Weekly Fishing Report: May 27, 2024
Fishing Conditions & Updates for Maine, New Hampshire & Massachusetts
We hope you all had a nice Memorial Day Weekend. Besides an influx of recreational boat traffic, it seems like most everyone reported good fishing. As always, salmon trolling reports are of slower weekend fishing, which is typical for busy boat traffic days. Lake trout reports are still coming in from Winnipesaukee and Sebago. There is still a fair amount of trout stocking going on and bass are spawning, making them easy picking. Striped bass and flounder reports are great. Stripers are everywhere and beginning to filter back out of the rivers with the arrival of mackerel. Flounder are biting well, but we haven’t had many great reports north of Plum Island, but that could mean no one is targeting them. Now’s a great time to be out when there is less pressure. Few reports sometimes only mean fewer people targeting them.
Greg Cutting at Jordan’s Store in Sebago said the fishing had slowed a bit on Sebago. “They’re not catching as many salmon as they were, but there are still some guys doing well trolling lures. One group bought some shiners and never even used them. Most of the fish being caught lately are lake trout. I have heard that the salmon being caught are on top over deep water. One of my friends went white perch fishing up to Highland Lake in Bridgeton and he did pretty good. Another guy told me about some crappie he caught at Lovewell Pond. A lot of these guys are trolling shiners for browns when they get into the crappie and white perch.
Trevor at Saco Bay Tackle in Saco reported a lot of stripers around. “Their starting to move to the beaches. The mackerel just showed up and the river is starting to die out. There is definitely more fish along the beaches. A lot of live-lining alewives is working well toward the mouth and eels have been working great at night,” he said.
Captain Tim Tower of the Bunny Clark Deep Sea Fishing in Ogunquit reported great haddock fishing over the weekend. “The fishing was excellent, the catching was excellent and landings were very good. Most legal fish landed were haddock, by far, one of the better haddock days of the season. Legal landings also included a pollock, a redfish, eight cusk, nine whiting and a cunner. Released fish included one hundred and ninety sub-legal haddock (a much lower percentage of small haddock today), six dogfish (definitely a plus to the fishing!), two cod of five pounds or more, seventeen small cod, a few sub-legal pollock and two porbeagle sharks. Drifting was the method. Bait, again, was the way to go to catch fish.”
“Ian couldn't tell who was high hook with so much action going on today. Bob Kent (ME) won the boat pool for the largest fish with a 6.75-pound cod. The second largest fish was a 5.25-pound haddock caught by Jerry Worden (NH). Richard Morrell (ME) caught the third largest fish, a 5-pound cod.”
“Other Angler Highlights: Dan Carr (MA) caught a 4.5-pound haddock, his largest fish. Randy Clark (VT) lost the two biggest haddock of the day on the surface right next to the boat. Darlene Chin (FL) landed a 4.5-pound haddock, her best fish. She was aboard yesterday when there were so many dogfish. She was very happy not to catch them today. Jean Aduze (FL) landed the hard luck award t-shirt for losing the connection between the equilibrium and the motion of the ocean, however slight the motion was today!”
Full-time New Hampshire fishing guide Tim from Tim Moore Outdoors reported that the salmon and trout fishing had been on fire until the busy Memorial Day Weekend, but the bass were biting just fine. “We were crushing the salmon, with some trips seeing double digit numbers. Nothing huge, but mostly all keepers. We are still doing best with spoons that are pink, orange, or silver/blue. Then, the Memorial Day weekend boat traffic arrived, and the salmon bite slowed a lot. Luckily, I had a bunch of smallmouth bass trips over the weekend. The smallies are biting great. We’ve been getting them on a lot of swim baits, like the Rage Swimmers, on a 1/4-ounce jig head. Some others coming on topwater early in the morning,” he said.
Jason Brewster at Brewster’s Bait and Tackle in Portsmouth sent in the following report: “There are lots of boats up and down the river this week, and there are many different reports. Either feast or famine chasing the birds. Some people caught a lot with a lot of "skunked" reports as well. Worms and mackerel still most used bait.”
Pete Santini at Fishing Finatics in Everett told us of still-great flounder, striper, and trout fishing. “We had some nice blitzes of bass in the inner harbor over by Castle Island and between Spectacle and Long Island. There were breaking bass with fish up to 45 inches. There are mackerel up off of Nahant. They’re catching mackerel and then bringing them back in to troll or live-line them. Tube and worm is still good too. The flounder bite is still going strong off the Deer Island Pier, the Lynn Pier, and the Swampscott Yacht Club Pier. The boat guys are doing well off Peddocks, Long Island, Deer Island Flat, and out in front of Revere Beach. There’s also a lot of them up in the Saugus and Pines River. Trout fishing is still strong. They’re pulling limits out of Jamaica, Walden, and Whites Ponds,” he said.
Martha at Surfland Bait and Tackle on Plum Island says that the fishing is still pretty good. “We’ve had our occasional slow days, but I always feel like these holiday weekends, with all the boat traffic, slows things down a bit. The Albi Snax and Fish Snax XL are doing well. SP Minnows and Slug-Gos are good, and the surf casters up river are still using big metal-lipped swimmers. Al Gag’s Whip-It Fish are still hot. Slug-Gos have really been ruling. They’re starting to get a few mackerel and the flounder bite has been a little south of us. Like, from the mouth of the Plum Island Sound to Cape Ann,” she said.
Because of inherent time restrictions of gathering fresh, up-to-date information, editing & producing this report in a timely manner, occasional errors or marginal information may slip by us. We try our hardest to provide accurate information. We urge readers to use this report as a tool to increase their fishing pleasure and not to rely on as their sole resource. First or second-hand information is offered by fishing guides, commercial fishing charters or party boats, bait & tackle dealers, well-known successful anglers, and state & federal fisheries and natural resources enforcement officials. We also welcome and use reports forwarded to us by fishermen that use this report. - Kittery Trading Post Fishing Report Editor