NEW HAMPSHIRE & MAINE FISHING MAP
Fishing Hot Spots
From Hampton Harbor and the Isles of Shoals up the Maine coast past Nubble Light, Saco Bay, Portland and Casco Bay, the Kennebec, Monhegan and Penobscot Bay, to Mount Desert, Schoodic and West Quoddy Head on the Canadian border, with Jeffreys Ledge and the Gulf of Maine banks offshore. Tap any star or dot to see what it is and what to fish there.
More map layers
Fishing & access
Marine chart layers
Parks & rules
Safety: these are planning references. Use current official charts, weather and marine alerts and proper safety equipment before heading out.
Lake guides for this map
Month-by-month patterns, fish, ramps and rules for each water:
Fishing Hot Spots by area
River mouths, rocky points, ledges, islands and offshore banks. Tap one to fly to it on the map.
Striped bass in the river mouths, pollock on the ledges and giant bluefin offshore
New Hampshire and Maine have a short, cold-water season, but it is a great one. Striped bass arrive in late May and stay into October, and the best fishing is in the river mouths and rocky points: the Piscataqua at Portsmouth, Hampton Harbor, the Saco, the Scarborough River, Casco Bay and especially the Kennebec. Mackerel are everywhere in summer, and pollock, cod and cunner live on the ledges and around the islands.
Offshore, Jeffreys Ledge, Platts Bank and the other Gulf of Maine banks hold haddock, pollock and cod, and are famous for giant bluefin tuna and whales in the summer and fall. Cashes Ledge is a protected groundfish closure area. Way Downeast at Lubec and Eastport, the Bay of Fundy tides are some of the biggest in the world.
New Hampshire needs a recreational saltwater license and Maine a free saltwater registry. Striped bass have a slot limit, and Gulf of Maine cod and haddock rules are strict and change often; bluefin tuna need a federal HMS permit. Check NH Fish & Game, Maine DMR and NOAA Fisheries before you go.
BigJoe’s gear for New Hampshire & Maine
What BigJoe would bring to fish these waters.
As an Amazon Associate, BigJoe earns from qualifying purchases. It costs you nothing extra and helps keep these maps free.
Map sources & checks
- Coverage
- New Hampshire & Maine. Mapped features come from public datasets and can be incomplete or out of date: a missing reef, ramp or wreck does not mean it is not there.
- Map data
- OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) — retrieved October 7, 2026
- World Database on Protected Areas (UNEP-WCMC & IUCN), Protected Planet — retrieved October 7, 2026 (license: Protected Planet terms)
- Hot spots
- 38 hot spots, each with its own source (tap any star to see it): OpenStreetMap mapped feature (24), Marine Regions gazetteer (8), OpenStreetMap marina or harbor (4), point on an OpenStreetMap river or lake line (general location) (2).
- Protected areas
- 37 protected areas from the official list above, drawn in dashed red. Fishing rules inside them are set by the managing agency; check with them before you fish.
- Chart layers (Charts button)
- GEBCO ocean depth and OpenSeaMap buoys, lights and markers, plus official NOAA nautical charts in U.S. waters. GEBCO and OpenSeaMap are useful references, not official navigation charts.
- Weather & tides
- See Weather & Tides for this area: NOAA/NWS forecasts, NOAA buoys and NOAA Tides & Currents, with Open-Meteo models where NOAA has no station.
- Dates
- This page last updated October 15, 2026. Each dataset keeps its own retrieval date, shown above.
⚠️ Planning reference only, not for navigation. Use current official charts, weather and marine alerts, and proper safety gear before heading out.
See something wrong or missing? Tell us and we will check it against the source.