KTP Fishing Report

April 28, 2025
Water temps are heating up, and so is the fishing. Trout stocking continues to spread out throughout New England and wild trout populations are beginning to become more active. Stripers are making their way north and should be arriving in better numbers along south and central Massachusetts any day. Reports are that flounder are beginning to bite better in and around Boston Harbor. Bass bites are picking up and many are reporting great salmon and lake trout fishing.

Maine:
Greg at Jordans Store in Sebago reported good fishing on Sebago and other area lakes. “Apparently, I am the only one with smelts in the area and the fish must be hitting them. They are driving from all over to get them. It seems like it’s an early bite. By around 9am the salmon bite slows down. You can still catch fish, but the early bite is hottest. The lake trout are biting all day. A lot of guys are trolling in the morning and switching to jigging for the afternoon. There are good salmon outside the rivers. The smelt should be running the smaller brooks on the western shore this week. They are falling out of the bigger rivers now. They usually start running in the brooks on this side of the lake right after they fall back out of the Crooked and Songo. Nassan’s Beach has been popular out over the deeper water. There have been a lot of guys fishing for wild brook trout. It’s a little early, but that should start warming up soon. Some guys fished largemouth and smallmouth in a club tournament on Hancock and they caught a bunch of big largemouth. The smallest bag weighed in was around 18 pounds for five fish,” he said

CJ Harmon of Burnt Meadow Guide Service in Brownfield furnished the following report: “The fishing is really heating up in our area! This week we targeted splake on Trickey pond in Naples and it didn’t disappoint with several nice splake to the net. Slow trolling with live bait was the key there. Salmon fishing on Sebago was good to us as well. Sewn on smelts and 2-3 colors of leadcore was working for us. If you are using downriggers, we found that 25’-30’ down and copper and silver lake trolls with live bait was working well. The jig bite for lake trout is still really good and the concentration of lakers are still deep in that 100’-150’ feet of water.”

New Hampshire:
Tim from Tim Moore Outdoors/Lake Winnipesaukee Fishing Guide Service on Lake Winnipesaukee reported a very productive week on Lake Winnipesaukee. “The new boat is awesome, and the fishing has been too. The salmon are not huge, but almost all keeper sized and some decent fish. Good numbers though. Most fish have come trolling live smelt down 5 or 10-feet. There have been some tank rainbows and a few nice lake trout in the mix as well. With smelt runs almost over, we should start seeing fish spreading out throughout the lake soon. I’ll be switching to flies and spoons any day now,” he said.

Alan Nute at Winnisquam Country Store in Tilton told us that the fishing has been hot, and he is seeing a mix of colors working, with one standout. “Flies have been hot. The Black Ghost, Winni Smelt, Bleeding Winni Smelt, and Orange Bikini have been hot. White has been a great color this week. Anything with white in it has been catching fish. I hit one nice salmon on a chartreuse fly when the water was a little murky from the wind. Everything is around 18-inches long,” he said

Massachusetts:
Pete Santini at Fishing Finatics in Everett said that the fishing around Boston Harbor and inland is very good. “The rainbow trout fishing is still very good in Horn, Walde, Whites, Jamaica, and Sluice Ponds are all doing well for rainbows and a few browns. The flounder are starting to bite in the Pines River and around Deer Island, and along the piers in Boston Harbor. The herring are in the rivers and there have been some bass chasing them. The Zobo Flounder Derby is scheduled for May 18. The top ten heaviest flounder win cash prizes. You can sign up at the shop,” he said.