Nathan Pond Fishing Guide, Coos County, New Hampshire

• Overview

  Look for Nathan Pond in the Coos County part of New Hampshire. The surface lies 2,011 feet up. This is a pocket water of some 22 acres, and every part of it is reachable from the bank. It is high ground by New Hampshire standards. The closest town, Colebrook, is 11 miles away. After that come Stratford at 23 miles and Milan at 24 miles. No county line comes close, which keeps the paperwork simple.

• Where to Fish on Nathan Pond

  Nothing we hold settles how deep this runs. A natural lake fishes on cover, and cover here means weed and timber. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Public occurrence data for Coos County names rainbow trout, brown trout and rainbow smelt. Several of these carry legal protection or closed seasons; the rulebook comes before the rod. The near bank of Nathan Pond is often the one people ignore.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Long-term averages put July at about 63°F and January near 10°F. Winter shuts things down for a spell, then spring reopens them fast. Ice-out usually falls in late April, and the weeks after it fish hardest. Break-up sits around late April on average, with the water closing again about late November. Right after break-up, and again as the nights sharpen, is when to go. That is the shape of the year on Nathan Pond.

• Tackle & Baits

  No access rule appears in what we hold. We find no slipway, car park or made path within a short radius, so treat access as rough. A small crankbait along the drop and a worm in the thick stuff cover the bass. Where a permit is needed, the nearest town usually sells it. Barbless rules turn up on managed water more often than not. For a change of water, Mud Pond is 1.6 miles distant. None of that is settled for Nathan Pond in what we hold.