock. On the last cast of the day, he launched both rod & reel overboard, never to be seen again. For this he received the hardest luck of the day award, an old Tackle Breakers shirt from 2016!”

New Hampshire:
Tim from Tim Moore Outdoors/Lake Winnipesaukee Fishing Guide Service on Lake Winnipesaukee reported excellent fishing on Lake Winnipesaukee last week, despite a bit of unsavory weather. “We had a bit more rain and wind to deal with, but in between that was some amazing weather. The fishing has been great regardless of the weather. We have landed a lot of the typical 2-year-old salmon and some rainbows up to 4 pounds. I hear that most anglers have been moving down a bit deeper, but last week we caught the majority of our fish 15-feet down. The surface water temperature hasn’t warmed up as fast as normal and when it does, a little wind mixes it in and cools it back down a few degrees. Purple was a good color last week, but pink was also productive. A mix of streamers and spoons still got it done. One day streamers were hot and the next day it was spoons,” he said.

Alan Nute at Winnisquam Country Store in Tilton reported very productive fishing on Winnipesaukee and other surrounding salmon lakes. “I talked to a group of people who stayed and fished out of Ames Farm over the weekend. They caught a bunch of salmon amongst themselves. The fish are still as shallow as 8-feet down. Some of the fish have moved out over deeper water since the bass have moved in, but they are still sub-surface. Red and white spoons and flies have been good,” he said.

Dana Berry at Berry’s Bait in Alton Bay told us that they stayed plenty busy over the weekend with the Farmington Fish and Game Club kids’ fishing derby at Club Pond. “We were told that the derby had the largest turnout in years. They had 174 kids registered. Locally, the smaller ponds have been heating up in terms of interest. There have been some big bass and lots of crappie caught lately. Topwater lures are doing really well.

Whopper Ploppers and the Pig Bomb have been flying out of here. We haven’t heard as much from the big lake this week, but the regulars are still going out a lot and streamer flies are selling well. The Grey Ghost and Winni Smelt has been very popular,” she said.

Massachusetts:
Pete Santini at Fishing Finatics in Everett reported a great Zobo Flounder Derby and some pogies around. “There are plenty of flounder in the harbor this year, and a good smattering of tautog. They’re getting tautog on Zobo Rigs while they are fishing for flounder and around the piers. The pogies are over near Castle Island and the stripers have been on them pretty good. I’ve seen fish up to 45-inches so far. Mackerel are in thick out by Graves, B Buoy, and off Nahant. Al Gag’s and Shaddy Daddy have been hot for lures. They stocked White’s and Walden Ponds with brook trout,” he told us.

Martha at Surfland Bait and Tackle says that the river has come down a bit, so the herring are moving up in good shape and the shad fishing has been great. “The fish are here and in solid. They are swimming up the river to Lawrence. It’s nice to see, I just wish the fish were not mishandled as bad as they are. We need a little more education on safe handling. We are starting to hear of guys who won’t hold a striper out of the water longer than they can hold their own breath. Anyway, the river mouth is usually great as the fish are starting to come in. We aren’t seeing any little fish. They are all 25-inches plus. A lot of our customers are using the Fish Snax lures on weighted swim bait hooks and 9-inch white Slug-Go. The shad are thick. One of our customers landed 43 shad in three days. The fishing is good,” she said.