 Good morning guys day number two pema dumb keg pema dumb cook and but you just I Don't know the names of this lakes pretty tired today. I'm not gonna lie. We We hit the cusp fishing pretty hard last night We're gonna go till about eight or so and she's we're having such a good time hanging out with each other We ended up going till think close to 1130 and I came in slept an hour Got up checked the traps Every hour till About a little bit over an hour ago, so I still got lines in the water got a chance for another cusk I'm hoping we ended up popping. I think six or seven no size to any of them, which was surprising how small they were Ended up keeping three that we can get some meat out of make some cusk nuggets today Do a little catch and cook from last night plan for today is to set up for salmon in the morning Do a little jigging for toge and also look for some more cusk and possibly set a brookie line because I think there are There's brookie in this chain of lakes, but it's not really known for it over here where I'm fishing in front of the boom house So I might still set for one because you never know they got tails and they can swim so they couldn't be anywhere Got the coffee brewing the coffee's gonna hit pretty good today pretty tired not a lot of sleep It's like 530 right now, but the nice thing is things firmed up last night They got pretty pretty cold not super cold is gonna get warm again slushy situation again today So I'm not sure if I'm gonna end up staying tonight and doing a day three or if I'm gonna try to pack up and get out of here Before it gets to be too much of a mess if I do another day Then I'll just have to do an exit sometime in the morning when it firms up Overnight now I brought stuff for cooking breakfast and everything but pretty tired I don't know if you guys have ever been that way, but I'm tired enough and worn out from yesterday where I'm not even that hungry So I'm gonna drive some mrs. Dunsters into me She's a Canadian lady that makes some pretty good donuts that they sell here at the can of Fords and Maine It's spelled hana fords, but it's pronounced can of Fords today. I am fishing solo Everybody took off last night for the night. They're gonna recover today Probably do some unpacking and get ready for the grind back to work on Monday This lake I guess is getting overrun with salmon So you're allowed three salmon with a 12-inch minimum, which is pretty liberal for Maine Maine's usually super protective of their salmon, but I guess there's a pile of men here and a pile of small ones They want to start getting some of the smaller ones out So some have a chance to grow bigger and hopefully produce a decent trophy salmon Lake in the state of Maine somewhere No, he's there a little decent. Thanks salmon good way to start the day with a silver side Nice little salmon there. That one's big enough to eat. We'll take him home So I know a lot of you guys that fish salmon fish them You know anywhere from just under the ice to like 12 foot down over pretty deep water You know over 30 50 even a hundred foot of water And this is just the way I learned, you know, and I know you catch them that way and I'm just gonna show you how I catch them is I catch them a little shallower. This is 12 8 to 12 foot of water, you know only 20 foot off a of shore or a rock or structure And I just fish them a couple feet below the ice in that 8 to 12 range sometimes a shallow is like six foot when I target them I catch them pretty regularly and pretty easily By doing that and I think what they do is they drive the smelt in and they're chasing smelt in on the shoreline And rather than the smelt being able to go every single different direction up down left right Or center the shoreline takes away a big part of that escape route for them So they can't go down because they don't have the depth they can't go in because they're already up against the bank So it takes away a couple different spots for them to get away and make some a little bit more easy target And I've found some of the bigger salmon closer to shore by doing that So if you're salmon fishing give it a try and you might pop a brook trout too It's similar to how we fish brook trout in Maine in the ice. No, he's there. Oh big head shakes Wow Big head shakes coming at me another decent one, I think Wow Going about a hundred miles an hour Yeah, this thing's got some huge head shakes. Oh geez another good one. All right Look at that Goldie All right, we got enough to eat for right now I'm getting close to my limit. So I'm gonna pop that hook out and get him right back down the hole Well, we'll do a little bit of a late breakfast Got some taters and eggs and ketchup and hot sauce on there Flags were flying pretty good this morning and then they just kind of died off So maybe do a little bit of jigging and check the other side for some cusk too But first drive some good breakfast in me and then we'll go from there Down a color this thing took a crazy run. I don't even feel him yet. Yep, he's there Definitely there Feels pretty good feels like a salmon shoreline traps doing really well today We're gaining on them. Definitely gaining on that strain These salmon have huge head shakes and they fight a lot harder than trout Oh geez another nice one Another good salmon for the pot All right Here's a little trick that a good buddy of mine Matt showed me and when he showed me the light bulb just went Off I could not believe I didn't know this trick already After you get one on your tip up like this and they've stripped a bunch of line I did a pretty good job fighting it and just throwing it way out and then kind of moving it over But if I just pick this up and reel it in or or loop it back over you could see the lines Under and over and I'm gonna get knots in here and it's gonna be a major problem I'm either gonna have to cut it out or it's gonna take a while to clean up Normally ice fishing is cold. It's windy and you don't want to mess around like this with your hand My buddy Matt taught me this trick. He said you take the end With your hook on it and you walk it out and you never ever get a knot It's pretty rare to ever get a knot and then you can wind it right back in so rather than take it from the real side, which You know you you want to do In most cases you take it from the hook side You could walk it all the way out or you could kind of just spread it out like this And then when I reel it back in it's just gonna come back in That has saved me so much time and so many knots and I thank Matt every day that we fish together For teaching me that trick and it was just something I'd ice fished for 20 years and didn't know that trick and You know you're always battling with knots and stuff so Hook side winder out take her out walk her out do whatever you got to do But right now I'm gonna wind that up. There's not gonna be any knots at all another trick dealing with line and and you reel my buddies from West Grand Brandon Kyle Cameron and Colin I started watching what those guys are doing now those guys fish deep So they're usually fishing you know 12 fathom or so For tog and then tog take another 12 fathom run and all of a sudden they got 150 to 200 foot of line out And rather than deal with what I'm dealing with right now They work as a team as friends so they'll what they'll do is they'll step over the trap and hold it between their legs and They'll use both hands one keeps the line taut and the other one reels it in And that way it's evenly spaced on your reel and you're not getting it around the post or the handle And a lot of times they have that done before the guy even has the fish on the ice And that way you're you know it'd take a long time to get that done and get your bait back down So that's another trick if you if you're working in teams or even in a situation like this where I'm alone It's a lot easier for me to actually use that reel and wind this up There's only a three inch reel and as you can see it's coming up pretty good And it's this is the quickest way to get this back in gear and and back in the water You just take your finger and move it side to side to fill the void in the reel where it's lowest So that way it's even and it's not going to roll over on top of itself and Also using this to keep the line taut so it goes on there nice and tight too There we go. Just like that. We're back in business He's on it He hit it Got him Got him What's up wrong with my reel But I got him It's a salmon. Wow Cool. All right my first jig salmon awesome Right off the bottom That was pretty cool On a drop shot drop shot with a dead minnow. There goes my minnow right there Oh something's gonna eat that something just ate my minnow There he goes guys Salmon on jig rod She is getting wet out here fellas The lake's got an inch or two on it. It's probably close to 60 degrees today Everything is melting. There's plenty of ice. There's got to be two foot of ice anyway Oh look at that water running We got a flag coming at me where he came off one of the other I think he's coming at me. Yeah, he's coming fast There we go. I just hit him again I think it's a tog. I think it might be a tog of whole fish Which there aren't many in here Nope Look at that square tail. Look at that brookie You kidding me? Oh my god, what a fish to end on They don't really catch brookies in here from what I hear I cannot believe it that trap kicked out my biggest salmon ever And now one of the better brookies I've ever caught I can't believe it. I'm I'm all packed up. This is probably the last fish of the year Last trap of the year last day on the ice for the year And I'm picking up my last trap and the flag is up. It's only been up twice all weekend It was that landlocked salmon that big one now this brookie That is a staven brookie. What a beauty Wow, what a way to end the year unbelievable Look at the colors on that guy That brookie is thick Didn't he fight? He fought pretty good too I really thought I was hung up on bottom, but he was just given a a battle. That's that's over two pounds pretty easy Absolute gorgeous fish and that is going to eat really nice They don't get much prettier than that Well guys if this ends up being the last episode of the year I really want to thank you guys for helping grow the channel I put a ton of hard work into it and a ton of effort into it And the reason I did it was for you guys Because of the feedback I was getting and and you know so much positive energy going back and forth I really want to thank you guys for for helping grow the channel And it motivates me to grow it even more and do more of the stuff that that I enjoy doing And then I believe you guys enjoy seeing me do I've said it once I'll say it again as the three most important things for my channel Is one that I inspire people whether it be to inspire them to get out ice fishing or To make their own youtube channel or To get outdoors or to go winter camping or or just to do something if you can inspire somebody It really makes me feel good to be able to do that and the second thing is to educate I've been so fortunate with so many teachers and people with more knowledge than me in the outdoors that have helped me and educate me over the years So if I could pass that along to anyone else whether they're younger older or the same age That means a lot to me too. So Those are the first two things and then the last thing is to entertain You know my channel isn't all about entertainment But if if it can entertain people too more power to you and I enjoy entertaining as well So thanks guys for viewing. I hope this isn't the last one of the year, but it might be we're losing ice Super fast. I'm getting off the lake right now. Oh, man. I cannot even believe that just happened guys I mean how many times do we all go ice fishing you're picking up that last trap and you're just hoping for one more flag And this is pretty much the end of the year for me I'd be lucky if I can get out one more time because the conditions are Fading in a hurry and I had everything all ready to go packed up on the sled and I was like, well That's it. I'm gonna go pick up my traps and the last trap I got to whole lucky the new main flag on that one On that jack trap and it was rolling I thought I had a tog when I saw the dots because it was fighting so hard I didn't even think for a second. It was going to be a big old brook trout And man I'm I'm still stoked. That's the type of fish right there that carries you all the way to next season That's like the golfers who go out and shoot 105 and hit one good shot and they can't wait to get back out again That's the way I'm feeling right now Guys once again, thanks for tuning in. You have no idea how much it All the support means to me and the positive comments and the the thumbs up when you guys hit that sub button That means a lot to me and I really think we're building a really cool community here with the channel And it's all doing part to you guys. Thanks again for tuning in. Hopefully we get some more ice fishing, but I don't know. We'll see