Smallmouth bite heats up on the Merrimack as shad run wraps

What's biting

What's next

Flow at the Merrimack gauge (01073500) is sitting at a modest 28.8 cfs, consistent with typical mid-July base flow once spring runoff has fully cleared the system. Barring a rain event, expect flows to hold steady or ease slightly lower over the next 2-3 days, which should keep water clarity good and continue favoring finesse and topwater presentations for smallmouth in the Lowell and Lawrence sections rather than moving-water power tactics.

The shad run on the Merrimack is officially over per The Fisherman — New England Freshwater, so anglers chasing that bite should shift focus. Striped bass are still being reported at the river's mouth, and that pattern typically holds into late summer as long as bait stays in the area, so it's worth a look for anyone fishing the lower river. The smallmouth bite in the Lowell/Lawrence stretches looks like the strongest near-term freshwater play in the region, with topwater working during low-light hours and jigs or spinnerbaits filling in through the middle of the day.

For Winnipesaukee and the broader lake country, expect a continuation of the mixed pattern noted in recent reports: bigger lakes are producing but inconsistently, while small ponds have been the more reliable option. That's a common summer pattern once main-lake water warms and forage scatters, and it should persist through the coming week unless a cooling trend moves through.

The new moon this week is a factor worth planning around. Low-light and overnight bites typically get a boost around new moon phases as fish feed more actively under darker skies, so dawn and dusk windows over the next few days are a good bet for both the Merrimack smallmouth bite and lake bass. Anglers without early-morning flexibility should still find action, just expect it to taper faster once the sun gets high. No weather data was available for this report, so check a local forecast for wind and precipitation before planning a specific outing, particularly if targeting the river where a rain bump could change flow and clarity quickly.

Context

Mid-July on the Merrimack and around Winnipesaukee typically means the transition out of the spring run-fish window (shad, and earlier in the season, migratory herring) and into the summer pattern dominated by resident bass and mid-summer striper activity near the river mouth. The end of the shad run reported this week by The Fisherman — New England Freshwater lines up with a normal seasonal close rather than an early or late shutdown; a four-fish outing on the tail end of a run is consistent with a fishery winding down rather than one that ended abruptly.

The smallmouth activity in the Lowell and Lawrence river sections and the general bass production around New Hampshire's lakes both track as typical for this point in summer, when warming water pushes fish toward classic summer haunts and structure-oriented presentations start outproducing reaction baits in the heat of the day. The note that small ponds are outfishing bigger lake water is a common mid-summer pattern as larger, deeper lakes stratify and forage disperses, while smaller waters warm and stabilize into a more predictable bite.

There isn't enough historical or comparative data in this feed to say definitively whether this year's pattern is running ahead of, behind, or exactly on typical seasonal timing for the Merrimack/Winnipesaukee region specifically; the available reporting reflects a single week's snapshot rather than a multi-week trend line. Treat the above as a normal-for-the-calendar read rather than a flagged anomaly.