 What is up guys? Joe Holland here. Another really really rough start to an ice fishing season here in Maine. We've had ice two or three times for like two or three days each time. I haven't been able to get out and capitalize on it. What I'm going to do for you guys right now is I'm going to bring you the top 10 ice fishing lakes in the state of Maine. Totally my opinion based on fish in there, the lake, the use it gets, access points, how pretty it is, and just overall what makes the best ice fishing lakes. Now one thing I want to talk about beforehand, something I always bring up on my channel is a YouTube code of ethics when you're either hunting or fishing a location. The way I see it is every single body of water anywhere in the United States is somebody's favorite special home body of water that's really special to them. So you don't want to blow it up with YouTube. But there are a lot of lakes here in the state of Maine that me personally, I can't really make a difference on. They're too popular already. Everybody knows about them. So I don't mind disclosing those lakes if I feel like I can't hurt those lakes. I had some people get a little butt hurt last year over the fact that I talked about Chamberlain Lake or East Grand Lake actually was one in particular where, hey, it's a super popular ice fishing lake. It's really important to the economy in that area that people ice fishing. I don't mind disclosing those lakes that everybody knows about. But if it's a small pond that has maybe some decent crappy in it, or, you know, it's a really small lake that has some good brook trout in it or something like that, then I feel like if I post something on YouTube and a bunch of people go there because they just found out about it on YouTube and they never heard of it before, it could hurt that body of water and the fishery. So I try to take that into account that every single body of water is someone's favorite body of water. And it's their special body of water that's special to them. That's kind of my code of ethics. And that's how, you know, if I don't post a name to a body of water, I'd rather not lie to you guys and tell you it's somewhere else. I'd rather just not tell you and we'll leave it at that. And if you know, you know, and if you don't, then hey, shoot me a DM, maybe, maybe, maybe I'll be willing to share a little bit of info on it. But for the most part, you know, if I don't tell you what it is, it's because I don't want to hurt that body of water out of respect for other sportsmen and fishermen. If I do say what it is, then I feel like I can't hurt it. So that's my code of ethics on it. Here we go with the top 10 ice fishing lakes in the state of Maine. Coming in at number 10. This will be the most controversial of my choices, because it's widely known in the ice fishing community as the Dead Sea. Otherwise known as my home lake, Damascota Lake. Damascota Lake is the largest lake in Lincoln County, coming in at about 13 miles long, two miles wide. It's separated into three different basins for a total of roughly 43 to 4,600 acres. It's known for its annual L-Wive run since 1807 when they built the first fish ladder at the south end of the lake. It has a decent amount of access points. It has two or three free access points with parking. One is the state boat launch. One is the Damascota Lake State Park Beach. And the other one is just a little bit of a small boat launch at the Vanna Road. And then of course there's loads of seasonal cottages and camp roads where people access the lake from those in the winter. One of the things I love about Damascota Lake is the variety of fish you can catch there. It has phenomenal perch fishing. Really, really good brown trout fishing in the winter. And then top notch for bass, both smallmouth and largemouth bass. Used to be stocked really strong with salmon and brook trout. Now I believe it's mostly stocked with brown trout. And I think there might still be some holdovers on the salmon, not many. And there are some native brook trout and some holdover stocked brook trout still swimming around. It's also known as one of the best jack smelt fisheries in the state of Maine too, which is one of my favorite things to target with the Garmin live scope out over the deep water in the Big Basin. Pretty strong on the warm water fish, including Pickerel. It does have some catfish, some hornpout, and also some black crappie now. The water's nice and clean. The lake's fairly pretty. It has some elevation around the lake to look at a lot of cottages that are seasonal. The maximum depth is 114 foot. Average depth is 30 foot. And it covers three different towns, including Jefferson, Nobleboro, and Newcastle. And it even has a little bit of a trickle going down into the town of Damascota, where it meets the saltwater. It does have a pretty good population of brown trout, and it also has a pretty good population of brown trout fishermen that'll camp out on the Great Bay for the entire season, targeting those big 8 to 15 pound browns. It's definitely a dangerous lake with a lot of springs and narrow sections. Usually swallows about two to three vehicles a year, including snowmobiles and small cars. Be careful if you're venturing out on Damascota Lake on a vehicle. I would put it up against any other lake in the state for its perch fishing, both for big humpback white perch and big long fat yellow perch too. So phenomenal yellow perch fishing in just about any of the coves and grass beds anywhere on the lake. And then in the basin area and the deeper areas, it has just incredible giant schools of big humpback white perch. Nice, big old white perch. That's a dark one. That's a meter. Coming in at number nine is the third largest lake in Maine, Chazun Cook Lake. At 22 miles long, one to four miles wide, it covers 25,183 acres and gets as deep as 150 foot deep. Chazun Cook's an odd one because at some time it was definitely number one in the state of Maine for ice fishing, once known as just an amazing trophy salmon fishery. And before that, incredible lake trout fishery. But since the dam's being built on it and the fluctuating levels, it hasn't been able to maintain a great lake trout population. I'm not 100% sure why the salmon population has dwindled to what it is for trophy salmon. Now there's I think unlimited, which is pretty crazy for the state of Maine, trying to bring back some very large salmon like there used to be in the days when the mill was open. But it's on my list because it is fun to go catch 40 salmon in a day if you want. And also because in my opinion, it's one of the best, if not the best, cusk or burbot lakes in the state of Maine for both quality and quantity. Great burbot fishing on both ends of the lake, everywhere I've been on that lake has produced them very large and very good numbers of burbot or cusk as we call them in Maine. Tons of history on the lake with Chazun Cook Village and going back to the days of throw when he came through on a canoe. They say the salmon fishing is coming back with more quality salmon being caught, but it's still nothing like the days when the mill was up and running and guys were making day trips from milling and catching a four to six pounder every single trip. Coming in at number nine, Chazun Cook Lake including Rip Lake, Caribou Lake and Moose pond which are all combined. Coming in at number eight is another controversial lake in the state of Maine. What was once just an oversized algae bloomed glorified farm pond is now one of the most popular ice fishing lakes in the state of Maine, Sabatis pond. Since the introduction of Northern Pike and Black Crappy in the 1970s in Maine, the popularity of ice fishing has gone up and the popularity of the lakes that hold them have gone through the roof. The annual Pike Derby on Sabatis pond is a tremendous draw with thousands of anglers from all over the state. The Northern Pike offers a fish to the angler in a completely different class range than Maine anglers are used to targeting in the 20 to 30 pound class range. This once glorified algae bloomed farm pond that was a decent bass and perch fishery is now one of the most popular lakes in the state of Maine. It's put out some incredible crappie fishing as well and if you can still find the white perch schools there are some decent humpbacks worth taking home as well. It's generally a shallow pond getting into the 20 foot depth range. Average depth is under 15 foot the north end is roughly five to six foot of just a huge shallow basin. The overall size quality of the Pike isn't really the best compared to some other Maine lakes but the quantity more than overcomes for that. You could literally go with 12 dozen bait and be out by noon icing over 150 Northern Pike from the two to six pound range. With the occasional giant mixed in there's been some pike caught in that lake in the 27 pound range. Tons of action a lot of fun for the kids for the whole family and just an absolute blast of ice fish. I wouldn't go there without a jig rod for the chance of catching some of the biggest crappie in the state of Maine and also some big white and yellow perch. Coming in at number seven is a very popular lake in northeast Maine best known for huge ice carousels world records actually and for the biggest ice fishing derby in the state of Maine is Long Lake. Long Lake is known for incredible salmon fishing is the deepest of the fish river chain of lakes. It has very clean and clear water roughly 6,000 acres principally known for its landlock salmon and brook trout fishing maximum depth is 163 feet deep. It's host to the biggest ice fishing derby in the state of Maine along with some other area lakes. I regret to say that I've only fished it one time. I wish I live a little bit closer to it but I think I'm going to make some more plans to fish it a lot more in the future and also I'd love to get up there and video for you guys that ice carousel the world record ice carousel that they do every year. I heard they give away some Lewiston Lobsters at that event it would be really cool just to film it and see it as well but if you guys are looking to get the biggest salmon in the state of Maine the first lake that pops up to mind is always Long Lake in Sinclair or Saint Agat. Coming in at number six is one of the smallest lakes to make my top 10 ice fishing lakes in the state of Maine at a little bit over a thousand acres is Wasakag Lake in Dexter, Maine. Super crystal clear water very very clean lake consisting of basically two different lakes the road and bridge divides it. One side the small Wasakag is pretty shallow. A lot of your warm water fish species live in that side and then on the big side it's known for gigantic lake trout a little bit of salmon a little bit of brook trout and incredible bass fishing it's one of my favorite open water bass lakes in the state of Maine has just incredible smallmouth bass fishing it's 86 foot deep at its deepest spot with an average depth of 26 foot a lot of big boulders and gravel around the shoreline a lot more full-time year-round houses now instead of just the summer camps like it used to be but it's a super super popular ice fishing lake every time I drive by on my way to Moosehead I try to count how many ice shacks are out there the permanent ice shacks and it's usually in the 20s you've got to keep an eye out on the regulations as they change every few years for lake trout I started lake trout fishing Wasakag in the winter around 2000 late 1990s and it seemed like every single year the regulations changed on the size the bag limit and and also at the time when I first started fishing and it was great for both size and numbers now I heard it's a little bit tough of a bite but it's still just an incredible ice fishing lake that gets a lot of pressure a lot of people enjoy fishing lake Wasakag the primary target in the winter on lake Wasakag are tog but that's not to say that there aren't salmon and brook trout in there as well I fished a derby there years ago and before I got my fifth set out I caught a lake trout over seven pounds and you were only allowed one at the time so that pretty much ended my day for lake trout fishing so I moved my traps in tight to shore for brook trout and ended up getting a brook trout that took first place in the derby it was the only one weighed in but it was still you know there's still some brook trout in there and the bass fishing is just out of this world if you like smallmouth bass and then on the little side there's really good pickerel and largemouth bass fishing lake Wasakag it is little but it is mighty coming in at number five for the greatest ice fishing lakes in Maine arguably could be number one but it's number five west grand west grand lake is 14,500 acres it's 130 foot deep super super clear water if you have heard of the grand lake or canoe this is where it was invented and made since 1800 it's a square stern big long canoe that can handle big hard water like grand lake west grand lake dumps into grand lake stream it's known as one of the four heritage landlock salmon lakes that have always had landlock sam native landlock salmon I think it's pretty heavily stocked with salmon now but we're going to give it a shot for some salmon and I think the boys don't really go after the salmon as much they go after the mega toad because there's some toad in here that can push double digits down East Maine is really cool if you've never been up here or over here I should say we had a really good snow storm last night to turn the rain so the road's been kind of crappy but this drive has been like turning the clock back every 10 miles I go is like turning the clock back 10 years it's really neat up here it's like going back into history everything's kind of set back maybe 20 30 years behind the times of where I live and even more from where a lot of other people live west grand lake is one of the cleanest and clearest lakes in the state of Maine it's crazy to see it from a boat you could be over 30 to 40 foot of water and then in an instant be within six inches from a rock it has some major major boulders in it beautiful shorelines got a lot of shoreline with no houses or camps on it at all and the fishing is out of this world you could catch an unlimited amount of salmon the salmon are fat they're healthy there's a great population of smelt in there there's a really good fat population of white fish lots of white perch smallmouth bass now are in there the lake trout fishing is incredible guys are catching them up to 20 pounds and you could catch numbers huge numbers of lake trout in the two to five pound range it's a very very healthy fishery it has great cusk fishing at night I haven't heard of any giants out of there yet but I know they're in there there's uh there's enough four and five pounders that you know there's going to be some big cusk caught out of there at night like I said earlier west grand could easily be number one maybe it should be what do you guys think oh great day that was what we call the west grand slam now it's a salmon lake trout white fish and cusk all keeper size all good fish and just had an awesome day oh my god that's the real deal hammer a nice one dude told me that one that is awesome what do you think bob joe I don't know what to think I'd say 32 inches all right anytime you're ready you can go how big all right we're into the final four coming in number four if you follow the channel you know this is no stranger to the channel is the chamberlain lake chain chamberlain lake is one of the largest and deepest lakes in the north main woods coming in at roughly 11 000 acres it's a beast it has excellent lake trout fishing incredible brook trout fishing and decent whitefish fishing it's by far one of the prettiest lakes in the state of main very few buildings on the entire lake maybe a handful it offers views of mount katahden and just great views of the north main woods tons of login history in this area in between chamberlain and eagle are the famous trains and tramway chamberlain lake just offers a great place to get away from everything get up into the north main woods and have a chance at one of the biggest brook trout you'll ever catch in your life oh my god what a brookie what a brookie that's gonna be your biggest stuff so pretty all right we just set up about 15 20 minutes ago get back on the eye get back in the shack the brook trout fishing has just gotten better and better in my opinion including the lakes connected to chamberlain on the allogash waterway round pond tealoss and webster it's one of the few bodies of water where i get checked by a game warden just about every time i'm there and also get checked by the allogash waterway rangers so you know it's going to be protected for years and years to come two other things it's notable for are decent cusk mission you can get some really solid burbits at a chamberlain and the lakes attached to it and it's really well known for just being a wicked slush hole for some reason it gets slushed out big time the entire chain so be careful when you're up there take precautions and expect to have some slushy conditions if you have much for snow on the ice coming in number three one of the most popular ice fishing lakes in down east main is east grand lake east grand is not one of the easiest ice fishing lakes there is to fish or catch fish but when you do the fish are giant the rewards are huge the lake trout are just a different breed of lake trout in there compared to the ones in the rest of the state they are meaty they are big and when they are hungry they're gonna eat and if your lure or bait is in the way hold on it's also a really good salmon fishery but i don't really go there for the salmon i'm there for the big lake trout so if i do catch a salmon it's usually a bycatch an accident or if maybe i want something to eat that day because i usually don't eat the lake trout it is however quite possibly the best cusk fishing lake in the state it's on a little bit of a downhill decline for the monsters from what i heard it used to put out a lot more 10 to 15 pounders than it's been put out lately but as far as just numbers of good quality burbot goes i'd have to put east grand up against anything including chazun cook you could catch big numbers of cusk really good eater size and some bigger ones too you know over six pounders half of this lake is in canada so we share it with our canadian neighbors i see more trucks on east grand lake than any other lake that i fish and people are crazy they'll take it down to 12 inches late in the year when the ice is getting a little punkier soft and you'll still see 20 trucks a day out there plenty of places to stay on the lake a lot of camps on the lake a lot of air bnb's a lot of sporting camps i stayed at calgars the last time i was there but just a great all around ice fishing lake ice fishing community and very very popular well known lake east grand and then there were two coming in at number two for the best ice fishing lakes in the state of main i know i'm going to take a lot of flak on this one but just based on popularity alone the amazing fishery that it can be that it has been that it's going to be and the variety of monsters swimming around in this lake i got to go with number two being sabago lake otherwise known as slow bago or slow bago it's got a lot of bad nicknames for how slow it can be nowadays with how the state has been managing the lake trout fishery but it was once the greatest landlock salmon fishery in possibly the world maybe just the united states those days are gone they're gone forever it's not a salmon fishery at all for ice fishing you're not allowed to target them you're not allowed to lift them if you do catch one you gotta cut it at ice level but the lake trout fishing i've seen it amazing in there i've seen one guy catch over 100 lake trout in one day on a jig rod and it wasn't even a full day and that was fishing at about 140 foot deep now granted they were mostly like three to five pounds but for my money's worth that's a great day of fishing i don't really care you know if you don't catch a giant when you're catching that many especially on a jig rod when sabago is frozen and we have a really good winter it gets pounded it is a super super popular ice fishing lake there's a great derby that the rotary puts on there's some great bait and tackle stores nearby there are a lot of guides who make their living guiding ice fishing and open water on sabago lake it does hold some mega mega lake trout in there it has a great small mouth population with some big small mouth and it really does have some of the best pike and crappie fishing in the state of main there are some giant crappie in the coves and there are some just destroyer pike swimming around that lake i'm going to go ahead and say right now that more than likely the next state record is going to come out of sabago lake sabago is the deepest and second largest lake in the state of main it's 316 foot deep at its deepest point and an average depth of 101 feet deep it is super clear crystal clear and clean water it doesn't always freeze which makes it a little bit of a problem and when it does freeze it's a little bit sketchy the ice does break away with fishermen on it and fishermen have been known to go through there quite often so be careful when you're targeting sabago lake the shoreline is 105 miles long it the lake itself is 14 miles long it covers 45 square miles in surface area it's a pretty good size lake and it's touched by several towns including casco napels raiment sabago standish and windom we've done it we've made it all the way to number one why not go with the biggest is the best because in my opinion it is number one ice fishing lake in the state of main is moose head lake at roughly 40 miles by 10 miles it's 118 square miles over 400 miles of shoreline and it's 1023 feet above sea level mount kinio stands over 700 foot tall pretty well straight up and it's home to such a wide array of fish and some mega giants of several different species including the biggest brook trout that there are in the state of main it has some mega lake trout swimming around it has gigantic cusk huge small mouth bass and quite possibly the biggest lake chubs in the entire state too it does happen to make its own weather though so be careful because storms on moose head in the winter are frequent and they are strong and volatile the only bomber about moose head in the winter are the amount of areas that are closed to ice fishing such as spencer bay and lily bay and pretty much anywhere that would be excellent for brook trout fishing the state has closed off to the lowly ice fishermen like us oh it's a laker nice one joe it's a laker nice one oh that's a what is he doing in here oh there was a stick on it got him he's a little better than last i bet you guys see a ton of fish in those nests around oh yeah that's big that's big be a trout baby be a trout baby wow wow wow giant giant something oh monster trout monster trout yes all right we're gonna let him go there he goes dude he's coming straight in oh i don't know dude oh oh wow whoa it's got a lot of life it does have a lot of life wow are you gonna be able to catch it i hope so it's big it's good cool with him come here yo i don't know if you're skilled enough ice fishing to this oh wow dude oh that's a beauty oh that's a beauty nice brookie yeah that is a nice brookie let's see if he's prediction is correct oh it's definitely correct oh nice one it is a nice one dude come out of there yes sir beauty oh come here yo nice choppy huh head shaker that's a head shaker it's a nice job i hope got it out this was a worm yeah i know the last two oh nice dude smasher nice oh look at that trout look at that steven brookie oh nice dude sweet brookie boyland whoa good one whoa you know why whoa oh i just turned oh did i just lose it no way it's coming at me whoa whoa good fish whoa tell you in a minute feels chubby it's it's big oh no nice brookie wow wow wormin wormin we we are wormin break off you know in the dry guy but this is a heavy fish it's either heavy or it's got something with it no head shakes yet so it might be chubby this might be the chop we're looking for guys it could be it big fish i'll tell you that oh oh yeah oh my god dude that is a wow oh my oh yeah yeah yeah dude that's a good one that's a nice brookie yeah he's still got a lot of fight wow yeah that's that's a really nice brookie wow nice one this is number five for the day that and that's that's a cork or a brookie that's a good one nice native main all right guys let me know what you think in the comments let me know which lakes i missed out on there's a handful that were like on the fence i don't know let me look at my on the fence list i have i have the otter ponds meselonski calmacy great pond in the bell grades ambigee just big eagle sebac lobster ross these didn't make my top 10 but they might have made yours let me know if if i totally missed out on one and let me know if i got one in there that you totally disagree with so really appreciate the support for the channel really appreciate all the likes and and the subscribes and the comments and the thumbs up and really looking forward to this season once we get some ice by the time you guys see this video i'm pretty sure i'm going to be on the ice