By Tim Moore:
Stripers are here! Stripers are here! Man, it seemed like they would never arrive along the NH coast and rivers. With the last few warm springs most anglers along the New Hampshire coast got used to catching good numbers of keeper stripers around mid-May. That was definitely not the case this year. We didnât start getting reports of the first fish being caught around the middle of May.
The alewife run is well underway which is pulling stripers up into some local rivers such as the Lamprey River in Newmarket. Alewives get bunched up trying to get up the fish ladder, making them sitting ducks for hungry striped bass. Most anglers who fish here will snag alewives and live-line them under a balloon. Remember, you canât snag alewives on Wednesdays in New Hampshire. Great Bay and Little Bay are also good places to look for stripers, especially if you have a boat or kayak. The rips along breaks, points, or at the end of islands created by the ebbing or flooding tides are great places to look. As the month progresses the fish should make their presence known in a big way.
Black sea bass have been making their presence known along the New Hampshire coast. While the numbers were still good last season, the size of the fish left a lot to be desired. With no length or bag limit many anglers were catching and keeping as many
as they could. This year the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department has adopted a 13â minimum length and a ten fish per day bag limit. The black sea bass probably wonât make much of an appearance until sometime in July with August and early September being the hottest time of the season.
The crappie fishing is hot right now. Look for fish relating to structure. Soft plastics are our favorite for crappie. The New Tim Moore Signature Series Whisperer lure from Daddy Mac Lures is an unexpected favorite. We designed it for lake trout, but apparently crappies find it irresistible. Fish it weightless with a 2/0 offset worm hook and you will catch fish on it…once you find them.