The Berkley PowerBait, mealworms and pinhead shiners can wait… trophy toothies are on a tear! Ordinarily, mid-March is all about stocked trout, but for most bait and tackle shops the micro-offerings that are ideal snacks for 1-pound rainbows are gathering dust as patrons seek the biggest baits possible. It’s little wonder, considering the tales that the shop owners are telling: ones that begin and end with the best big northern pike action of the season!

Massachusetts Fishing Report

David of Merrimac Sports referred to the pike that patrons are routinely catching as “big as the photos you see out of the North Country!” One heretofore unlucky hardwater fanatic tallied seven quality fish in one day. Where, you ask? Setbacks, oxbows and coves of the Merrimack, Concord and Shawsheen Rivers, that’s where! To set your sights on specifics swing into the shop as the timing couldn’t be better since they are carrying outsized goldies bursting with girth and color — just what the pike doctor ordered! Previously quiet Plugs Pond in Haverhill stirred to life as a number of broodstock salmon have been caught including a 9-pounder.

Rod from Arlington Bait and Tackle has taken to carrying monster red-fins that are big enough to rival most saltwater baits. The requests are pouring in, so the pike must be on the feed in Fairhaven Bay and possibly the Waltham Coves of the Charles River. A footnote of the Charles River coves is the crappie, which are an underappreciated quarry here. Crappie are also cooperating at Silver Lake in Wilmington.

Brandan of Granby Bait & Tackle, which is one of the premier bait suppliers in Massachusetts, can tell that pike interest is at a fever pitch by the amount of requests for big bait they are receiving from the shops. The Oxbow is giving up 15-pound-plus pike, but the talk is of 20-pound beasts out of Pontoosuc and Onota. As heavily fished as Lake Quinsigamond is, this sprawling urban gem was responsible for a couple more teen-sized pike this week.

From Jim of JCB in Cheshire comes word of two 15-pound-class pike “tag-teamed” by his two sons, Justyn and Conner, from Cheshire Reservoir. Jim said that if you’re not fishing close to shore by weedbeds or inlets, then you might as well not have bait on the end of your hook.

Speaking of bait, Jim has obtained some super-sized shiners for those looking to make their own big pike headlines. For trout, check out North Pond and keep one eye on Plainfield Pond. This Berkshires beauty is so locked down with ice that no-one has fished it for the longest time. Once the thaw makes other water bodies unsafe, it will be time to revisit this terrific trout water body.

New Hampshire and Southern Maine Fishing Report

While Jamie from Dover Marine had no pike news, the 37-inch lake trout that some friends have recently tallied from some of the Connecticut River Lakes in northern New Hampshire is nothing to sneeze at. Jamie suggests airplane jigs tipped with sucker strips for those lake trout.

Conway Lake is worth checking out for rainbow and brown trout. Some however are awed by anadromous sport, which should kick in once the last of the ice departs Great Bay. Salter white perch, which are usually far larger than their landlocked kin, should be soon coursing the Squamscott and Lamprey Rivers. A customer of the shop shared some pictures of those perch with Jamie and they were impressive panfish. They are especially fond of chubs, grass shrimp and seaworms.

Joe from Granite State Rod and Reel Repair in Nashua told me that the trout action was still promising from Canobie Lake and Cobbett’s Pond. One of his customers caught a 6-pound pickerel out of Little Mill Pond. They’ve also been crushing the crappie there as well.

Brady of Dag’s in Auburn had a ton of togue talk to pass along, having just returned from a trip to Moosehead Lake. The fish averaged between 20 and 23 inches and had a taste for smelt fished 20 feet down. They also had similar-sized salmon, which they targeted just below the ice. Brookies are hugging the shoreline in water as shallow as you dare to drill. Cusk are in spawn mode now and feed mostly at night and on the bottom between 3 and 20 feet of water. Other cusk options are Sebago and Thompson Lake. Bait choices are dead and slightly odoriferous smaller fish. For rainbows Brady recommends the Upper and Middle Range Lakes as well as Norway Lake. Pike are also feeding ferociously in Maine with the Androscoggin and Belgrade watersheds all giving up some of the biggest northerns of the season right now!

Fishing Forecast for Massachusetts, New Hampshire & Maine

If finally catching that big pike is high on your checklist, then now is the time to soak a big shiner or sucker. Closer to the coast, check out the Charles and Sudbury Rivers. The Merrimack, Concord and even the Shawsheen Rivers are all suddenly players in the big pike sweepstakes. Farther out west, perennial favorites such as Quinsigamond, Quaboag, the Oxbow, Onota, Pontoosuc and Cheshire are all living up to their reputations and some feel that the best has yet to come. In New Hampshire its trout time for bows and browns in Cobbetts and Canobie while far larger lakers have put on the feedbag in the Connecticut Lakes Region. Cusk are in close in Moosehead, Sebago and other big, glacial lakes in Maine. For rainbows you have to love the Lower and Middle Range Lakes.