Monadnock and Upper Valley Reports indicate that trout fishing in area lakes and ponds has been slow, so I want to focus on warmwater species in this report. For those interested in huge bluegills, give Spofford Lake a try. I talked with one angler who has been catching them on crankbaits being trolled at about 15 feet. Another angler emailed me and reported that he has been very successful fly fishing for panfish and largemouth bass this summer. He focuses on small overlooked ponds and has been having a blast. He uses a small 2-weight fly rod with small poppers, foam beetles, and grass hopper imitations for panfish, and streamers fished deep for bass.Another fly anger said she has been catching some big smallmouth bass (3-5 lbs!) while fly fishing in the Monadnock Region this summer. She uses a 5-weight rod, fast full sink line, and a 3X leader in about 20-25 feet of water during the day and switches to floating line around dusk for some top water action using poppers and terrestrial imitations.
I talked to a trio of teenagers the other day at Forest Lake (Winchester) who had a fantastic day fishing for largemouth bass. They caught 25 bass in about 6 hours of fishing. Everything was working that day, including frogs, drop shots and jigs.
The Connecticut River has been hit or miss for bass fishing the past couple weeks. You are either catching lots of fish or lucky to get a couple. Bass anglers are reporting numerous big pike in the shallows and set-backs.
Lake Massacecum has been slow for big fish, but broken-back jitter bugs and rubber worms are working well, along with Clouser minnows on fly rods. There have been some sizable yellow perch and black crappie caught on fly rods during the past week.
