 What is up guys? Joe Holland here. I have a pretty exciting episode here for you today I am in northern Maine heading into a remote pond. I'm on the login roads right now I got a tip that there's a possibility that there's crappy up here Couple hours north of Bangor, which I don't know if I believe I found a route in through the Google And I'm gonna go as far in as I can with the truck Then I'm gonna switch over to the snowmobile and go in hopefully there's ice There should be ice because I'm further north than I was this last week when I had five inches ice So I'm hoping there's enough ice to hold the snowmobile I'm hoping there's enough ice to hold me and I'm gonna camp on the ice and I am on the search this year for a crappy over 18 inches I'm not gonna devote the entire year to it But if I have day trips if I have a couple and trips open where I could just run out for a couple days I'm going after something 18 inch or plus. I know they live in Maine They're out there and it would be something else to get one over 18 inches What I love are tiny little ponds that the crappy becomes the dominant fish in there crappy crappie black crappy crappy Becks speckled perch perch Dot slabs fry pan dinner plates magas They got all the names of the books for them. I call them crappies are probably way off That's how we call them in the north. They're actually really not even known up here yet Small little remote pond in the middle of the woods in log and country. I have no idea what's in there Somebody told said that there could be bass in there Which I'm guessing would be smallmouth bass because I don't think there's any large mouth that live this far north Could be native brook trout in here probably native Pickerel and yellow perch as well would be cool if there's some white perch to no idea what's in here No idea what there is for ice Excited to be here excited to be on my first camping trip of the season Hopefully, I don't forget too much stuff and hopefully I get set up pretty quick. Thanks for tuning in guys Hope you enjoy the show as much as I'm gonna enjoy filming it Right we got some weather coming in for sure and some pretty high winds the next couple days So I'm gonna get this thing zipped down as quick as I can with the anchors And I'm either gonna I'm even gonna run the anchors off the sides. I'd say that was pretty quick Maybe 10 or 15 minutes and I got the whole thing set up ready to go ready to sleep ready to cook Ready for just about everything Let's take a look table cook stove Buddy heater with the hose going outside to a propane tank brought a Milwaukee light this year. We're gonna try that out Caught sletta set up with a big sleeping pad under it sleeping bag there got my chair here clothes and various batteries and then all the camera and recording stuff there and That's about it. I got a couple coat hangers in the bottom of that bag I'll get out and and get a couple of these jackets hung up and out of the way and that's it So I'm gonna leave this just the way it is right now shut the door and there's enough sunlight out there This place will get pretty warm And I'm gonna go poke a couple holes see if there's any fish here quick change of plans With my lifelong distrust for politicians and weathermen the weatherman said We're supposed to get like a dusting tomorrow Maybe a little bit of snow and then on my ride up here I noticed the switch to like six inches and once you get a couple hours north of Bangor I just I've seen what they call six or seven inches before turn into 48 inches in one storm They called for seven inches turn into 48 24 hours. So I just don't trust it So I'm pretty far in on this login road. I'm close to the pond now But what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna I loaded up the snowbeel I'm gonna take it back out all the way maybe seven or eight miles to Close to the end of that login road Where I think they might get a plow to just in case we get more snow and then I'll take the snow Beal in I got like four or five inches of snow right now So shouldn't be a problem that way just in case we get a ton of snow My truck isn't stuck in here for the rest of the winter, you know I'd much rather be fishing right now But it's a smarter move with a little bit of age as I'm trying to come upon a little bit of wisdom There's pros and cons to bringing the truck all the way back out You know, it's a very very very long walk out if the snowmobile breaks down or if I can't get snow Beal running when I'm in there or if I get injured I'm further away from the truck But if it dumps on us like it possibly can because I've said it once I'll say it probably Another time too, but these mountains up here. They make their own weather So if the weatherman's calling for four to six, you're pretty much want to multiply those together and expect 24 You know, if they call for eight to ten, go ahead and multiply them. It could be 80 inches. That's just how it is up here I hated losing that hour to do that, but I think it was the right move Only time will tell and you know when you're up here in situations like we're in right now It's always better safe than sorry. I got maybe a half hour of light right now left and It is killing me not knowing if there's crappy in here or not. I cannot believe Johnny crappie seed made his way all the way up here, but If it's true If it's true I'm gonna be so happy and so amazed to get into one and there's a chance You know with a first-generation crappy in this pond that he's really big Let's hope they're in here. If not, I will be fishing for perch or bass or trout or Whatever the heck's in here. I have no idea on the depth. It looks like there could be some depth because of the contour You know over there. There's a nice high bank a good ridge over here. It's kind of lowland So it probably is a little deeper on that side. I'm gonna go out the middle poke a hole Take the Garmin and a jig rod and see if anything shows up. Let's hope fingers crossed y'all y'all I could say that now that I'm a crappy fisherman very deep there Looks like a harder sandy bottom Normally, I start dead center of the lake. I guess I'm center this way, but I'm not Center that way. It's brought it should be deeper over there. It looks like more of a bowl I'll drop this down. It's gonna make some noise. See if anything comes over Oh, it's a crappy. Oh my god. They're in here They are in here Holy cow guys Johnny crappy seed has made his way way up here in northern Maine Look at how pretty that one is. The screen's lit up with these guys all about that size They're in here. We got a chance. We got a chance. That's a little better All right, so I got a school down there. They're pretty fired up. They're not easy to catch though But that guy came came in and ate it pretty good I'm gonna move around till I find some deeper water or bigger fish Kind of pretty aren't they? That's it for today. I'm shocked. There's crappy in here. That's awesome. I Drilled like ten holes around the pond and found the deepest hole so far was only 11 and the shallowest out near the middle was nine and Everywhere I drilled there were crappy on the screen and they were maybe five to eight inches I call it like five or six of them. They're really pretty fish here, but I don't know. I don't know I'm hoping there's still some big ones here. I'm hoping there's like a first class of fish in here We'll know more tomorrow. I got shiners I got a bucket of Chiners over there, man And we're gonna put those out tomorrow see if we can catch them fish with those and I'm gonna bounce around and do some jigging too. I just got that thing running I've been fighting that thing for like the last half hour for some reasons been like spitting and kicking out and then Shutting off and then spitting again. I went out and messed with the nozzle and shook the can and I don't know if I had some bad Propane or bad propane in the line or what seems to be running right now Otherwise, it's gonna be a really cold night if that spits out again I'm prepared for it if it isn't on so it's not a big deal. I got the Milwaukee tower of power a big light there I could angle it this way and get a little bit more light over here if I want But it seems to be pretty bright in here. So right now. I'm set up. I'm thinking about dinner Gonna try out the new Coleman hyper flame probably unpack and get some dry socks on and some some warmer clothes and Try to put a game plan together for tomorrow What I'm thinking is to try to cover as much as the lake as I can to at least find where the deepest holes are set For traps maybe move those around with some live bait on it and just jump around with the live scope and And see if I could find some big fish out there. I'm not 100% sure what's in here I do know there's crappy in here now Which is really cool because I was not sure there was or there were or there are crappy in here And we'll figure out what we're gonna have for dinner tonight. It is already pretty cold. It is 17 degrees and dropping it was a high at 26 today and it's been dropping pretty fast the last 20 minutes So I know we got a pretty good storm system moving in tomorrow. Looks like it's gonna be a quarter It could drop as much as 12 inches on us or it could be Rain sleet and rain. I hope it's not rain. These tents aren't really made for rain or for the sleet They can handle, you know freezing rain or a little bit of sleep They're not really made for and not really made for snow either if you have the heat on in here All righty that big buddy eater is fired up now running good running smooth So I don't know what it was if I had like an air pocket in the hose or something But it wasn't running really good at all it kept shutting out So we'll worry someone you're when you're looking at zero degrees or less tomorrow night and maybe Single digits tonight dinner tonight is gonna be one of my favorite road meals I have a couple packs of deer burger left from a deer I shot not this year but the year before I did not get a deer this year We know what happens to guys ice fishing who didn't get the idea this year is They end up eating hot dogs if if you see guy eating hot dogs more likely he did not get a deer probably tomorrow night We're gonna have some of these old Lewiston Lobster as these red snappers Drive a couple of them into me, but tonight we're getting some brown gravy We're getting poblano peppers and onions gonna Grill those up and the fry those up in the pan with some olive oil that olive oil Thaws out and then we're gonna throw a little brown gravy in there and throw that burger in there and saute it up And man does that go down good? I don't know what it's called if there's name for it, but I call it good And I still have some okra left it it froze But I don't know you're not supposed to really freeze okra like that But I probably ought to eat that for it gets too slimy so we're gonna have okra tonight for some greens and Drive a really good meal into me the ice is Snapping cracking and I think it's getting thicker tonight already So it's making a lot of noise, which is a really cool Comforting sound. I know when you're sleeping on it if it moves, you know if you get that little buckle That's not the best feeling but just hearing it pop and and it hasn't been crazy loud But it's almost like a living breathing thing. It's just really kind of soothing. Let's see if we can hear it There we go a little bit bigger Yeah, sir, that's a good crap here right there. All right It's not bad