Fishing Report August 24, 2026
It appears that all the salmon lakes are producing their typical late summer high numbers of salmon and rainbow trout. Sebago and Winnipesaukee are both firing on all cylinders. Stripers are still prevalent up and down the New England coast, with huge schools of big fish being reported in and around Boston Harbor, Plum Island, and the Saco River area.
Maine:
Greg Cutting at Jordan’s Store in Sebago reported a great week of salmon fishing on Sebago. “I got five salmon the other day out on the shoals. My buddy, who is a guide, is out now and is hammering the salmon, and some big ones. He is using streamers down 4-5 colors of lead core. We fished the southern end of Frye Island near the water district two mile limit buoys. We were over 90-140 feet of water and fishing down 5-7 colors of lead core and catching salmon. There were a lot of small ones down there, but there were some bigger ones mixed in and they are nice and chunky. That copper/orange Mooselook is still good, but guys are also doing well on the Governor Aiken streamer. There are a ton of lake trout out here in front of the store in that 90-foot trough,” he said.
Tim Tower of Bunny Clark’s Deep Sea Fishing in Ogunquit posted the following report from a recent trip on his website: “The fishing was excellent, the catching was excellent and landings were very good, excellent in the morning. Most legal fish landed were pollock, about 4 pounds. But we caught a variety of pollock to 15.5 pounds. Legal landings also included 33 cusk, 15 haddock, a monkfish, 15 or more mackerel and 20 redfish. Released fish included 5 blue sharks with jewelry, a few mackerel, 17 sub-legal pollock, 2 cusk, 62 small cod, 4 cod over 6 pounds, 2 redfish and 2 dogfish. We drift fished for most of the day, anchoring once. All terminal gear worked well.”
“I could not tell you who was high hook with the most legal fish. It was between 6 anglers, some of whom were keeping their fillets with others. So, it was impossible to tell. Darlene Chin (FL/VT) caught the largest fish of the trip; a 15.5-pound pollock. This is a tie with Bunny Clark's sixth largest pollock of the fishing season to date. Last week she caught a 17-pound pollock which, currently, is our third largest pollock of the season so far. Darlene never enters the boat pool. Today was no exception.”
“Jonathan Dobbs (ME) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the second largest fish; a 13.5-pound pollock. He also caught a cusk that weighed 10 pounds. Ray Vaillancourt (OH) won the boat pool for the second largest fish with the third largest fish; a 12.5-pound pollock. He also caught the fourth largest fish; a 12.25-pound pollock. Two other fish of his that I weighed included an 11.25-pound pollock and a 10.5-pound pollock. He was certainly a contender for high hook.”
“Other Angler Highlights: Sam Johnson (ME) caught our first weighable monkfish of the season today. It weighed 12 pounds. Sam even put up with the sharks fighting him from behind! Dennis Mora (MA) caught a 10-pound cusk, a tie for the largest cusk of the trip. He also caught the second largest cod at 8 pounds. Brad Roche (NJ) caught the third largest cusk at 9 pounds. John Andreychak (NJ) caught the largest cod at 8.5 pounds. He also caught a 7-pound cod. Both fish, of course, were released alive. He and Jonathan were both high hook contenders.”
New Hampshire:
Tim from Tim Moore Outdoors/Lake Winnipesaukee Fishing Guide Service told us that the trolling on Lake Winnipesaukee is still very good and the jigging is still dreadful. “The fishing has been excellent om Winnipesaukee. Last week we caught two rainbows that weighed 5 pounds, three that were around 4 pounds, and a handful that were 3 ½. The rainbows seem to love the Governor Aiken streamer fly. I fished both the single hook and the tandem and neither fished any better than the other. They both caught fish. We also did very well with orange streamers. Not the super bright fluorescent colors, more of an autumn orange mixed with yellow. Golden Demon, Maynard Marvel, etc. There are still plenty of salmon coming to the net as well. The perch fry are starting to thin out considerably and there are few smelt in the lake, thanks to the invasive spiny water fleas, and many of the fish that clients have taken home (which isn’t many) are full of them. That tells me that they are not finding forage and are eating whatever is available. Not good. It’s that time of year when the fish are eager to bite, so there’s that. Lead core and downriggers down 25-35 feet at 2MPH has been good,” he said.
It appears that all the salmon lakes are producing their typical late summer high numbers of salmon and rainbow trout. Sebago and Winnipesaukee are both firing on all cylinders. Stripers are still prevalent up and down the New England coast, with huge schools of big fish being reported in and around Boston Harbor, Plum Island, and the Saco River area.