485 miles, 18 hours and...

[Blaine]

1 flag 

Oh well, you can't win if you don't play   

Mike, Ethan and I met here at the shop at a little after 2am yesterday, we LOADED the truck with gear and hit the road. The desination was a small lake way up in the Adirondack Mountains of New York...


It was a balmy 39 when we left. 4 hours later, it was 22 and snowing pretty good. We made it to the lake without incident and pulled the gear out onto the ice in the dark, checking the ice as we went. It was a solid 5" of black ice covered in about 4 inches of snow. Once it got light out, the wind picked up and really cranked hard. I was glad we brought the shanty. Anchors and straps were mandatory...


We had the one and ONLY flag of the day at 8:30. The hit came on a 10" dead pondie and the fish ripped off a bunch of line before we could get there but dropped the bait... That's it, end of story. We sat around for another 6 hours in hopes of another shot at a toothy fish but ended up with nothing more than a few nice photos of the scenery 


After getting out of bad a bit after 1am, I was dreading the long ride home but it wasn't too bad at all. Large coffee and Octane on Sirrius kept me sharp.

Let me end by saying, I was invited on this trip by a friend who has worked very hard over the last several years to find this spot. I have been asked not to name the lake and I wont. That being said, there is more than enough info out there to find your own pot of gold. Look for the small, shallow bodies of water with an elevation of at least 1500 feet. The weather is much colder up there and the shallow bodies cool quicker and will always ice up first.

Not sure where I'm headed next Monday but it's looking like another road trip is in order. I absolutely can not WAIT to fish locally! 

[saxmatt]

Like you said, you can't win if you don't play. Great job getting out there. I bought 6 lotto tickets last year and didn't see a flag, tigers are tricky critters to figure out.

[icefishinsteve]

Anyone that knows the area knows exactly what lake that is.

[Blaine]

Anyone that knows the area knows exactly what lake that is.

Yep, it's no secret...

[ljtfisherman]

I can not wait to get out. Good to hear it was a nice safe trip. That's the breaks 1 flag, that's fishing.

[spanky1]

Great effort guys.

What does it say when you go through all that, get one flag, no fish and I'm still jealous?

Hopefully we'll be fishing a little closer to home soon. Thanks for the report and excellent pics Blaine.

[lowaccord66]

Metalfish was saying yesterday, we should have gone up there.  Instead we went to the Berkshires again and found nothing.  Nice work Blaine.

[jdpsm3]

Definitely jelaous cant wait to get out there set up the shanty and grill and get some trout.

[Trooper Bri]

What lake is this?

[adkRoy]

HMMMM....lake looks very familiar. 

[Trooper Bri]

I was just kidding, but did get a PM.   

[Curley]

Nice pics. To bad the fish didn't cooperate. The fishing gods owe you.

[metalfish]

Metalfish was saying yesterday, we should have gone up there.  Instead we went to the Berkshires again and found nothing.  Nice work Blaine.

We should have drove around up there and look for it. Fudge Man.. Congrats on gettin out guys. If no Ice by then middle off the month were are road tripin it to CANADA to make sure we can fish 

[lowaccord66]

Yeah for sure brother.  Buddy of mine racked it up today on brookies in NH.  I fished open water today at Mt Tom which was not what I was looking to do.

[combsey]

im glad i live only 50 minutes from your secret lake   oh yeah you were 1 day early