 What is up guys? Joe Holland here. I am doing something a little bit different this trip I'm actually headed south. We are heading down to the world-famous some bago lake Gonna do some lake trout tow good fishing and also fish for my favorite fish to eat the cusk or otherwise known as the maravet or Mariah, eel pout, lincod I don't even know what else they call it. They all taste incredible So we'll be fishing for those mostly at night. Gonna meet up with my buddy Brandon Possibly some of his family too. Gonna spend a couple days down here on the water First things first gotta make a stop at one of my favorite ice fishing stores some bago bait Gonna pick up a new Lower for my auger system That I'm gonna try out a 10-inch auger on a hand drill I'm gonna try it without a gear reduction Just like my good buddy Cameron ran when we were on Chamberlain Lake during the Chamberlain Lake series So thanks Cameron for turning me on to this idea We're gonna see if it works and you guys will be the first to know on my channel Sobego Lake second largest lake in the state of Maine By far the deepest is 316 foot deep average depth of a hundred and five foot deep It's 14 miles long covers 45 square miles and is a crystal clear Beautiful body of water the last bunch of years. It's been sketchy with the ice a lot of people fall through this lake They get on it a little too early and it hasn't frozen really well for a long time It's always in question whether it's gonna freeze at all the big bay It's home to the world record landlock salmon over 22 pounds But that was caught probably a hundred years ago now and since then the state has managed to beg a lake into Not a great salmon fishery anymore and also not a great toke fishery Not a good white fish fishery anymore. They've pretty much bungled the management on it now There's no limit on toke Lake trout under 23 inches And they want you to keep everything that you catch under 23 inches and you're allowed one over 23 inches they've also stocked it with L wives and The smelt population I think is hit or miss in here whether it's taken a dive or not Which is a primary forage of the landlock salmon if you catch a landlock salmon while ice fishing You're not even allowed to lift it out of the ice. It must be released immediately Same with brook trout. I've been here and reports lately of guys seeing a lot of fish on the electronics But having a hard time getting them to go whereas there's just so much feed in the lake and they're on the L Wives so hard that it's really hard to get them to bite a lure Being fairly close to the Brunswick naval air station, which is not operational anymore The lake was used a lot for training military pilots on flying over water Several planes were lost in Sebego Lake during World War two a grumman tbf Avenger from the Lewiston Navy Auxiliary air facility ditched and sank near Raymond on August 16th of 1943 Two low-flying British Mount Corsairs from Brunswick were lost after a mid-air collision Over the lake in Raymond in 1944 and have never been found and a third Corsair flew into the lake that same year alright guys This is what I'm getting right here This is what I call a Cameron special because he's the one who introduced me to it He saw it on the internet somewhere first, but this is a 10 inch for a hand drill and it's light It's made out of that flat type of plastic that doesn't break I guess or I hope and it's got a good blade to it Joe hey, what's up man? Sexy looking guys watching your videos last night Dan Williams, and you want to be on the next one Oh, we'll go come on out to the ice shack Bob. Oh, where are you lower rank pond state park? Yeah, just hit the Derby two weeks ago with my Buddy son he came out brought him out was his first fishing Derby ever how do you guys do? He did good. He got like 10th place. He's able to pick up a prize. He was excited So it's a first fishing Derby, so I'm right into it. Awesome. This is a little day. This is big day Oh, what's up, Joe? How you doing? Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Yeah, do you get it together? All right, so this is the pistol bit laser, which is also the Well, that's nice if you're not rechecking all the time so you just chuck this into your drill and you're done Right, that's a problem. I had like a drill is it fall off. Yeah Oh All right The truck is an absolute disaster I'm literally just coming off my last trip. So the truck is just a complete mess disaster Throw that in there make sure I closed everything. We're good there We're good there Subego Bay Wayne always takes good care of me Now we get to head to the lake. We got one quick stop for gasoline Then we're gonna head to the lake and shoot some good vids. I hope Nice made it. I'm here at the giant Lake Subego Let's roll, baby. I Have a lot of stuff a lot of stuff gonna take a little while to Unload get everything packed up just because I'm pretty scattered coming off that last trip Literally just getting home late last night and getting on the road this morning And not really taking the time to unpack and get everything all cleaned up So it's gonna take me a minute to get everything loaded into the sled get the sled out Figure out exactly where I'm going and what I'm doing gonna meet up with my buddy Brandon and his family today and Get set up for tonight Little windy down here already. Holy cow. I got a mess back here Gonna be a little while Man, she's ripping hard coming across there straight sideways What's going on out here ten I literally just got out of 40 inches of snow and slush And come down here. There's nothing I was surprised. Oh, really? Oh, no, I like the sound of that Joe Joe nice to meet you Smell like fish in here. Oh You lucky. Oh, man, I tried to get here. I couldn't Beautiful Yeah, how they biting for you Joel Man this shack is awesome Holy cow, there's a fish number 12 nice, man, they're fat aren't they? Okay Found a good spot here behind Indian Island It should block me from the wind if we got north northwest for the next two days tomorrow It's supposed to get into the 20s blowing so gonna get behind this big rock wall here in this island and Set up it's pretty glare ice conditions out here It's crazy night and day difference from what I was on yesterday up the Lobster Lake and Moosehead Lake with 40 inches of snow and anywhere from six to ten inches of slush So great big difference there, but I'm gonna set up right over here. It looks pretty good in this area It'll look pretty with the background and Definitely be out of the wind. So that's the key. Let's get set up I think this is the first time that I've ever done the winter ice camping where I took everything on one load So I got a monster load there. I have stuff. I definitely don't need Well, I have stuff. I definitely don't need but I didn't really have a lot of time to get stuff together coming out See what cams gonna look like for this week Table grilled Got some cooking stuff up there got a bunch of cooking stuff and various food in that tote Couple hand-off of bags they out buddy heater going food dryer and Extra tabletop got a Milwaukee life day here got another one over here There's my bed With a cot a foam pad and sleeping bag a couple hangers up here and Various fishing stuff and electronics right there for now And that's about it. It looks pretty darn beautiful out here Got my flooring pack basket there and jig rods and probably won't need a shovel but you know what I think I'm gonna drill a hole and Take the slush from that hole and throw it over the apron of the tent so no wind can get underneath that I got it really tight about as tight as I've ever had it. So I'm not too worried about it But I might do that anyway, but pretty over here behind this island Nice wind blocker and I'm sure you guys are as curious to see how that 10 inch bit It's gonna do on the Milwaukee drill as curious as I am about it. So let's give it a rip I wouldn't say she's any quicker than the eight inch, but she's not far behind it That's the ion G2 bottom on a Milwaukee drill 12 amp battery. I don't know how much that matters, but and then I got the deep freeze quick connect And that sucker will rip 10 inch hole on a drill All right, all set up pretty quick pretty slick everything looks good Eaters running I'm gonna leave my totes behind and jump on the snowbeel grab a jig rod and see if I can Get a bite before the end of the day with the boys before they head out of here for the night And then we're gonna be set up for tomorrow ready to roll. She's pretty cold. She's pretty windy It's always fun on this lake Let's go Okay, it's a little change of plans It's pretty bad out there. That's that's a pretty tough group of guys I've seen them in some rough weather and they've had enough of the day They've been out here all day and there's only about two hours left of sunlight and that wind Picked up a lot since I came in to set up so You hear that ice it's gonna be pretty loud sleeping tonight making some serious ice and some ice ice quakes coming through tonight So change of plans I got Oh Almost two hours for dark. I think so I'm still gonna get set up anyway for cusk I'm gonna set five cusk lines right now Cusk are coming up in these gravelly rocky areas with that full moon or just about full moon starting To spawn this time of year. So the big females are coming in. I'd like to like to catch me one of them big ones to eat So I'm gonna cut up some dead bait You know usually put half a shiner down or I got some I guess I got some big suckers there too And I'm gonna go get set up in the rocks for some cusk All right first things first. I gotta put my winter hat on and Get out of my traveling shoes. I got my slippers still on from driving But I thought I was done with these things for the year But apparently not because we got some pretty good glare ice conditions down here But I'll I'll show you a little trick that makes it easier and Put these things on pretty sweet Anytime any of the ice creepers that you guys use They go on a lot easier without your foot in there And and you can get them nice and snug and good proper fit on them If you put them on up here first and then put your foot in your boot just like normal But I started Using these a little bit more religiously after after a pretty bad fall Couple years ago. I took a wicket had a straight backwards Smash the back of my head is bad My buddy that was with me him and a son. They were worried. I think it knocked me out, but I'm not a hundred percent sure it's lucky I had my sweatshirt hooded sweatshirt on too to Protect my head a little bit or it would have been even worse But that was pretty bad one So since then I've tried to be a little bit better about wearing these things Anytime there's glare ice. You could you know, you can walk around like you're 90 years old But you could also still fall and that's what happened to me. So So there you go. I got that on the right foot Nope, that's on the wrong foot Yeah, do it on your lap Mommy That looks a little bit better You definitely go on better when you get them on the right foot too I don't really like those little plastic or rubber ones that you got to Pull super tight They always seem to come off and they're paying the neck and I I wear size 13 boots So I got a pretty good size foot on me. So it's hard to find a decent pair of creepers That that fit my boot and works and is still pretty comfortable. So I really like these It's a simple design as is most things that are made in Maine That's the stabilizers Gravity is always working to try to bring you down. It'll do it for the rest of your life It's been doing it since day one Then you add a little slippery to it and I don't care how agile you are. I don't care how much time you spend on the ice Gravity's gonna win one of these times add some slip to it. So that's why I wear those things and Hopefully it'll save a broken arm broken shoulder broken head and what little brain cells I got left because that last fall I know I lost some brain cells on that one As you could see from me out here winter camping all the time All right, I think I'm ready To keep from losing these fish in the rocks or getting hung up or having to fight them for too far I tied a rubber band to the line and then I wrapped the rubber band on the reel just like that So I'm gonna let him fight I'm gonna let him run for about five feet or so And then he's gonna have to fight that rubber band If he breaks the rubber band, we'll fight him after that But we're setting that right on bottom dead shiner That's about 12 feet of water. You can catch these cask anywhere from 4 to 34 right now. They're starting to move into the shallows. You're getting chilly out here folks I got too set. I had to go back in the shack and take a break there I loaned my traps to some buddies up north and When they put the hooks back they decided to jam the hooks Way deep into the nylon on the reel. So I ended up having to cut most of the hooks out and Then go way back in after the point. That's two in we're gonna set. I'll probably set five tonight for cost And in Maine you got to check them every hour That one pretty shallow We're gonna set probably Three shallow and two deeper Three shallow and two deeper Deep deep water here I decided to go deep with it old-time cost fishing I didn't have anything over 30 bucks. I want to get something out a little deeper. I'm glad I'm fishing right now I love fishing. I like that quick connect already We'll bring the drill We'll bring the drill and the battery in And the bed and the dead bait We'll bring that into Throw that bait in there go right there We're hitting My flooring is pine. So I do hate to wear my Ice creepers in here because it marks it up pretty good, but It ain't a showroom floor. It's more like a dancing floor So it is what it is. I don't mind too much, but we're all set up. I'm gonna unpack You know go through everything unpack some groceries and Some cooking stuff and some spices get camp all stowed away and ready for tonight And then I'll go out and check the traps At night the lawn main I believe is once an hour For cusklines I don't ever wait a full hour because I like to catch fish And I figure if you got one on you can't catch a second one So I like to catch a lot of fish So I check them a lot sooner than that, but I got a short little round about here I'll jump on the sled and check all five and bring you guys with me Hopefully we get a flag and catch a cusk tonight Probably not gonna fish all night, but once I get Dressed down is usually when I pull them. It's about time. I'm ready for bed and dress down. All right first check time. It's only been about 25 30 minutes, but I love catching fish. So let's go check see if we get a flag up. Let's hopefully do down Oh for five no flags yet That's all right. We still have hope not even sure if this is a good area, but we're fishing We're fishing. That's the key Would love to pop a giant cusk Or any for that matter. Okay guys, it is 7 40 at night and we're gonna go out and do another check on the cusk And after that come in and probably cook up some dinner A little bit later than normal when I'm cusk fishing Let's go He dropped it when he hit the rubber band That's not what we're after She's been cracking hard all day Shoot Had one miss Dang it I hate a miss It could have been possibly because I didn't give it enough Rope to hang itself with that rubber band being only five foot a run And we'll keep trying it and if it does it again, we'll give him some longer rope and if it does it again We'll even get rid of the rubber band But right now it's about time for some dinner All right dinner tonight is going to be some meat some steak tips Some potatoes we're going to saute up some mushrooms An onion and a cubanella pepper Throw it all together in a pan. See how it comes out If there's room. Yeah, there's some room. We'll throw some okra in there There's always room for a little bit of okra That'll cook down Beautiful We are looking good Just put some olive oil in there She's still kind of frozen All right steaks on Give it a couple flips color good Hopefully it's a good one Got some Idahoan potatoes some sour cream and chives We'll drive a couple of them into me Got some water going over here for Some hot tea and for the potatoes But it looks pretty good. Looks like it's gonna be a heck of a meal I'm gonna hammer that Do another round of checking the traps And then think about pulling them for the night after that once I get this food in my belly and Start thinking about that bed I don't know how long I'll last got a long day tomorrow We're gonna do some cusp fishing tomorrow night on a much better spot with a lot less wind Let's take a peek at that Maybe just a little bit more There's some wicked crackers going on out there. That's a nice plate of veggies right there mushrooms, pepper And onions with some okra mixed in Pretty darn good On top of some steak That could be better. It's pretty tender Yeah, it's good. Yeah, that'll fill the void tonight She's bleeding a little bit. It's pretty hot All that's cooling down a little bit. I'll tell you guys I just came off a trip up north just got back last night actually and and uh went home showered and Charged some batteries and came right here And normally I'll get home from a trip. I add it upload But I don't know if I got the footage to make a video to be honest with you. It was It wasn't a failure of a trip because I had a great time And I had a great time with some good with some really great friends But the fishing part of it It just didn't work out. We were trying something Tough we went to lobster lake way up, you know northeast the moose head And lobster is tough anyway, even though it's a blue ribbon trout fishery in the state It's got some really hard regulations on it. And I guess it can be super slow. I never fished to before We had a really hard time just getting into camp because there was like 39 to 44 inches of powdery snow I was able to make a trail with my snowmobile And then the next day we weren't able to make it into lobster lake that way So we went to moose head and fish for a couple hours Pat caught a couple tog And then the next day we we made it in the lobster and it was a slushy mass Had another group come fish near us a big group of people that knew what they were doing And I think they caught six real tiny 12 inch tog. We ended up just catching two 12 inch tog And it was like really slow and then The next day we decided just to call off that part of the trip Because we didn't have any live bait to go fish moose head with the slush was making it Really hard for the older snowmobiles to get around in our group And it was a good time, but I don't know. I don't know if I got a video or not If that's something you guys would be interested in seeing or not You know, whereas there wasn't really a lot of good fishing and it wasn't camping either So I'll have to really look at the footage at the end of the year and see or maybe if I if I have a Little downtime and see But if that's something you guys think you'd still want to see regardless of the fish catching and And um regardless of not having any tent camp and you know, we were staying in a pretty old woods camp Then it then it's something I'll I'll debate about Putting it together for you Seeing if I can put together a good film on it But sometimes you strike out. I mean I don't go to the Always to the best fishing lakes in the state of Maine And going to lobster is a challenge and I think it's It's a challenge that I'd love to take on But it's not A one day challenge where you're you get out there and you you get out there an hour after a light Because of the travel ends real hard and you leave an hour or two early I think it's a place where you'd have to go spend a week and really jump around look for those fish And find them to be able to get one of those great big ones All right dinner is put away Right there We're gonna go make another check out there and see how it goes come back in and probably get down a layer and Do one check after that and that that check be the one where we pick them up This one's down Nothing brewing on that check so I think I'm gonna get into some more comfortable clothing Do a little bit of reading And do one more check Pull them pull them in a little bit Get some sleep and then go at them a little harder tomorrow All right, let's do a final check. It's 9 30 at night final check and pickup I'm dressed a little light so I won't mess around That one is All right, let's go check We got a flag didn't make it to my rubber band. I'll had a couple flags, but no cusk for me tonight Don't really know it's good cuskery or not or I don't know but Didn't work out. It's pretty late. I'm pretty tired Lot of driving the last two or three days not a lot of sleep. So I'm looking really forward to climbing into that bed and Cozying up and getting snug as a bug in the rug Which will be nice Thanks everybody for tuning in had an awesome day Uh had a lot of fun over there. It's a begobade. I spent a little bit more time there than I probably should have I could have got fishing a little bit but hey seeing people and meeting people and And uh talking ice fishing's Always a lot of fun. So not a bad day when that happens Looking forward to tomorrow gonna get after it hard with the boys, especially with brandon And gonna do some jigging for tog in some seriously deep water