Second Connecticut Lake

Second Connecticut Lake sits near the top of New Hampshire, 1,102 acres of cold northern water in the town of Pittsburg, hard against the Canadian border in Coos County's Great North Woods. It is the second link in the Connecticut Lakes chain, perched at 1,866 feet — higher, smaller, and noticeably wilder than First Connecticut Lake downstream. The shoreline is spruce-fir forest with almost no development, moose outnumber anglers on many mornings, and the lake carries the unpolished character that draws people to Pittsburg in the first place.

The fishery is pure North Country coldwater: landlocked Atlantic salmon, lake trout, and eastern brook trout, with burbot prowling the bottom. New Hampshire Fish and Game manages Second Connecticut as a stocked lake trout and/or salmon lake, with the salmon program carrying the marquee fishery. What distinguishes this lake from its bigger neighbor, though, is the brook trout component — a portion of the population is wild, holding near the cold inlets and adding a native dimension that First Lake cannot match.

Second Connecticut is also a different kind of water biologically. Where First Lake is a deep oligotrophic basin, Second is mesotrophic — richer and more productive, with an average depth of just 20 feet and a maximum of 63. That shallower, more fertile profile grows better insect life, and fly anglers here get genuine chironomid and mayfly fishing over the shallows in addition to the streamer game. For a floating-line stillwater angler, it is arguably the most interesting lake in the chain.

The classic program starts at ice-out, which comes late at this elevation — often well into May. Salmon chase baitfish along the shorelines and off the inlets, and casting or trolling streamers through the top of the water column produces the best fish of the year. That window stretches through early summer here longer than on lower lakes, and when it closes, the shallows keep producing on midge pupae and mayfly patterns while brook trout stack near the coldwater inlets.

Just as important as the lake itself is what leaves it: the dam at the outlet launches the fly-fishing-only section of the Connecticut River that tumbles down to First Connecticut Lake, one of New England's blue-ribbon trout reaches. Many anglers treat Second Connecticut as base camp — mornings on the river, evenings on the lake — and the combination makes Pittsburg's upper chain one of the finest fly-fishing destinations in the East.

Second Connecticut Lake is a natural mesotrophic lake, and that trophic status is the key to understanding it. With 1,102 surface acres averaging only 20 feet deep and bottoming out at 63, it is a far shallower, more fertile basin than the deep oligotrophic troughs of First Connecticut Lake and Lake Francis below it. The NHFG depth chart shows broad shallow flats and gradual contours rather than plunging drop-offs, with the deeper water concentrated in a limited portion of the basin — structure a fly angler can actually cover.

Productivity shows up in the food web. The lake supports better insect life than its downstream neighbors, with chironomids and mayflies active over the shallows through the warm months, alongside the baitfish that sustain the salmon and lake trout. Cold inlet streams feed the lake and create thermal refuges where wild brook trout concentrate once the surface warms.

At 1,866 feet of elevation this is genuinely cold water: ice lingers late, the fishable surface season starts and ends later than lakes to the south, and even in midsummer the mornings run cool. Weather sweeps through the border country fast, and an open 1,100-acre lake can build a chop quickly.

At 1,866 feet in the Great North Woods, Second Connecticut freezes early and holds ice long after lakes to the south have opened up. Winter effort here is light compared with First Connecticut Lake and Lake Francis, and access roads in this corner of Pittsburg are remote. Confirm the current ice-season dates and species rules for lake trout and salmon waters in the NH Freshwater Fishing Digest before making the drive, and check conditions with a Pittsburg-area shop.