Bow Lake fishing: Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout, Smallmouth Bass
Target species: Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout, Smallmouth Bass
Boat: 1 ramp or launch on file for this water.
Start here: Launch at Bow Lake Boat Ramp.
The lake
Bow Lake covers 1,151 acres in New Hampshire, across Strafford County. It is a lake: 94.1% of it is 45 feet deep or less; the deepest point measured is at least 65 feet (19.8 m). Our records hold 4 species for this water.
Depth and bottom
Deepest measured point: at least 65 ft (19.8 m). That is the deepest contour line: the bottom goes deeper. 94.1% of the water is 45 feet or shallower. We hold 30 depth contour lines for this water.
- 0–5 ft: 26% of the water
- 5–10 ft: 13.1% of the water
- 10–15 ft: 8.8% of the water
- 15–20 ft: 6.7% of the water
- 20–25 ft: 6.3% of the water
- 25–30 ft: 7.5% of the water
- 30–35 ft: 9.4% of the water
- 35–40 ft: 9.9% of the water
- 40–45 ft: 6.4% of the water
- 45–50 ft: 2.1% of the water
- 50–55 ft: 1.8% of the water
- 55–60 ft: 1.3% of the water
- 60–65 ft: 0.6% of the water
Stocking: 3,200 fish in 2026
New Hampshire Fish and Game Department records list 3,200 fish released into this water in 2026.
- Rainbow Trout: 2,700 in 2026
- Brown Trout: 500 in 2026
3 target fish, led by Rainbow Trout
- Rainbow Trout — Feeding water: 50–65°F.
- Brown Trout — Feeding water: 50–65°F.
- Smallmouth Bass — Feeding water: 60–75°F.
Also recorded here: Largemouth Bass.
1 ramp or launch on this water
On this water we hold 1 boat ramp and 1 shore access point.
- Bow Lake Boat Ramp — Strafford.
Shore access for bank fishing
- Bow Lake Beach — restrooms. Strafford.
Fee and opening hours are blank for all 2 places in this list: a blank means we hold no such field, not that it is free or always open, and this list may not be complete.
Water and conditions
Our water temperature readings average 74°F; they do not cover the whole year, so this is not a yearly average. pH averages 6.4. These readings span 2016–2022. The latest reading is from 2022, more than three years ago: read these numbers as history, not as the water today.
What is hard here
Only 1 public ramp is on file, so the launch decides where you fish.
Where this data comes from
- NH GRANIT — NH GRANIT: depth contours: class A, a survey of the bottom.
- Webster, K.E., McCullough, I.M., Soranno, P.A. LAGOS-US DEPTH v1.0, EDI, doi:10.6073/pasta/64ddc4d04661d9aef4bd702dc5d8984f (CC BY 4.0); Cheruvelil et al. LAGOS-US LOCUS v1.0 (EDI) — LAGOS-US DEPTH v1.0: Lake depth for 17,675 lakes in the conterminous U.S.: class B, a depth figure measured and published by an agency, without a bottom map.
