Merrimack smallmouth heat up as the spring shad run fades

What's biting

What's next

With no live gauge or buoy feed for the Merrimack or Lake Winnipesaukee this cycle, the outlook leans on seasonal pattern and the trajectory in Roger Aziz's report rather than fresh numbers. The shad run's tail-off is right on schedule for mid-July — expect that bite to keep thinning over the next week rather than rebound, so anglers still chasing shad should treat any remaining fish as a bonus, not a target.

Smallmouth bass should keep carrying the Merrimack corridor. The pattern Aziz describes in the Lowell and Lawrence sections — fish committing to topwater, jigs, and spinnerbaits — is the kind of aggressive, current-driven bite that typically holds through a stretch of stable summer weather. If daytime temperatures keep climbing regionally, look for the best windows to compress toward early morning and last light, with midday fish sliding into deeper seams and current breaks.

Striped bass lingering at the river's mouth are worth watching over the next several days. As water continues to warm, that group typically thins as fish either push out toward open water or settle into deeper holding areas, so anglers wanting a shot at them should prioritize this week over waiting.

On the lake side, the uneven results Aziz reported — blanking at Lake Attitash while smaller ponds produced — is a useful signal heading into the weekend. Smaller, shallower ponds tend to warm faster and can either fire up early in the morning before fish retreat, or push bass deep and sluggish by midday. Larger lakes like Winnipesaukee typically respond more slowly to heat and can still offer a more consistent bite along drop-offs, points, and deeper weed edges, especially in the first couple hours after sunrise.

No tide or flow data is available this cycle to flag a specific timing window, so the safest planning bet is to fish the coolest parts of the day over the next two to three days and adjust toward deeper structure if surface temps keep trending upward. Anglers on the Merrimack should keep expectations realistic on shad, stay opportunistic on stripers, and lean into the smallmouth pattern as the week's most reliable bet.

Context

A shad run winding down by mid-July on the Merrimack is on the typical end of the calendar for that fishery — Aziz's four-fish outing reads as the tail of the run rather than anything unusual for the season. The smallmouth bass activity he describes in the Lowell and Lawrence sections is consistent with what this stretch of river typically produces once shad numbers fade and warmer water shifts angler attention to resident species.

Beyond that single report, there isn't a strong comparative signal available for how this season stacks up against a typical NH summer. We don't have direct angler intel this cycle specifically from Lake Winnipesaukee, so it isn't possible to say honestly whether that fishery is running ahead of, behind, or on pace with a normal year — the only concrete, attributable data point in hand is the Merrimack River corridor report. Aziz's broader note that "lakes across New Hampshire continue to churn out bass" suggests the state's lake fishing is holding up in general terms, but his own mixed results — a blank at Lake Attitash against better action on smaller ponds — is a reminder that lake-to-lake variability is normal at this point in summer and shouldn't be read as a broader trend without more corroborating reports. Anglers planning a Winnipesaukee trip should treat this update as a general seasonal baseline rather than water-specific intel, and check for more localized reports closer to their outing.