 It is freaking cold. It's day number four. We are looking at negative 22 Negative 22.2 right now still dropping a little bit It's been up and down for the last couple hours a couple clicks here and there the coldest I've seen was 23 and that is the coldest I've ever seen Winter camping in my tent. I had the heater on low all night So it is probably zero degrees in here. It's about to get a little warmer I just turned it on medium and I'm also doing some breakfast cooking a little breakfast and Started the coffee too. It's gonna warm up in here quite a bit That definitely changes the plans for today when things happen You always have to adjust your plans always try to make your situation better negative 23 is a little bit dangerous Add 20 mile an hour winds and it's super super dangerous. We're talking wind chill I don't even know how cold maybe 50 60 below. I'd have to check the conversion chart, but in those temperatures Your exposure time To that weather is super super low So you have to be super careful. You're gonna get frostbite. You could get hurt The other thing is if I go far where I want to go toad fishing or I want to go brook trout fishing That puts me far away from a heat source that puts me far away from a safe source Which is my tent and also further from my truck too So say I get buried in the slush or say I the snowmobile breaks down or say I I get hurt the situation gets really Really bad gotta use my brain a little bit. I'm gonna fish from the tent today in this area out here for brook trout Don't think it's a great area, but how the heck do I know? I thought I was in the great area yesterday, and I didn't catch anything. So yeah, I'm gonna fish from the tent today Sip some coffee and probably read a book in a little bit closer to 30 degree temps inside the temp Let's get some breakfast in me She is pretty still out here today Got so cold last night around 3 in the morning I woke up to the trees were actually popping and cracking from freezing So I knew it was at least 20 below at that point, and I looked over and it said 23 below It's usually like the spruce and the fir trees the sap inside of them or the water inside of them will actually freeze at that Temperature and crack it's kind of a neat sound to hear those things popping the ice cracked a couple times last night, too But not too much and then you don't hear anything for animals or birds or anything like that when it's this cold They go in a straight survival mode that they've learned from a hundred thousand years of survival and modifications So that way they can survive the cold so like the partridge when it gets this cold or rough grouse Whatever you want to call them wherever you live They actually go under the snow and use the snow as an insulator to live through these really cold nights and Most things burrow into the ground or the snow when it's this cold Frosty and caress It ain't warmed up much. We're still looking at 20 below zero, so let's see if the sled's gonna fire up What do you guys think? I'm thinking I'm gonna have to pull start ever. We'll see it is cold as for Yeah, it's cold. I'm gonna fish from camp today The tree popping Still getting colder So I got all five sets in probably one in about two foot of water one and four foot the others are all like six to eight foot All pretty good ranges for brook trout. I I only have two small only have two small shiners in play and the other three are all pretty big stuff A lot bigger than most people would use for brook trout, but I'm going for big and My bait is not doing well. I'm gonna bring the bait in put it near the heater It's starting to freeze up pretty bad. All right, we're fishing fishing from home She's moving much nothing there There's definitely nothing there other than my bait. He looks like he's been swallowed and spit out Well, that was exciting. It's a pretty big Shiner Wow, he's chewed right up cool, I Might have to put a little bit smaller Shiner on this one We'll let that sit for a minute With that chewed up bait. He's still alive, but he ain't doing too well and Maybe I'll switch out to a little bit smaller bait if it doesn't go back up in a little while I want to show you these tracks that came through this morning Pretty cool. I just took a quick look at them. We're gonna have to figure them out for ourselves I thought originally they might have been a fisher cat like carrying something in its mouth What it kind of looks like Normally if you see that drag mark in the belly you think otter, but this is way too small for an otter even a small otter and there's quite a few tracks where it's Just footprints, so let's take a look It could be an otter. I guess it could have been a small otter Hard to say to me it looks like Maybe a fisher. Let's look at the prints That would help a lot. There's one displayed right now Otter have a pretty good web in their toe Yeah, it's either It was either a fisher carrying a rabbit or it could have been a small otter I guess if it was an otter it's one of the smaller ones I've ever seen I Got my bait to throw out a little bit. I still have a bunch of bait alive I did lose a handful one two three four five six seven eight eight or so there and my my little air Bubbler's right there. I got to get that back so I'm gonna chop that baby up That's the guy we need guys it is brutally brutally slow fishing right now for me. The wind is absolutely howling I'm glad I decided to stay at the home base camp and fish from the shack today Even though I'm in the lee here anywhere else I'd go. I'm pretty much smoked and I'm glad that I made that decision I don't have a ton of experience on moose head lake, but I do have one story I'd like to share with you. We used to come up as a big group from my town My community used to have like I think it was like a dozen guys would go on this ice fishing trip Every Martin Luther King weekend and we'd go to different lakes all around the state It was really a lot of fun and we had people maybe in their upper 70s and people in their 20s So it was a really good mix of people a lot of uh blue collar working men one year We came to moose head. We were staying in rockwood over by kinio and the wind was howling the very first day I was the only guy who got out on the ice and I remember my traps actually blew out of the hole And flew across the ice because it was glare ice and the only thing that stopped them from ending up in greenville Was the hook caught on the ice and the reel was still going and I had to fight it. Oh, it was it was just A crazy weather trip. It always is on moose head these mountains around the lake up here They really do make their own weather But that same trip I think we got out like the second or third day We brought a hard shack made out of like aluminum and metal And wood and we were bringing it out. We're gonna fish right under kinio Like where it would block the wind and everything and it's just a cool place to fish anyway One of the elders on the group bob walker Bless his soul. He's not with us anymore, but he was one of the great guys of our community He was the volunteer fire department chief forever He was a plumber electrician could do anything always helped everybody that he could and just a great all-around guy Always had just a great sense of humor His son Darren and I went to school together So Darren and I were always on the trip as well and bob the funny thing was bob never ever ever left the ice shack Darren would set all of his traps for him and he would tend all of his traps for him And he'd catch all the fish for him too. Bob probably won that fishing derby that we all threw five bucks in bob Probably won that like I don't know five or six times. He never left the shack So it was the funniest thing But that particular trip we're going across the lake and the wind's blowing like 50 probably And we get over to where we're gonna fish and somebody unhooks the shack and bob's still in it and the wind catches it And it's just glare ice and the shack takes off at like 35 miles an hour down the lake with the skis under it No snow there's patches of snow here and there so it could catch and just roll right over And I remember chasing after them on the snowmills There was like three of us chasing after the shack and there was this little tiny eight by eight window on the door And bob couldn't open the door because that's the way the shack was blowing So he couldn't even open the door and jump out before the thing took a tumble Because he would have gotten run over and all you could see in that window was bob's face and his eyes were about like that big As that shack took off and luckily it was somebody with one of the faster sleds got ahead of it And kind of slowed it down and brought it to a stop. But yeah, that's one of my favorite Moosehead lake memories and memories of bob too. We got a flag up It's that same flag that was up earlier. I put a smaller bait on there. So hopefully the fish would eat it this time It is ripping wind out there. So I'm going to suit up Let's go get them Turn down this sandwich that's cooking Got a hot roast beef we're going right now Let's go catch it a brook trout Nice brook trout boys and girls awesome I think he might be in that slot Let's get a measurement on him Can't keep them Between 18 and 22 Yep. No, that one's got to go back. It's 20 inches That's awesome. That's a couple pounder right there All right, he hasn't been out very long. What we're going to do we're going to check for the hook real quick It's deep enough. I'm just going to cut him Nice That is the biggest brookie I've ever caught I'm going to show them to you one more time real quick because I have to pick them up to flip them over And then we're going to send them back down That is a pretty fish right there There he goes That made it all worth it right there folks 20 inch brook trout native swimming around Oh my god, I'm stoked. I am so friggin stoked right now guys Sucks that I got thrown back. Well, you know, uh, he's going to be a giant for somebody else to catch someday Maybe some kid or somebody new to ice fishing is going to get a chance at a giant But that is awesome 20 incher my first 20 inch brook trout I've ever caught. I'm stoked. I'm I'm so pumped right now Thanks for viewing guys. This day isn't over yet. Maybe we'll get another one I don't know but it's getting nasty and windy and ripping out here I don't know if you could see but there's a haze Out there what that haze is is that is the wind ripping I'm tucked in this corner the best spot I could possibly be on the lake But it is friggin howling it's still coming around and it's just swirling right now. So I'm going to get back in the shack and Trying to warm up a little bit Guys, I just caught my biggest brook trout ever I'm so stoked. It has been a Brutally hard trip on me the three things I told you that we're going to be really tough on any of these wilderness camping trips or Winter camping trips as I should say in this case because I'm just on moosehead Our wind extreme cold and slush and guess what we hit all of them Got them all it's blowing like 35 to 40 out there. It was 22 below zero this morning It is eight below zero right now And there's pockets of slush everywhere it almost ruined my trip and almost lost my snowmobile in it for the year but drew the hard times and the hard work Two flags today the first one took my big bait chewed on it spit it And I reset that trap after an hour putting that same bait down with a little smaller bait And it's been she's probably four or five hours. No flags. I'm really starting to question my ability as a fisherman and the lake And that flag goes up. So just to give you a heads up that was in six or seven foot of water I set the bait about three foot down I like to I like to do that for what I call like a kill zone when you're in that kind of depth of water So you're not on the bottom because you're not going for bottom feeders But you're in a zone where they could still find it It's not right under the surface where they might miss it if they're on the bottom And they might not swim above it either if you're three foot down and it kind of leaves them out there like a sitting duck so so yeah that thing ran like I don't know 40 yards got hung up and something I set the hook and I felt the fish But then it like kind of stopped and it wasn't just the fish stopping me It was around like a rock or something. So I'm super fortunate to have caught that fish And I'm pumped I reset it and the wind's howling even harder now and I'm back in the shack Good idea for today For once I'm going to pat myself in the back for making the right decision And hopefully we get another flag guys. I just went and checked a couple more and And dug the ice out of the holes All right guys end of day four Another awesome day kind of feel like the weather's kind of tying my hands a little bit here Not not being able to just go out wherever I want one. I gotta be safe too I gotta be somewhat comfortable in negative 22 degree weather with uh 30 mile hour winds It ended up working out pretty darn good because I caught my personal best biggest brook trout I've ever caught 20 inches according to the slot limit on this lake anything between 18 and 22 has to go Right back. So it went right back which hey that fish is gonna if it keeps growing It's gonna get really big which is cool because I'd love to catch one 24 25 26 inches too And I like catching 20 inches to be honest with you plan for tomorrow is not Solidified yet. I think I want to go catch some lake trout if I can get out there It's supposed to be windy again But each day I noticed the wind really didn't start till like 11 and then it just came ripping in each day The last two days so tomorrow supposed to be a little less wind than today I have a feeling tonight's gonna get like pretty cold because it is already It's already three below zero So we're a little bit ahead of schedule that we were on last night So it might get as cold as last night or colder. We'll see if the weather's decent I'm gonna take a ride tomorrow morning into some deeper water I looked around here out in the front of lily bay and I didn't get much deeper than like 35 foot and Didn't find any fish at all I found one little tiny school of yellow perch at like 38 foot, which was the deepest I think I was So I think I need to get in some deeper water to get a really good toke bite So I'm gonna head over to deer island Maybe whiskey island and see if there's some deeper water off that where there's some decent toke If I can if I can be mobile if not. Hey, I'll brook trout fish around here again And then tomorrow night I think I'm gonna go to town and meet a buddy to fish a remote spot on Saturday But that's not ironed out yet either. So we'll see what happens all up in the air Looking forward to a decent comfortable night tonight. Get a little reading in and have an awesome day tomorrow Thanks for tuning in guys. See you then