 What is up guys? Joe Holland here. I am coming to you from possibly Canada, possibly the U.S. I don't really know where the divisive line is on this lake but I am on Grand Lake of the East. East Grand Lake in down East Maine I call it. Nearest town I think is Danville. Staying at the famous cowgirls, cottages, resorts, camps I guess it's called with my good buddy Sean. Might have a couple special guests coming to stay with us. Definitely going to have a couple of special guests coming out to stay in this little tiny ice shack over here as you see it. That is Brandon and the boys ice shack. They'll be out later this week once their wives give them permission to leave home. But we are here on East Grand Lake my first time ever. One of the greatest ice fishing lakes in the state of Maine. I don't know how I've always avoided it but I've avoided it. This lake is really well known for big toad. In Maine we have a lot of toad but we don't have a lot of great big great toad fisheries and this is known as one of those. The other thing it has is big cusk and it does have salmon, it does have whitefish, it does have smallmouth bass. I'm going to have a really hard time deciding what I want to fish for each day if I want to go for big toad or if I want to go for cusk. I think what I'm going to do is put down we're about five lines per person here in Maine. I don't know about Canada. We're going by Maine laws for this trip and I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to keep one line just for jigging. I'm going to take two lines for lake trout aka toad and then I'm going to keep the other two lines per cusk aka bourbon because I heard there's some mega cusk or excellent cusk fishing in here too. So Shawn and I are going to set up kind of similar. I think he's leaning a little harder towards lake trout. He's had some really good success in years past here for lake trout and we're going to see if we can get like a double digit lake trout on the ice. How cool would that be? And it would be even cooler I think if we got a double digit cusk on the ice but we need to do a cusk feed this week with some cusk nuggets. So we will be harvesting any cusk over probably three pounds range and we'll probably be releasing most of the lake trout. So stick along guys. I think it's going to be a great day here on East Grand. You have to start. I got viewers that have never seen them auger that you got to pull on the cord. Oh oh I see the problem with it. It's got like a bottle connected to it. Propane baby. Yeah I didn't see one of them in years. Nice. Now he's cutting with gas. All right we're going to go cut with electric. What's that one? Oh my god. I ain't seen one of them in years. Really? Yeah you got emissions for that thing? Yep. Yeah you got you got a permit to run that thing? That's what the future looks like. That's a little better. Oh I got a high flyer. Just went up my trap sideways. That ain't good. And then my flag sat back down. That's bad. He can't be cooking. I don't know if he's still on there. She was flying when I got up. For real? Yeah. I don't even know if I got a hookah. I'll probably need some water. Well guys this is the first one I've ever had the bandaid on it. Big headaches. The only kind of kowski. Oh there we got some weight right there. Found him? Yep. He might be burned in. Pretty sure he's burned in. Do you want to just grab that shovel or a scoop? Wow. Yeah eventually. We got something here fellas. Hopefully that battery stays going. That's a head shake and a half. I can't do much here. It's not fighting like a dog though. It's weird. I just hit bottom marker. I don't need it now sir. Sorry we hit bottom. We got his head up. He's got huge head shakes. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Probably three four pounder with the head shakes like that. Toad? Yeah. I think that's screened pretty decent actually. We're at a leader. Yes sir. Right there. That's an east grand special right there. Got him on a big old sucker. Not a bad way to start the morning. He got that pretty deep. What do you think of that one fellas? I need a picture of him. I'm going to take a picture of him. Oh the hook's right there if anybody's not interested. Mine's in my jacket. Oh I guess my jacket's back. I ran my jacket over. If anybody's got something. I mean I don't care about the hook but it's right there. Barely even in there. What a friggin fish. That is a beautiful fish. Oh my goodness. That's what we're after. Yeah. That makes the whole trip worth it. It does for me. That reel is cooking. He broke the band. So he should be over eight because those bands are eight pound test. Yeah it was good to see that. All right 11 pounds. All right guys that's my biggest lake trail ever in Maine. He's got to be. Geez I didn't realize how big he is this way. That's an ice fish. Wow. I saw that head hit that hole. Yeah you go big lake. 32 and a quarter. He's 11 pounds. All right we're going to free that spider guy so we get bigger for the next guy and we're going to recycle that smile because I got one heck of a smile out of it for him. So there he goes. We're going to let him go. Oh yeah he's fine. See you later big gator. All right. Good way to start up fellas. East Grand. East Grand first time here. First flag ever on East Grand. There it is. I watched that flag go up. I'll tell the guys at home. So I watched that flag go up and I had that sucker banded. I was using a big sucker. It's right here. Probably like a six plus inch sucker and the flag went up and I had a band on it probably like I gave him like 40 feet and he ripped the trap sideways. He must have broke that band and Sean got here or Sean looked at it first and said it was just making power and gave me a wicked nice fight. You just play those nice and smooth. You don't have to do anything crazy and big head shakes and he didn't even know he was hooked. Was it a smelt? We got some activity now. Oh he's got a fish. You got a fish? This is not East Grand. I think he flashed it. Oh really? Yeah I wonder if I lost it. No he's there. He's there. He's there. Is he off? He's keeper? On the top? On a friggin salmon trap? Make sure you guys call jack traps if you want one of these special traps. No you can't even put this guy's trap on camera. I have two sets. I have a pink set too. Man we missed him. Matt I want to get you on the channel but I can't put you on if you're missing fit. Guys I just I just walked Matt through catching one from 45 feet away on the live scope. Sean's getting his live scope set up. Didn't have it set up yet. And who's rod is this? On my jig. He was just coming back. All right Matt. Oh yeah. Salmon. Wow nice salmon dude. Wow nice salmon. Holy cow. What's he doing? Yeah he came flying it. What is he doing down there? He was at like 70 foot and came straight to your jig. Wow. Wow how does that make you feel bud? Hey I set him up. Yep you did. You're in hell of a guide. Pick the right colors. You got the right colors. Wow nice salmon Matt. On a jig rod. You don't see that very often. He's over 20. Kind of thin but over 20. Yeah a little thin. Yep. Well we can have poached salmon now. Yeah I'd like to try that. Literally poached salmon. That was too big. Is it? That'll work. Yeah put it back. Wicked. That's awesome. I should be able to get that number. When we talk about poached salmon guys we're not talking about poaching them from the law buck. They actually cook it. One of their buddies taught them how to cook a poached salmon that they said is absolutely delicious. So we might do that today like a catch and cook. Yeah let's look at that baby. It's got a lot of gold on them. Yeah he does. Yeah Good fish. Is that your best salmon jigging? It is my best salmon jigging. You never catch a jigging. No not at all. Have you ever caught one? I've only caught one. I've never caught Have you ever caught a fish jigging? Oh yeah. Nice good one buddy. Nice cast. Look at the size of that cast nugget huh. See that was like average. Really? 10 years ago. He's still leader of the cast. He goes why do you think he got his on? I said because you're too lazy to change it since you're a pike fishing. All right we're gonna cook poached salmon. So you just cut the tail off and cut these. You don't want to give me a sharp knife though. That thing is sharp trust me. Throw it in boiling water. Really? This is the first time for me. I've never poached a fish. I always catch mine legally. Next to 10 minutes flip the cover upside down and put butter in it. You have it just like lobster. That'll work. Yeah. Nice in here fellas. Small pretty good isn't it? Yeah. Quick is. Oh yeah. What do you think of that back? I think it looks like you know it's a salmon. Put the butter back on. Eating it outside or inside? Actually probably just do it right here. Yeah. Do it right in the light. Is this our part? Moment of truth. I got a feeling it's hot. Pet it off. It looks done. Yeah. See it just sides out off the bone. That's the best part of the tail. Yeah. It probably is better a little undercooked anyways isn't it? I think the difference is the it comes off the bone better. Yeah. That's cooked more. You probably just grab the bone. Yeah see it's sticking. Background music. Background music. Yeah this looks decent. Yeah there it is. Right into the plate she goes. Wow that looks good. Take a piece. Dip it in the butter. Crushed man salmon. Pretty not bad. Pretty not bad. Let's try it. Oh wow. Does it dip it right in that butter huh? Hmm. Oh good. Wow. I tell you you eat salmon. It's fantastic. It's way better. That is definitely how you eat salmon. Poach salmon. Poach more than one way. Dip it in the butter and then dip it right in your gillet. Wow that's good. Good. Yeah. Wow. Can you get another one? We need to. Holy cow that's good. He just takes it and actually dumps it right in there. Yeah why not? You just pick it out of there. Do it. That's what burning does? Yep. Yeah he stirs it around, soaks it in. Serious. That's the best way to eat salmon. It is. I would have never thought of it. So brook trout, tog, white fish and all that. They just go to mush. Salmon's the only. Oh really? The only fish so far we've found that stays firm. Wow. Don't really eat a lot of salmon but I eat that. Beepin. Oh no that means it's recording. Yeah isn't that good huh? Oh yours you don't eat salmon? No. Isn't that good? Yeah. It's not like salmon. No it's no fishy. I mean it's freaking good. Wow. Did you hit the bam? Yeah. Didn't hit it very hard. They feel so big at 90 foot deep. It's like when you're out ocean fishing jigging in 200-300 meters. Five pound fish or like 15. At 90 feet he feels pretty big. Feels the same as the last one. He just got a little bigger. I might have to come over here with this. Yeah jig some cast right here. Yeah. Big walks. He's probably, now he feels three pounds. Oh he just twitched. He felt a little bigger. I think all those head shakes, oh there he is. He's a log. That's a good one. Yeah. What a dog. I jigged these all day. They're lively as ever. Oh my god feel that dude. He's pooping. He's pooping them right out. All right guys another good cast. That's probably four and a half, five pounder. Got him from all over 90 foot deep but he is right packed full of the alewives. There you go. That'll be some cuss nuggets. Something good. You got something good on for a four five pound smallmouth. I don't know. We're into some cuss over here. It came flying in. It might be a leaker. Big smally. He's not hung up in my line right? Probably should have reeled better. All right what are you into here? First fish of the day? Leaker. All right little guy. That's an eater right there. Good eater. He came flying in. Yes he did. Is that another one there on my lure? Yeah there's one on my lure. There is. Oh shoot. Oh man. Yeah hold that. Yeah I got some. I'll hand it. You got some. Let me know if you bite. You got a cusco in here fellas. Two pounds. Three pounds. Yadding. Yadding. All right we've moved inside. It's gotten pretty rotten outside. We're in about 89 foot of water and jigging on the live scope with the XD62 transducer. The super deep transducer from Garmin. And I just got our first burb bite. Burbs are finally starting to move in as it's getting dark. So doesn't feel giant but it doesn't feel too small either. Sean's getting nibble. Oh shoot. I missed it. All right I got this guy within 20. He's fighting now. Well well might be bigger than I thought. I don't know how you land a big one through these holes but we're gonna find out. Yank him. Yank him. Oh flip him. Oh yeah oh geez. That's a lot. A little bit smaller of those biggest ones today but not. You got a bite? Nice burb. Sean's hooked up guys. We got a double. We got a double. Double burb. All right I'm going to point you guys to Sean. I'll show you my burb right there. He just slapped me in the face. Nice three and a half pounder probably. Not very big. Mine feels a bit narrow. It's going up fast. There's Sean. He doesn't look huge on the camera. Yeah he looks small on camera. I mean I'm not bad. Oh yeah nice. Nice burb. There we go. All right buddy. Double that. Double it up like twins. That's cool. So yeah so Cossack feed at night better than during the day but some bodies of water they will feed during the day so I was fortunate enough to put three top side during the day today on a trap that I'd set for Cossack and now we're in here jigging and I finally caught a fish. Sean got his first fish of the day. He gets to make an appearance on today's video. Nice twins. Twinning. We're getting there. So I think I'm going to throw mine back just because I have some that I haven't cut up yet and I got enough meat for a bunch of people. I don't need them. Yeah. Let's put them back. Let's give them the release. Lots of the grease. There's a gal. That big maple layer and this big maple and the one over there were here when I was a kid. Oh there he is. And there used to be two more up here and one more down here. Used to be like six trees here but these are rock maple here. Sugar maples and I don't offer warm enough for the staff to be running. Yattie. Lily, what do you think it is? I think it's a small rabbit. They fight pretty hard right about there. Nicely small. Man, he's fat. Look at how short fat he is. Something pretty good. Might be a decent bourbon. Fished down the night on. Nice big burb right there guys. I don't know if you can see it. I'm pretty sure you can. Fatty. They are getting big. All right. What do you think of dinner so far? I don't know yet. All right, we're in from the lake and awesome day fishing. Got my biggest lake trout I've ever caught in Maine so I'm pretty stoked about that and some really nice cask and have a great day with the guys. And it's dinner time now. It's late. We stayed out a little bit later trying to get that cock fight going but it was fun. I've been slaving over this thing for a long time. Look at this brisket. Brisket smoking all day long. We're pretty excited to mow on that thing. We got some mashed potatoes, a hand mashed, and then some green beans, a hand gross. It's all a handy meal but I think it's going to be pretty good. I'm pretty excited about this brisket. Look at that. I got a feeling we'll be eating some brisket sandwich because I don't think we can eat all that tonight. And we're pounding, this is what we're pounding, yu-hu and a can. Dig right in, Bob. Let the folks at home know how it tastes. I'm pretty excited about it. I hope it's warm. It's good. It's not the most tender but it's gonna taste freaking awesome for what it is. It's a little cold. Yeah, that's kind of cold. I got half cold, half hot. Oh, get some out of the water. That's, yeah, if you want more. It's got a good taste to it, doesn't it? Yeah, that's good flavor. So I'm super stoked. My buddy Matt's here. Matt hit me up like two days ago and was like, hey, what are you doing the next blah, blah, blah days? And I was like, ah, can't do anything. I'm already going fishing. He's like, yeah, I am too. I was like, where are you going? He goes, he's grand. I go, I am too. I said, where are you staying? He goes, cowgirls. I said, I am too. So we're staying next to him and he's got his crew and I got my crew. My crew's a little bit smaller but it's about to get bigger. So awesome day of fishing, awesome meal, awesome time with friends. Thanks for tuning in guys. We'll see you tomorrow. Tomorrow's going to be a good day. What are we going for tomorrow fellas? Same recipe. Same stuff, different day. Same stuff, different day and different hero tomorrow.