 Good morning. It is a little bit after 4.15. We have 17 degrees outside. That sounds like it's been snowing or like a freezing rain for a little bit over an hour now so I haven't looked outside to see the accumulation yet. I got the coffee perking. Not super hungry this morning so probably just going to drive a couple pieces of toast into me and load up some gear and meet up with the boys sometime a little bit before 5. So I think the plan is still going to be to try to get way up to the northeast side of Chamberlain Lake so we're going to have to load up into the trailers and go up the logging roads and unload and use one of the logging roads to access the lake. Go after some big native brook trout. Yeah we got a little bit of snow. Snowing pretty hard. Wow. All right. Let's just be warmed up. How you guys doing this morning? I'm ready. Yeah it's pretty real out here. Oh yeah. Yeah I had 17 degrees and it's been raining or snowing. Saying it's going to be worth the video today isn't it, Joe? It's going to be the best video we've ever made. Yeah, Adam's hanging back. Whiskey flu? I don't know. We're going to count snowflakes. I'm still going to follow you over, Joe, just because we got to get that big trailer turned around over there. If we get hung up we're going to be, you know what I mean? We got two vehicles I think. Oh you're smart. I'll follow you all. You know what I mean? That's doing the right thing. We got two baked coolers ready to go. Bacon, moose burgers. Yeah I didn't bring any food. You got a frying pan? All right. I thought it was just for yesterday. We're going to need the pot. Thanks buddy. I thought it was just yesterday you needed it. Grab the end of that cover, will you buddy? Yeah. Time to truck at 4.30. Beautiful. Should be warm. The boat 25 smelt plus than this one. I figured we can grab a few out of your bag. We'll grab a whole bag. What are we going to have? Let's grab a whole bag. Four or five dozen in one bag. And then hopefully we tear through them. Just know don't scare me. I'm spending the day over there. Yeah. Yeah, that'll do it. A little bit. You're good. No, just the front skis all I was worried about. Ready camp? Yeah. You think so? Yeah. That's the mic we're coming on. You guys ever listen to TLS? If I remember right, it's quite a few miles in because we're up around the arm now, right? We're up past Nugent's camp. We're up beyond the palm camp, Bob. That's what I mean. I think we got a decent little ride in there. If I remember right, we burned. Two miles. We bird hunted this. All right, guys, we made it out to the lake. Pretty good little sled ride in. Pretty comfortable actually on that. Some sleds we're running are all unbelievable, but it doesn't look good. There's no tracks out here ahead of us. So we're stopping on the edge of the lake. We're going to go do some test holes, see if we can find some oil. Some black. Definitely help. Black gold, Texas tee. See what, see what we're dealing with and see if we can bring the sleds out. We're walking on right here at least. Wet on the shores. Yeah. There you have no snow here. We've probably got enough water here to test, huh? Yeah. I don't know. I'd like to walk a little. Okay. It's up to you. You're all right. Definitely a different color right there. We've got a chance to go all the way today, Joe. I'd say. I'd let it rip right here safely. Yeah. But we fished yesterday, ain't it? Yep. But every 50 feet is going to be a different story, I think. I'd say we just take 20 minutes and drill some holes around here and try to make a safe path to start with. I'll go out. Look, why don't we walk another 50 and just see if it gets left. Can you get a kind of half measurement on that? I mean that hole right there is a three-four pounder. You know what I mean? Eight inches, Joe? Eight no less than rounder. I mean that's three-four pounder right there. See how much it changes as you go out. Yep. I like how there's no water on top of the ice out here. All right. Less? Same? Eight inches? Same? I'd say. I'm just checking to see when it starts going on. Absolutely. Kyle says there's a line. I mean you can kind of see it out here. That's what I say, it's weird. Oh, that's a fun feeling. How far out do you guys even want to go anyway? I don't know. I mean I'm not going to go any further than this for breakfast. Right, right. Slamming the shoreline, we don't care about that. All right, that's quite a bit less. Whoa. I mean there's ice, but still here. Get rid of the snow first. Whoa. All right, right there. Okay, so check it to the definitely last. So we're not coming out this far. Yeah, definitely. Whoa. Three inches less? Yeah, four-five, about six inches. Nope, a little bit under six. Really? Yeah. Well, now we know. All right, so we just got to stay that in the hand. Maybe I'll jump on back to the camera and poke a bunch of holes down to that furthest point, fish them or not, and make sure we got good ice right down to that point. I don't know, Joe. I've been swimming. I don't like it. At least there ain't no water in there. Right. We'll ball me today, fellas. 15 degrees. So you don't mind taking your sled. I don't mind taking my sled out right now and staying within 50. No, I don't mind it either. I'm just going to poke some holes and make sure we're safe up in the shoreline. Yeah. Imagine it gets better down. The first hole we drilled was eight inches, and then we drilled another one eight inches, then we went out further and we got into like five inches. So it dropped pretty considerably. So we're going to go up this shoreline, stay that same distance away from the bank that we had eight inches, but we just came out here and drilled a hole and we probably had about six inches. So Brandon's going to walk ahead of us and he's going to keep testing. Ain't no ice. That ain't much. No ice here. We can fish it. Just stay this close to shore or closer. Oh, it froze up. Nice one. Nice one. Big one, actually. Yeah, Joe. Come back around. Now he's, I just felt resistant to the fishing for sure. He's coming to with me. Why do you strip me? But I know I just felt smokey, didn't he? He got you? Come back. What just happened, Brandon? Well, I'll tell you what just happened. Down off that point, it was a rookie mistake and about three inches of water them augers just went into. And they did both augers. Why would they do both? Just to make sure. Well, what was it? Hey, what was their first mistake? No, I get out of bed early this morning and beat us. We worked ourselves to get here early today. 4 a.m. Joe, I had my alarm set. I knew you was going to be proud of you. Yeah, I was wicked proud of you. No, I won't. Yeah, actually, look at this. No, I'm that sort of guy. Like taking a kid fishing, Cameron had to bring the scoop, had to bring the bait. Give him weight. Yeah, other than that, I pretty much done everything myself. You get child support on him, Cameron? I would. Walk us through it, man. Yeah, I think he walked it right through that log underneath us, Joe. Oh no, took some. My first flag of the day, baby. I'll hear brook trout fishing. Let's see if I can get a brook. He's not eating yet. Here to see cookware. That's what we got going on. That's all we got. You got what you got. It all tastes the same. It won't spill over the sides. Nope. What's all that foolishness? Oh yeah, Stave her. Nice drill. I think it went deep. How do you know it? Here you go. Did you get him? Sorry, buddy. Good fish, bud. How many inches is that one? A little bit smaller than that one I had right there. It was definitely smaller. I want to see what the ice is like, too. What did they say? Four to eight inches, just like never, you know, just like here. Oh, it's rattling. It is rattling. There she is. Just took off sideways. I just want to open a tug. Oh, chewing right there. Chubb? I don't know. Not a chubb. That looks pretty good. Oh, there's definitely a fish there. Sorry, but I'm just going easy. I don't think it's a 20 inch, but I don't think it's a small one either. He doesn't look at the size of that mountain, Joe. Stop it. It's a weight fish. Yeah. Geez, that might even peed. 16. Anybody got a ruler? Well, I've never seen a whitey on a brookie set. You? No. Here you go. Just cut it. Be swallowed. Here you go. Those are scissors on the inside. I was not expecting to see a white fish. Like the bouncing of a brook trout. I didn't know it wasn't big, you know what I mean, but I knew it was something. Consolation prize. Can you say well about it? He's like a brook trout. Just look at the size of that thing. He's only twice the size of your, no, that's the smallest brookie I've ever seen here. Well, it's good to start somewhere, Joe, right? Thanks, buddy. Me and Cameron, we left late morning and we was headed up to Baker. Right across the golden road, get the whole way across the caribou checkpoint. 11, 12 that night, late. Truck's sitting there. So, Jesus, this weird camera. I was going to go in and call into the check, to the gate, and these two young fellas, they get out and they're just looking us over. Cameron gets out, he's checking the load, got the shack on and stuff, and kid walks over, he said, got talking back and forth, and I went over and called, checked in, come over, and the guy, kid just looking at Cameron. I knew what was going on. I wasted the question. He's staring, right? He's looking, he's looking, he's trying to figure it out. He's getting staring at Cameron, and then we was talking and then I laughed, and he looks at his buddies and he says, it's there. That's what he said. You guys ice fish? Yep. Do I know what you're holding? Yeah, it's us. He said, well, I knew that was, I recognized that truck. He said, well, we're lost from Portland to Southern Maine. Wow. I said, uh, where's your DeLomb? He said, DeLomb. Oh, no. I said, you don't, you come into the North Maine wood, at least a DeLomb, you know, a gazetteer. That's rule number one. Where you guys headed? I said, we're headed for Baker Lake. It is Joe, I hit the ground. We are too. Can we follow you? I said, I don't care. I don't really know where I'm going either, but you can follow us. We seen him Sunday. This was Thursday, Sunday night. We were sitting there by the shack, me and Cameron having lunch, and we seen the truck come down around and beat, beat the way they went. I don't even know if I'd recognize him if I'd seen him again, but it was pretty funny though. How much you put on there usually? Oh my God. That's not good enough. It just went up. Laker? Oh boy. This one is too. That makes two. That's a small, that's a three and three of them. Lake trout, come on. Nibble in like a friggin, another white fish Joe, or a 25 inch white fish. Hopefully it's just the fish there. I don't know who, wow. Might be the same fish on both flanks. Cadine? He's over by that other flag. Fish on there. I think he's quite a ways away though. Either it's a small mountain trout, biting like a little brook trout. Getting any bigger? Not bad. I think it's in like pretty nice brook. Yeah, looks like a good brooky per second there. Yeah, oh yeah, nice one. Pretty trout. Yeah, it might be a BB. Pretty good gust of wind right there. Slim in a six pound task, see how he does it. I thought it looked like it. Pretty fish. Oh yeah, that's a, the Laker? No, it's a nice brooky. Nice brooky. It's probably 16, 17. It's nice. A little bit bigger. A little bit bigger. It's a big one. I'd like to get a better look at him Joe. I think he's pissed. Man, I've never seen a small trout bite that. Man, I don't know. I don't think he's that small. I think that's a nice trout. Nice fish. Beauty. Oh boy. Oh yeah, look at that one. I don't want any fish. I thought he was big. Hold up baby. Still get the next one now. Nice. It's how pretty that is. Thank you buddy. He's a 18 lead? Yeah, that's a nice fish. Yeah! Looks like it's spooled and it's caught a trout. Other than that, is it pretty good? Oh god. Yeah, I don't see any line. Pretty sure it's a damn fish. Yeah, other than that, you're fine. It's on here right now. I like this Eskimo jacket so bad, Joe. Yeah, they make good stuff. Oh boy, this ain't good. Man, I just looked out here like three minutes. I watched the second one go up. The first one I was staring at. Oh my god. Yeah, I would see. That's bad. I moved the slush right over there. It's probably got three rocks, 12 quarter wood and two sticks. Well, that's okay. Slushes get serious, isn't it? Terrible. Man, this fish is out 100 yards. Once that fish tunked it, it just feels like bait. He's gonna come around to your right in a minute. Well, it feels like more than bait right there, but just no. Huh, dropped it. That's okay. Yeah. Nice silvery trope, that one. Oh, that was beautiful. How are you right now? I gotta shake hands with the young boy. How about right now? Side pad? What, tiny? I guess it's not that much. Feels terrible right now. Grass on it. Yeah. This lake is flooding by the second. Yeah, the wind's starting to bark a little bit. On and off, on and off. Try that, try that auger right here, like five feet out there and see how much ice you think there is. Take it a little bit further away. Yeah. Oh, there was less here. Not much, is there? Four. You have another four finger test? I think there was less here because of the snow. See this thicker snow? Our local flying coyote. I've just seen that big trope. He's showing up. No one we're going to start catching them now fellas. What do you think of that thing? I think the, I think the weather just changed Joe in the last hour big time, didn't it? Big time. Yeah, it got cold a big time. I don't know. Started out at 15 degrees this morning. Is that what it was? Yeah. Two trout. I've got two trout. You got two? Another one too. I released one a little bit, a smaller one. That's right. Yeah. How many do I have? You've got two trout in the white fish. Cameras got two trout. How many do I have? Dead weight today. Whoa. I did not enjoy that. I've never seen the ice drop like that. There we go. Keep the snowmobile back a little more. Apparently. Yeah. Yeah. We've got a bait stick. We've got a straight nipper. I got to go travel for one. Yep. Oh, nice head shake. Yeah. Feels trouty. Feels pretty decent. Uh, he's just close. Big head shakes. You only had head shakes. Oh, nice trout. Was it? Big head shakes. Man. Oh. He's stripping me. Yep. Like a nice trout. This is awesome. He's wide, if she is. Not happy right now. No. Well, let me get his head started. Oh, that's a big trout though. Look at that. Look at that. What a beauty. Holy cow. Nice trout. Yeah. That might be dinner. What do you think? That's up to you. I think I'm going to keep that first brookie of the year. It's over 14, I'd hope. Oh, God, yeah. Yeah, it's thick. Hold it up for a picture. All right, guys. I'm going to keep this fish. So I'm going to dispatch it pretty quick, but that is a nice meaty thick brook trout right there. Yeah. That one's going to go for dinner either tonight or to my buddy Stevie's, but that's too nice a trout. Beautiful. That's right. Nice. Thanks buddy. Was this some Rachel Ray special? We wouldn't see that. I don't think it would work, would you? What are you putting on for sauce? I just put some of that wild. Which one is mine? That one? One shot? Yeah, sure. I'm going to make a third, Joe. Gearing up for Antarctica, Joe. Pretty nice out here this afternoon. Yeah. We're pretty well at the end of the day today, starting to get dark. Had a pretty good day. Five trout topside. Five trout. Yeah, nice white fish. No mountain, Joe. No, no one. Pretty sad day there, but we're about ready to start picking up. See if we can get out of here staying topside. We're going to have to wrestle this shack because it's blowing pretty good and it's frozen. And then we got a good 20 minute ride out of here probably. 20, 30 minutes back to the truck. Then we're going to get turned around. Get loaded up and somewhere get turned around. Then 10 more miles down the dirt road back to the parking lot. Yep, make some din din. Yeah. All right, we got it loaded. Just in time. That's right. Yeah, we ought to be back by dark. Oh yeah. Nice trail ride out. Yeah, I won't take us too bad. Really nice out. Yeah. It's going to be nice when we hit the wood line. All right, can you do take two and load it again clean? Yeah. You want to tip her down? Yeah. All right, we got quite a storm coming in. A bunch of people coming in today. Brandon's buddies are coming in and I got a buddy who's supposed to be flying in, landing in Bangor tonight, around midnight. And I can't believe they're going to fly him in, but we haven't heard anything yet. We're in the wilderness. Brandon's got one of them Garmin in reach so he can get a text. So as soon as he gets, we haven't heard yet if the flight's canceled. So I'm going to have to leave around 345 in the morning to get him. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to run back to where I'm staying tonight on the lake in the tent, grab my phone because I got his flight info and we're going to try to find out with that Garmin if the flight's been canceled or delayed. So at least we know what's going on. So I'm going to make a rundown, check out the conditions. I heard it slushed out pretty hard today on the lake, make sure my camp's still set up good for the night and not sitting in the slush. Never. Never. Leave that right open, Joe. Don't worry about it. What you working on here, Bob? There we go. Moose, sausage burgers, potatoes. You guys killed the poor Moose? Of course we did. Oh my gosh. Well, we gotta eat somehow. That's a little sausage burgers, some moose burgers, Joe, some fried potatoes, Cameron, I mean Matt's mumbo jumbo, whatever it is there. Macaroni and cheese and a couple burgers left over there. That's the best we could do. Pretty good. Another day in the record books. Pretty good cleanup. Yep. Tomorrow on deck. Looks pretty good. Yep. Crew's coming in. Crew's coming in tonight. They're just turning up the Golden Road, so I think they got a long ride ahead of them, Joe. It's dirty out, isn't it? Yeah, pretty bad. Tomorrow's planned, local, fishing close. Yeah. Well, you'll come see me. Come see me tomorrow. I'll figure, I'll figure out a plan tonight. Pretty happy about that. Got the roof cleaned off. Had quite a bit of freeze and rain that stuck to it. That's never good on these tents. I'm going to get the coffee ready for tomorrow so push button start. Keeping my water in the tote, kept it just warm enough to not freeze. We'll do a thermos bowl. Just found out through the GPS phone that my buddy that was flying in, his flight got canceled. So he's going to be another day later, and he's going to come in on Wednesday. I might not be picking him up at the airport. My other buddy, Pat, might be picking him up at the airport and bringing him up and staying for a few days too. So conditions are pretty well terrible right now. You can't get around, like we were on a little bit of thin ice today, and we did the best we could where we were, but we didn't get to fish exactly where we wanted to or how we wanted to. So we're really limited to space. But that being said, we caught four trophy brook trout today and another small one and Brandon caught a keeper whitefish, which is pretty rare. So pretty phenomenal day all in all, especially with snoddy conditions on the weather. I'm just getting in now to camp. I got 23 degrees out there, 25 degrees inside. So not much warmer inside. That must have went up a couple clicks since I got home. All right, that's going to do it for tonight, guys. Just crawled into bed. It's pretty chilly in the bed. I wouldn't mind that being preheated. Maybe I need a dog or a woman, something to preheat that bed for me. But pretty much awesome day. We accomplished what we wanted to accomplish. We got to a place that we wanted to fish by means and a route that we've never taken. So it took a lot more work. We had to load up and get all the gear in the trailer and snowmobiles in the trailer and stuff. But we made it in, which was the key. That was the plan and we were first in. So which was cool because another group showed up like an hour after we got there trying to fish that same spot. So it was cool that we were there first. So we got the spot at least and then we got rewarded. It wasn't like a smash or day efficient, but we weren't really able to move around too much and we did not fall through the ice, which is a very good bonus. But I'm going to finish the night off reading this book. This one is about the Penobscot and the log driving, which happened right where I am sleeping right now on the ice. So it's pretty cool to read about it while I'm here. This book's going to come out in the near future. So if it's all right with the author, I'll throw a link to this book. This is the beta copy and I'll throw a link to this book and let you know when it comes out. But it's pretty awesome book about Maine and Maine history and a lot of the characters in it. But thanks for tuning in guys. I'm a little bum. My buddy's flight got canceled. I'm happy that it did get canceled instead of going through with it and an accident happening or somebody getting hurt or anybody getting hurt. So it's good that they were safe because it was pretty snotty and icy out out there from what I understand. So I'm not going to see him at all tomorrow and then I should see two of my buddies that are going to come in and camp. This is all this gear that I brought in was for them the following day. So tomorrow I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I might go look for some deeper fish or just go keep testing the ice and see where we can go when they get here. So we're able to jump around a little bit and maybe use the electronics to catch some deeper fish or I might just set up for Brookies. But one thing I know is I'm going to get that coffee going more and I'm going to drive a big breakfast right into me and then I'm going to have a great day. So thanks for tuning in guys. See you tomorrow.