Fishing Report July 20, 2026
Wind and wildfire smoke made it a tough week for some anglers and didn’t bother others. Striper fishing remains excellent, with reports of “fussy fish” around the Merrimack being the exception. There seems to be no shortage of bait options around right now, but we are hearing many reports of live eels at night outshining the daytime fishing. Sebago reports are good for salmon and lake trout, but Winnipesaukee took a hit with winds, bug hatches, and wildfire smoke making it uncomfortable at times. Freshwater bass fishing seems to be at its height of the season so far, with nighttime also producing the most and biggest fish lately.
Maine:
Greg Cutting at Jordan’s Store in Sebago reported a pretty good week of fishing on Sebago. “I’m still finding salmon up on top with sinking fly line,” he said with a chuckle. “I can’t believe it. 75-degree water in 15 or 18 feet of water and there are salmon in it. That same blue smelt streamer. Another guy was fishing in the same general area; he went out off the bar and caught 4 salmon. He was down 3 and 4 colors of lead. One was 25 ½-inches and 5 ½ pounds. One customer caught a bunch of really nice browns trolling frozen smelt. He wouldn’t tell me where, but if I were looking, I would try Hancock. A lot of bass fishing, which has been good,” he said.
Peter at Saco Bay Tackle in Saco told us that the fishing around the Saco area was excellent lately. “We have good fishing right on the beaches. They are still in the mouth of the rivers, but I think the beaches are where it’s at right now. The pogies and mackerel are still running great, so there is a lot of food around to keep the stripers here. There have been a lot of people saying there are a lot more bigger fish, but not a lot of small fish. That’s good for the fishing this year, but not great for the future. That said, Biddeford Pool, Wells, Higgins Beach, Pine Point, and Camp Ellis are all doing great. Mackerel has been the ticket from the beaches, but white paddletails have been fishing the best for lures. Eels are fishing great, so eel imitations are starting to work now,” he said.
Tim Tower of the Bunny Clark Deep Sea Fishing in Ogunquit posted the following report from a recent trip on his website: “The fishing was very good despite the sea state. The catching was excellent as were the landings. There were a couple of anglers who caught the most fish for an angler this year to date. It was a fish a drop all day long. Many doubles were caught. Most legal fish landed were pollock, by far. We were in a totally different area than we have been all season. The pollock were all legal. We only had 3 sub-legal pollock, if indeed they were sub-legal. Other than the 3 smaller ones, every pollock was over 3 pounds. But there were very few pollock over 7 pounds. 5to 7 pounds seemed to be the flavor of pollock for the day. Legal landings also included 32 haddock on the last stop of the day, 95 redfish (no sub-legal redfish were seen) and 15 cusk. Released fish included, probably, 6 blue sharks (mostly lost on bait rigs), one tiny cod, one sub-legal haddock, one huge haddock, the 3 small pollock and 10 dogfish. We drift fished for the first stop and boated two totes of (mostly) pollock. We anchored for every stop afterward. All terminal gear worked very well.”
“Either Matt Luce (ME) or Chris Cote (ME) was high hook with the most legal fish any angler has caught with me this season so far. We don't count fillets. So, I can't know for sure. Bruce Andersen (FL) was also in there somewhere. Third hook? Second hook? I don't know. Chris Cote won the boat pool for the largest fish, a 13-pound pollock. This pollock ties for Bunny Clark's second largest pollock of the fishing season so far. Phil Milligan (ME) won the boat pool for the second largest fish, a 12-pound pollock. This fish is tied for Bunny Clark's fifth largest pollock of the fishing season to date. Phil also caught the fourth largest fish of the trip, a 10-pound pollock. And he caught the only keeper haddock double of the trip. He was also hanging on and fishing in the bow. Matt Luce, fishing in the "ten spot" on the stern (he now calls Luce Corner), caught the third largest fish of the trip, an 11-pound pollock. I weighed a 7.5-pound pollock that he caught early in the trip, thinking it might be a pool-contending fish. Matt also caught the second largest cusk at 8.25 pounds.”
“Other Angler Highlights: Ali Laflamm (ME) caught the first fish I could weigh for the boat pool, a 9-pound pollock. Shortly afterward, she caught a 7.75-pound pollock, the two biggest fish of the trip at the time that she boated it. She also caught the largest cusk of the trip at 9 pounds. And Ali caught two haddock, a species that she was hoping to catch. Chris Patchem (NY) caught an 8-pound pollock. Silas Amlaw (NY) caught an 8-pound pollock and a 9.5-pound pollock. Mitch Cashman (ME) boated an 8-pound cusk, the third largest cusk of the trip. And then there was Tom Brown (NY), who was fishing in the hoop in the bow. He was having a hard time getting his fish in the boat as it was. At times, I thought he was either going to fall overboard, drop the rod overboard, fall on his rod, or break something. After a while, he seemed to get the hang of it, sort of. That is, until he caught the trophy haddock and tried to get that in the boat. It might have been the biggest haddock of the last couple of years at 10 pounds or so. He tried everything he could to lose that fish. And, finally, he did. I instructed those guys in the bow to call for a gaff well "before" they saw the fish on the surface. Chris and Phil had no problem with that. Tom, on the other hand, not so much. Oh, well. I cried a little bit for the lack of a good trophy haddock picture. But I will surely get over it - after a few weeks.”
New Hampshire:
Tim from Tim Moore Outdoors/Lake Winnipesaukee Fishing Guide Service reported another slow week, but for different reasons that actually show promise. “This was the week of short strikes on Winnipesaukee. Literally, everyone I spoke with over the past week was struggling with them. There were massive midge hatches, which was strange for mid-July, and I think that contributed to the short strikes. The good news is that we had a lot of action, so things are absolutely turning around. I fully expect this week to be very different. That said, orange is still my best color. The AJ’s Guide Pumpkin and Firesmelt streamers were my best flies, and various orange spoons were good too. Orange spoons with some flash were essential once the sun hit the water,” he said.
Alan Nute at Winnisquam Country Store in Tilton reported a tough week of fishing on Lake Winnipesaukee. “Between the wind, bug hatches, and wildfire smoke, we had our work cut out for us. The wind really stirred the lake up and made the water dirty and pushed the thermocline all over the place. We got a few fish on an old gold Speedy Shiner spoon. I would suggest the north end of the lake for a couple of days until the lake settles down again. It didn’t get hit as hard by all the wind up there.
Ki at Dover Marine/Covered Bridge Sports says largemouth fishing is hot during low light and at night. “Dark is the best time to fish for largemouth right now. They’re suspending off ledges and secondary points, so you’ll have to drop shot for them. You will pick up some interesting by-catch on some lakes, like Bow Lake and Winnipesaukee. Nighttime is the best bite right now. Guys are catching hogs at night on big topwater swim baits, glide baits, and big frogs. Crayfish-looking creature baits are working well for smallmouth right now too. Stripers are all over, in and out of the Piscataqua River. I heard of some nice fish caught in front of Martingale Wharf. A few nice fish caught off of Hilton Park too,” he said.
Massachusetts:
Martha at Surfland Bait and Tackle on Plum Island said that the fishing has turned around and there is still plenty of bait around. “All of a sudden, we have got squid around here, which is weird for us. I’m not sure why, but they’re fun to catch and fun to eat. Who knows how long they will be around. There are a lot of stripers around, but they are fussy. It doesn’t matter who we talk to and how they are fishing; they are reporting fussy fish. Nighttime is the better time right now. There is still some mackerel around and still lots of sand eels. No pogie reports, but there have been a few guys buying tackle for them, so I think some are starting to show up,” she said.
Pete Santini at Fishing Finatics in Everett says that the fishing is still excellent and there is no shortage of places to get in on the action and no shortage of fish over 45 inches being caught. “There are a ton of big stripers inside the harbor. They’re getting big stripers from the casino all the way up toward Chelsea Creek. The boaters and kayakers are destroying them on Santini Tubes. They’re also trolling lead core along the shorelines. There has been a pretty good bite early in the morning between Long, George’s, and Peddocks Island. The fish are right up on top. At high tide, they’re getting fish along the outer islands on tubes. There is a load of mackerel off of Nahant and there is also squid with them. There has been a pile of big tuna from B Buoy up to Nahant, and all the way up to Marblehead. Freshwater bass have been great, especially during those smoky days. They’re hitting Kelly Worms, senkos, and live shiners in all the local ponds. They’re still picking up trout in Walden and White’s Ponds early in the morning with PowerEggs, PowerBait, and blown-up night crawlers. There are still a few fluke in the Pines River and still Tautog around the piers in the harbor,” he said.