Fishing Report September 22, 2025

Fall is coming in like a lion for most anglers who are still fishing. Lots of striped bass are being caught, but it seems the night bite with live eels has been best based on reports. Lake fishing for salmon, rainbows, and lake trout has been very good, especially for salmon and rainbow on Winnipesaukee and salmon on Sebago. Panfish, such as crappie and white perch, are beginning to put their fall feed bags on and bass are becoming more active. Many smallmouth bass anglers look forward to fall to jig blade baits or fish live minnows. Cod season is still open and many have been taking advantage of good numbers of inshore cod around the many rock piles along the New England coast.

Maine:
Greg Cutting at Jordan’s Store in Sebago says that the salmon fishing on Sebago is still great, with some very nice fish being caught. “The fishing is still good, not as good as I thought, but they are still catching some really nice salmon. We watched one of the guides landing some big ones last week. I am hearing reports of a lot of guys catching lake trout down 30 feet. The salmon are mostly being caught 30-40 feet down over 100 feet of water. Most guys are trolling bait, but you can only do that until the end of the month,” he said.

Captain Tim Tower of the Bunny Clark Deep Sea Fishing in Ogunquit posted the following report on their website: “The fishing was excellent. The sea state was perfect, the drift was perfect, there were very few dogfish and only a couple blue sharks bothered. The catching was very good as were the landings. Most legal fish landed were pollock in the 3-to-10-pound range. I didn't weigh a pollock today unless it was at least 10 pounds. We had only two pollock that were 10 pounds or over. Legal landings also included 2 cod, 40 cusk, 22 haddock and 17 white hake. It was our best day of white hake landings since the offshore trips in July. Released fish included 7 small cod, 6 sub-legal haddock, 21 sub-legal pollock, 5 dogfish, 2 blue sharks with jewelry and 1 wolffish. We drift fished all day. All terminal gear worked well.”

“Ray Westermann (MA) was high hook with the most legal fish. Or at least it seemed that way. If it wasn't Ray then it had to be Jonathan "Griff" Griffin (MA). But I'm pretty sure it was Ray. Ray's 3 largest fish included an 18.5-pound white hake, a 20.25-pound white hake and a 16.5-pound white hake. Griff boated a 22.5-pound white hake, a 16.5-pound white hake and a 22.25-pound white hake.”

“Seth Daniels (CT) won the boat pool for the largest fish with the largest fish, a 24.75-pound white hake. This is the largest hake that Seth has ever caught. Seth also won the boat pool for the third largest fish, a 23-pound white hake. He also caught a 15-pound white hake and the largest cod at 7 pounds. His keeper haddock count was 5. Stephane Cloutier (MA) won the boat pool for the second largest fish, a 24.25-pound white hake. His second largest fish was a 17.5-pound white hake.”

“Other Angler Highlights: Chris Galletta (NY) caught a 16.5-pound white hake and a 14-pound white hake. Dave Haberl (VT) landed a 16-pound white hake. Neil Hickey (VT) boated a 15.5-pound white hake and a 14.25-pound white hake. Steve LaPlante (CT) landed an 18-pound white hake. Mike Bragg (MA) caught a 17.25-pound white hake. Hannah Smith (VT) landed the largest haddock at 4.5 pounds. She also caught the only wolffish at about 7 pounds. Dennis Scanlon (NY) landed the largest pollock of the trip at 11 pounds. Jon "The Staten Island Assassin" Tesnakis had the most tangles of the trip. Jon caught the second largest haddock of the trip, a 4 pounder.”

New Hampshire:
Tim from Tim Moore Outdoors/Lake Winnipesaukee Fishing Guide Service on Lake Winnipesaukee says that the late season trolling on Winnipesaukee is as good as it gets most days. The jigging is hanging in there, but still way down from what they used to see before the appearance of spiny water fleas in the lake. “The salmon and rainbow fishing are excellent most days. We are seeing double digit numbers of 2 and 3 year old salmon, and rainbows averaging 4 pound. The weekend cold front slowed things down a bit, but we still picked away at fish. We are down 30 and 40 feet trolling mostly streamer flies with orange and yellow, and some days purple. The Tommy Gun spoons in Blood and Guts have been good too. Lake trout jigging is okay most days. Cold front conditions over the weekend pushed a lot of fish out of the basins for a couple days and the presence of spiny water fleas is still making the bite sluggish. A lot of the lake trout are filling up on them and getting full, but the lack of nutrition is making them skinny. We did land a healthy 5-pound lake trout last week, so they are still around. Most metal jigging spoons, especially ones that glow, around ¾-ounce are working well. We are into the last week of the salmon and lake trout season on Winnipesaukee for me and there is no sign of things slowing down,” he said.

Alan Nute at Winnisquam Country Store in Tilton reported good salmon and rainbow fishing on Winnipesaukee last week. “I’m still hitting fish down 57 feet and the water is 57 degrees down that deep. We’ve been getting a few fish with flies, but copper spoons with red or orange have been best. The town of Gilford is letting you launch Monday through Thursday now that we are passed Labor Day, which opens up a lot of water to some folks,” he said.

Lon Berry at Berry’s Bait in Alton Bay says a lot of customers have been coming in from Lake Winnipesaukee reporting great catches of salmon and rainbows. Anglers targeting white perch on Lake Wentworth have been having great success. He hasn’t heard much about white perch from Winnipesaukee. “We’re seeing quite a few people having really good fishing for salmon and rainbows on Winni trolling spoons and flies. A lot of people have been heading to Lake Wentworth to catch white perch and doing very well. Some are trolling and others are just using worms from a boat,” he said.

Massachusetts:
Pete Santini at Fishing Finatics in Everett sent in the following report: “Plenty of big bass at entrance to Boston Harbor. Also a lot of fish off Spectacle, Long, Thompson, and Peddocks Island. Lots of stripers off Nahant and Revere Beaches. Hull Gut is loaded with big bass at night on live eels, some pushing 50 lbs. The haddock bite is fantastic in the shipping lanes on pink and green haddock rigs tipped with a piece of mackerel or clam. Cod are thick behind Graves Light and huge cunner (seaperch) in the same area on new rig at shop called the Cunner Killah. TOG inside the harbor piers on crabs