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to brave the elements last night? Buddy and I did an overnight excursion for cusk despite probably the worst conditions I've ever fished in. Low temp for the night was -10 without the wind chill, sustained 15-20 mph winds w/ gusts upward of 40 mph. Not even an insulated 3-man Igloo tent and a Little Buddy heater could keep the chill out at 3:00/4:00 in the morning when the temps dipped into the -30's. Fished from 4:00 o'clock yesterday afternoon until 9:00 this morning, luckily we had action - a 15" rainbow just before dark and 6 cusk overnight with the biggest weighing about 2 1/2-3 lbs on roughly 15 flags. The plan was to stay until midday but the conditions simply didn't allow it and we had to leave. All in all a good night but everything you touched was a cluster, bait bucket frozen to the ice, traps frozennin the holes, ladle frozen to your fingers, tent poles frozen, rubber iPhone case on the outside of my Otter Box shrunk (and eventually broke) to the point it kept shutting my phone off throughout the night which had me stumped until I was on my way home, windward side of the tent blew in - had to tie it off in addition to tying off the other side and havin all 4 spikes holding it in place.......just something every time Ya turn around. A couple of my reels fell off which only later did I realize was caused by banging the traps around as I pulled them out though a 1/2 of ice, must have jimmied the pin between the reel and the trap just enough to allow water to seep in which then froze and expanded and allowed them to fall right off. One of my a Heritage traps snapped as I picked it up, frozen solid to the lake thought I freed it all but guess not.........and in my disgust I quickly pulled the other half of the trap out and THAT reel fell I'm the drink. Casco/Otisfield area we had 16-18" of solid black ice and one hole was closer to 20. Some tricky spots near shore but otherwise plenty. Only my 2nd trip of the year and quite possibly my last but most definitely one I'll tember for the rest of my life.
to brave the elements last night? Buddy and I did an overnight excursion for cusk despite probably the worst conditions I've ever fished in. Low temp for the night was -10 without the wind chill, sustained 15-20 mph winds w/ gusts upward of 40 mph. Not even an insulated 3-man Igloo tent and a Little Buddy heater could keep the chill out at 3:00/4:00 in the morning when the temps dipped into the -30's. Fished from 4:00 o'clock yesterday afternoon until 9:00 this morning, luckily we had action - a 15" rainbow just before dark and 6 cusk overnight with the biggest weighing about 2 1/2-3 lbs on roughly 15 flags. The plan was to stay until midday but the conditions simply didn't allow it and we had to leave. All in all a good night but everything you touched was a cluster, bait bucket frozen to the ice, traps frozennin the holes, ladle frozen to your fingers, tent poles frozen, rubber iPhone case on the outside of my Otter Box shrunk (and eventually broke) to the point it kept shutting my phone off throughout the night which had me stumped until I was on my way home, windward side of the tent blew in - had to tie it off in addition to tying off the other side and havin all 4 spikes holding it in place.......just something every time Ya turn around. A couple of my reels fell off which only later did I realize was caused by banging the traps around as I pulled them out though a 1/2 of ice, must have jimmied the pin between the reel and the trap just enough to allow water to seep in which then froze and expanded and allowed them to fall right off. One of my a Heritage traps snapped as I picked it up, frozen solid to the lake thought I freed it all but guess not.........and in my disgust I quickly pulled the other half of the trap out and THAT reel fell in the drink. Casco/Otisfield area we had 16-18" of solid black ice and one hole was closer to 20. Some tricky spots near shore but otherwise plenty. Only my 2nd trip of the year and quite possibly my last but most definitely one I'll remember for the rest of my life.
Allagash trap?
I should have guess you guys were Shanty Members as we are the type of guys that go out in all kinds of weather. LOL We were the guys you ran into on your way out.It was darn COLD that morning for sure, we got there just before 6:00 am and stayed until about 2:00 when the action got slow. We caught some really nice Bass and lost a nice Salmon. We had lots of hit and runs and went thru about 3 dozen bait. The Wind always seem to be at it's strongest when we had a flag. When we left we went up to the store and the lady in there said you guys look Cold, we told them we were out on the ice fishing. She said she told folks in there that those are Real Men out there or a bunch Crazy People out there on the ice. After talking with us, she said she decided were Real Men who were a bit Crazy. I told her there was some guys that spent the night and they could not believe it.I could not close up my ice traps do to the ice build up on them, so I had to put them in the sled open. After sitting in my basement overnight here is what they still look like this morning.(Image removed from quote.)
I was trying to figure out why I kept getting my buddy's floor wet when we got back to his house, Id wipe up a big puddle and 10 minutes later it was there again!!! I had an egg-sized chunk of solid ice frozen to the cuff of my pants that would've needed a hammer to break!!! It was a wild night for sure but I would highly recommend the spot you saw us in if you head back out there in better weather. Had we had the option of drilling more holes and covering more ground we could have really cleaned up on the fish. I would have liked to cover that point and also put a few traps out in the middle of that channel but like I said, it was all we could by the end of the night to psyche ourselves up enough just to check traps, which took about a half an hour each time in between warming your hands and shielding yourself from the wind. I was the big guy in the blue coat (names Will) who dumped his sled over, that wind literally and figuratively kicked my a$$ until I got back in the car. My buddywas the guy in the red Cabela's suit but he isn't on Ice Shanty!!