Ending on a High Note

[FishGuy603]

I went out to the big lake to fish the last weekend for two trap lakes with two of my suite mates; Pete and Danny. Pete had never caught a laker and Danny hadn't gone fishing since summer camp 10+ years ago! We woke up around 4:45 am and left UNH around 6:00 am to try to set up early. Wanting to put my friends on some flags, I scouted out a couple of areas that looked promising for perch and lakers. Unfortunately, I wasted my time traveling to those spots since sketchy ice conditions made it impossible to get out to the ice. I ultimately ended up going to a spot that I've hit the last couple of times out there and it had 14+ in. of ice and safe edges. At the launch, I met up and chatted with fellow shanty member Winnisquam Guy. We chatted for a little bit about how the fishing was, he gave me some of his left over bait (all dead except one) and he gave me some pointers about areas to target this late in the season. The spot that he gave me was one that I fished a couple weeks ago in the cold and wind. I lost a fish that day and marked just one other but I lasted just two hours that day. Today was much different, I was wearing a baseball hat and sweating in my layers for the most part so I knew I would be there for the long haul. After wishing each other luck, my friends and I headed out to that spot. On the way, I looked down a partially frozen hole drilled yesterday and saw smelt swimming back and forth underneath it, which I found very neat. Seeing the smelt shallow prompted me to start drilling from shallow to deep water (along a point). I staggered four tip ups (between three people and one jigging set up) at varying depths, chumming each with a crushed dead smelt. I set one under the ice in about 18 ft of water about 100 ft of the shore. The rest were 5 ft off the bottom at 26 ft, at 29 ft, and at 36 ft. As I moved out deeper, I jigged a hole in 34 ft of water and worked up to 15 ft above the bottom when I saw a red mark rushing up to my jig. I started to slowly reel up my flutter spoon when it was two feet away and the fish charged, hammered it, and was ON..... For only a few seconds! Turns out I set my drag too light and heard it clicking when I set the hook. Bummed and sensing a very familiar pattern, I was trying to keep faith jigging that hole while drilling a few more holes to jig. While I was doing that, I saw the "shallow" flag go off. I sprinted as fast as I could to that flag only to see that that line was taken off with nothing home. At this point, I was super winded and making the walk of shame back when suddenly the flag at 29 ft went off! I ran to it, saw the spool screaming and set the hook. I then handed it to Danny so that he could ice his first laker, an absolute beauty. Unfortunately, the hook was taken a little deep so we had to dig it out using pliers. I kept the fish in the water for the most part but still felt that we handled it too much but all things considered, we kept wet hands, didn't rough the fish, and cleared the obstruction in its gullet in the hope that it can continue feeding.

I went back to readjust the depth on my first tip up when I heard Pete yelling to me for far out. He hooked a laker on the flutter spoon and pulled it in as soon as I caught up to him. When I got there, I saw to my horror that it was bleeding bad. It inhaled the jig far and started to bleed when hooked in the tongue. We got the hook out pretty quickly, got a very brief photo, and tried to revive it. We hoped that we could get it back since we had no where to keep it at school but since it was 18 in, we could afford to keep it. It swam away surprisingly strongly but I hope it survived  , I hate seeing fish bleed like that especially when Pete got a quick hook set and didn't purposely wait until it swallowed it.

The action slowed for a while after this last fish as we were jumping hole to hole waiting for something to happen. Around 11, Pete said that he wanted to head out around 11:30 so we decided to try jigging the edge of the point in 51 ft of water. After a few minutes of not marking anything, we saw our 29 ft flag go off (a honey hole!) and this time, I took the reigns. I ran there and landed another laker of about the same size. Just like the last couple, it took the hook deep but it was closer to the mouth which made extraction substantially easier. All the fish today really must have been famished since they were absolutely inhaling the baits and jigs even though we set the hook fairly quickly every time  .

After this fish, we jigged the honey hole and I let Danny jig a little. I saw the biggest mark of the day come up to his jig and turn around because he didn't take it away from the fish. I was jumping up and down and telling him to reel in. He gave me the jig for a couple mins and I rose that fish but it stopped two feet under my jig and disappeared. By this point, I didn't want to push it and called it a day. That same 28-30 ft zone had produced even in that last trip so there may be some rock pile or something pulling the fish back there? All in all, it was an awesome day and a great way to end the season!
A big thanks to Winnisquam Guy, hope you did well today too 

[Digs]

Looks like a fun day way to close the season! Hoping to get down there one more time.

[FishGuy603]

Thanks Digs! I can pm you where I found safe ice if you want unless you got another spot?

[zwiggles]

Nice job. Looks like a good way to go out!

[HuntnFish603]

Sounds like a good day...Last trip? Still plenty of places with great ice.

[FishGuy603]

Thanks guys!

Sounds like a good day...Last trip? Still plenty of places with great ice.

I would love to get out again but I have no time to get out this week. This weekend, I'm going home to pick up new waders so I'm on to fly fishing  . Good luck and stay safe if you plan to get out again!

[meatandmetal]

Way to go guys.

Sounds like a good day...Last trip? Still plenty of places with great ice.

Went to 4 places Friday - Sunday and all were 16+" of ice. One was 26". Back out this weekend.

[FishGuy603]

Thanks and WOW, 26 in. is insane.

[fishingidjit]

FG, Looks like a great last outing of the ice season , good luck on the open water !

[HuntnFish603]

Way to go guys.

Went to 4 places Friday - Sunday and all were 16+" of ice. One was 26". Back out this weekend.

Yup. Definitely no shortage of ice on all the places ive been fishing.
Still more fishing left. Ill be back at it this weekend as well.

[BrookieSlayer99]

Nice lakers. I will be fishing winni until the 31st. If you are worried about the fish mortality after release I would suggest cutting the line rather than retrieving the hook (obviously not on big jigs though).

[FishGuy603]

Thanks guys. I'll keep that in mind BrookieSlayer99!

FG, Looks like a great last outing of the ice season , good luck on the open water !

It was! I loved putting two buddies on their first ever lakers before storing my gear away, I would have loved it all the same even if I hadn't got the last laker to boot. Good luck on the open water, I know it'll be a while till the north country is ice free!

[winnisquam guy]

Hope i helped. Glad you guys got on some fish. I had a decent day too. 
It was good to meet you guys, hope to see you out there again 7

[JIGGIN-]

Definitely a high note ending! Nice story.

Thanks for posting up!

[FishGuy603]

Definitely a high note ending! Nice story.

Thanks for posting up!

Thanks JIGGIN!

Hope i helped. Glad you guys got on some fish. I had a decent day too. 
It was good to meet you guys, hope to see you out there again 7

Thanks Scott, it was nice to meet you too! I'm glad you did well too