Fishing Report July 14, 2025
Striped bass fishing remains hot. Hot enough that a lot of big lake regulars are taking time to head toward the coast in search of the 40-inch stripers that are reported regularly. Salmon and lake trout fishing is holding steady, with many guides reporting stronger and more steady bite patterns lately. They are reporting moving down a bit deeper and finding more fish. Smallmouth bass fishing has been hot, especially with live bait, but drop shot and Ned rigging are still a couple of kings.
Maine:
Greg Cutting at Jordan’s Store in Sebago said there were a bunch of people heading to the coast and “catching stripers like a Banshi” and people are still catching quite a few nice lake trout, salmon, and smallmouth on Sebago. “There are still people jigging in that 90-foot hole out in front of the store. I’m seeing guys trolling in close on the drop offs and they are sticking with it for a long time, so they must be catching fish. I was out in front of Ward’s Cove the other day and there was a ton of bait on top of the drop off in 40 feet of water. When I got out away from the drop off, there wasn’t any bait. I would suggest people focus on the bait when you find it, even if it seems too shallow for this time of year. The lake trout will come up into that 70-degree water to feed and then head back into deeper cool water,” he said.
CJ Harmon of Burnt Meadow Guide Service in Brownfield furnished the following report: “Not much has changed this week. The summer patterns are holding strong. Focusing on the thermocline is still very important for catching salmon and staying tight to the bottom for the lakers has been key. We have had a little better success jigging for lake trout this week using swim bait and paddle tail style jigs in a smelt color pattern. Our biggest key to success right now is grinding on the fish when we find them. Like the old saying goes, don’t leave fish to find fish.”
Captain Tim Tower of the Bunny Clark Deep Sea Fishing in Ogunquit posted the following report from a recent deep-sea trip: “The fishing was very good. The weather and sea state were excellent. We did have dogfish but not as many as we had yesterday. There were some spots where we only saw one or two. The catching was very good, excellent if you included the dogfish. Landings were good, better than yesterday. Most legal fish landed were pollock, by far. We managed to stay away from the cusk today. The pollock were a new feature in the places we fished today, new recruits! I was happily surprised. Legal landings also included 12 cusk, 20 haddock, 6 white hake, a mud hake, 7 redfish, 7 mackerel and 7 whiting. Released fish included one 7.5-pound cod, 27 small cod, 42 sub-legal haddock, 38 sub-legal pollock, 11 sub-legal redfish, 85 or so dogfish, a couple mackerel, three sculpins and a sea raven. The anchor stayed aboard today; we drift fished every spot. All terminal gear worked well today.”
“I really believe that Brian Murphy (NH) was high hook with the most legal fish, a count of 11. His largest fish was the 7.5-pound cod. One of his pollock weighed 5.5 pounds. I don't think that that pollock was his biggest pollock. Marion "Merv" Murphy (NH) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 13-pound white hake. This is only the second trip that we have seen any white hake and the first time we have seen white hake so close to shore. They weren't everywhere, just the one spot where we drifted off a little deeper. Merv was probably second hook with 9 legal fish. There was a tie for the second largest fish at 10.5 pounds. There were two. Ali LeFlamme (ME) caught a 10.5-pound pollock, the last fish of the trip. Ben Buesser (NH) caught a 10.5-pound cusk. Ali's pollock is the largest pollock that she has caught so far.”
“Other Angler Highlights: Greg Kidd (ME) was right up there with numbers of legal fish and could also have been high hook. I didn't get a count from him. Nor did he care. His best fish was a 3.75-pound Maine state trophy whiting. This is the Bunny Clark's largest whiting of the fishing season to date. Dan Kirby (VT) caught a 6.5-pound white hake. His largest pollock weighed 9.5 pounds. James Fowler (ME) caught a white hake that weighed 8.5 pounds. Laura Parker (NH) landed a 7.5-pound pollock. Dan Nguyen (MA) didn't start off the day very well. He used bait and caught dogfish, after dogfish. I expected better out of him after being absent for six years. It wasn't until he switched to a jig stick and went up in the bow that he caught fish and did very well for the limited time that he fished there. Jim Mailea (MA) would have been proud!”
New Hampshire:
Tim from Tim from Tim Moore Outdoors/Lake Winnipesaukee Fishing Guide Service on Lake Winnipesaukee reported a busy and productive weekend of trolling on Lake Winnipesaukee. “The fishing is steady now that the thermocline has set up. Most of our fish are coming from water 40 feet deep and deeper. I’m hearing of fish coming from shallower water, but I haven’t been fishing quite that shallow. The Governor Aiken (pink) Top Gun Spoon was the hot color for us, but the Blood and Guts colored Tommy Gun spoon was a close second. The fish seem pretty spread out, with the typical hot pockets of fish, but finding those hot spots seems pretty easy lately,” he said.
Alan Nute at Winnisquam Country Store in Tilton reported even better fishing than last week. “The fishing is definitely heating up. We are seeing mostly all double-digit trips with lots of big rainbows and some nice salmon. I’m finding the cold water down 55 feet. Orange seems to be the hot color spoon lately and the Winni Smelt streamer has been my hot fly. Orange copper and orange/silver/gold were good. I still see people getting fish at 25 or 30 feet, but I like to stay down in the cold water. The bass fishing is good right now. There are a lot of people fishing live bait, shiners or crayfish, along drop offs in around 20 feet of water,” he said. Jason Brewster at Brewster’s Bait and Tackle in Portsmouth furnished us with the following report: “Striper Madness little back channel last week. Every night the bait shop was surrounded by hundreds of bass chasing everything BUT what we were throwing. Truly embarrassing. The good news is they are here. Better news is we didn't catch any, so they are all yours! Mackerel was the top bait out the door last week.”
Massachusetts:
Martha at Surfland Bait and Tackle on Plum Island reported some hit or miss striper fishing, but says there are still plenty of fish being caught. “The striper fishing has either been good, or not great. It depends on the day. The past few mornings when we have a low tide it has been good. It seems slower when low tide is a little later. They have been catching mackerel right off the beach though. There have been a few shad there too. There are still a lot of little baitfish running around too. The surf has been a little slow for stripers, but the boat guys have been doing good. Live mackerel or big lures, like Magic Swimmers, have been good for the boat guys,” she said.
Pete Santini at Fishing Finatics in Everrett says not a lot has changed from last week, which is a good thing. “There are stripers all inside the harbor from the Amelia Earhart Dam all the way out to Castle Island. They’ve been catching them on tube and worm close to the pilings. There have been a bunch of small pogies this year out in front of Deer Island and out in the North Channel. There are some bluefish around out in front of Winthrop. The fluke are up in the Pines River and there are still some big flounder up underneath the 1A bridge at Point of Pines. Haddock have been out off of Tilleys and a few tuna out on Middle Bank. There are mackerel off of the #2 Can in Nahant and sometimes off of Boston Ledge, but you have to chum,” he said.