Cusk Training 1A at A-Bay

[Oddfish]

     It took the better part of the week but I finally taught cusk how to attach themselves to my hook.  I set the lines Tuesday and caught a fat pig of a yellow while setting up.  On Wed. morning no cusk had shown up so I moved 3 traps to a more shallow training ground, and caught 2 salmon while waiting.  One on a jig and one on a trap.  Thursday morning produced one cusk in the new area.  I had managed to train them to bite in more shallow water.  The wind was stupid bad.  I have never fished in storm force winds before.  My sun glasses fell off as I was leaning into the wind so as not to fall over.  They headed down the lake at 40+ MPH minus friction (which seemed pretty minimal, except for the occasional cartwheel over an ice ridge).  They cleared the dam with the greatest of ease never to be seen again.  I moved all traps to where the cusk training was working slightly better.  Friday morning left me with no trained cusk, but high hopes for the evening.  I had heard cusk train better with a low pressure front approaching.  I completed my duties for the day and arrived at about 23:00.  I met up with another cusk trainer (Hard Tellin Not Knowin).  I was pleasantly surprised to see that cusk train better in the dark and in low pressure systems.  The cusk learned well that night.  cusk were trained on traps, flags, and jigging rods.  They seemed to learn best in shallow water, and very slow jigging.  Apparently cusk can even be trained to hit on wax worms.  After a couple of hours of mist and drizzle we called it a night.  Despite the wetness it was a great night with good company.  There is something to be said about being out on a frozen body of water in the dark.  There was enough light to make out the hills beyond and it was a very cool view through the fog.  I am now hooked on training cusk at night




     I arrived home about 0200 and put all gear away, stuffed the cusk into the fridge for a morning cleaning and went to bed.  I was awoke the next morn by my wife's screams about something fishy falling out of the fridge.  Fearing the worst I headed down the stairs.  Fortunately the calamity was only an over turned tin of wax worms.  I did get a laugh at the mental picture of her if she had opened the cusk bag and one of the cusk had somehow survived my euthanasia techniques.  Saturday evening we were treated to an excellent cusk feast.  I split the meat between chowda and lobster chunk boil, with a few extra pieces  and the fat yellow fried up just in case someone didn't like the other meals.  It turned out to be a trifecta The wife and I took down the chowda and my daughter who loves boiled chunk cusk was a bit saddened to have to give up some of hers to our oldest son who also found out he loves chunk cusk.  The only left over was a small piece of the fried fish, even out most finicky cat got into the spillage under the boys feeding area. 




     So a great start to training cusk, we will be back at it this weekend, as the wife actually gave permission early for such an adventure (learning to cook well can buy you some good fishing time on occasion).

Oddfish

[cold waters]

nice work Odd... i hit A bay yesterday afternoon after a previous stop farther north... there was four cusk lines out in some deep water near where we set up... I looked to see if they might be you but they werent

[ssduramax66]

Great story, i cant wait to get out for them, never fished them before but i hope to this year.  How much water you in?  I wanna try Silver lake for them.

[DovaIceFisha]

i set some cusk traps up on a bay friday night and had good luck as well. mine were between 20-30 FOW

[winterbot428]

great story!

[ssduramax66]

i set some cusk traps up on a bay friday night and had good luck as well. mine were between 20-30 FOW

Thanks! ever fish for them up moultonboro way?

[PoolGuy]

Great story...awesome looking feast.  I've never fished or had cusk,  but it sure looks tasty, I may have to try fishing for them sometime.
Thanks for sharing

[SmellsLikeFishNH]

LOL love it, great story Oddfish and glad the training is going well!!

-Scott

[Oddfish]

LOL love it, great story Oddfish and glad the training is going well!!

-Scott

Thanks Scott, I'll see If I can get them better trained with the kids this weekend.

ssduramax and Dovaicefisha  I was running in about 20' of water.  I was not in the best spot there are better out there, but you are looking for a rocky shallow coming out of a deeper hole.  A-Bay is not the best place for cusk but it does produce a fair amount of smaller cusk.  The main lake is much better, and over by center harbor way is know to be good area.  As for Moultonbourogh Bay, I'm not sure they are in there.  I have not seen or heard of any great success in that area for cusk,  I would try wolfbourogh instead, but I have not fished it myself so I can only offer that the bottom looks much more sutable for cusking.

Tight Lines, Oddfish

[ssduramax66]

Oddfish thanks for the reply  I may try to get up this week and I wanted to cross cusk off my list.  I made some traps too.  Hopefully I will get something.

[shadfish]

Sounds like a great time!

[AQUAASSASSIN]

Nice job Randy!

[lawnguyjack]

That was a great report Oddfish, The dishes you made look fantastic too!

[deerme]

a great read!  you are the cusk-king!  talk about a delicious tasting fish.  nice job!!!

[Oddfish]

a great read!  you are the cusk-king!  talk about a delicious tasting fish.  nice job!!!

I am no cusk king, at least not fresh water, I am just begining to learn a bit about these beasts.  There was a guy on the other site that hauled in a 7.5#er this weekend, awsome looking fish.

Oddfish

[GraniteBass]

Haha, great story and great eating. Congrats!

[NHSlabbinCabin]

Well done! I set lines the other day and got skunked. You win some, you lose some.

[Oddfish]

Well done! I set lines the other day and got skunked. You win some, you lose some.

I am in the process of forming the opinion that you have to check the lines more than once an evening.  Seems like many of them get loose after a time.  You can see one of mine that had a line wrap issue.  I caught that one on a flag, so it escaped from some other place and was recaught.  If I'm on the ice I check them about every half hour.

Oddfish

[Dispy]

I am in the process of forming the opinion that you have to check the lines more than once an evening.  Seems like many of them get loose after a time.  You can see one of mine that had a line wrap issue.  I caught that one on a flag, so it escaped from some other place and was recaught.  If I'm on the ice I check them about every half hour.

Oddfish

Try increasing your weight size, I find that it does "up the odds" for keeping those fish that are caught over night while traps are unattended.

[JRFlatlander]

Nice job Randy, looks like a great meal

[waterfowlah]

your making me hungry

[winnisquam guy]

hey oddfish, now you're ready for the Olympics

[crawpie]

Great Story.  Love the idea of training, although well trained fish don't seem to last long around you

Keep up the good work.

[Oddfish]

Try increasing your weight size, I find that it does "up the odds" for keeping those fish that are caught over night while traps are unattended.

I'll give it a shot.  I already run 2 oz.  But I may get out late this week and have an assistant trainer that would allow for some emperical testing.  I've still got some 20 OZ.  hanging around from ocean bait jiggin .

Oddfish

[potatomansoup]

I've never caught a cusk deeper than 12feet, but have pulled some nice ones in Alton... Great story!

[ice fisher]

Nice catch

[Riverat]

Hi Randy, Looks like the training is coming along well. The area around my shack is not known for trained cusk, I usually find the infrequent rogue deadbeat cusk that is a "no good for nothing type" too small. But after reading your post and seeing the pics I have renewed vigor and we set out two strings of traps before coming in last night. We're hoping for the best. On the chunk cusk, is that boiled in salt water? have not tried that yet.

[Oddfish]

Hi Randy, Looks like the training is coming along well. The area around my shack is not known for trained cusk, I usually find the infrequent rogue deadbeat cusk that is a "no good for nothing type" too small. But after reading your post and seeing the pics I have renewed vigor and we set out two strings of traps before coming in last night. We're hoping for the best. On the chunk cusk, is that boiled in salt water? have not tried that yet.

You can add salt to taste.  We use salted butter so I cook it in boiling water only.  Some of those Deadbeats are big ole slobs though, I wouldn't mind finding a few of them either.  I'm going to try to keep on it this year and get better aquinted with the species.

Oddfish

[800stealth]

Great story and pics.
Forgive my ignorance... A Cusk is basically a fresh water Cod right? Looks like nice white meat.

[FishEnticer]

Very nice.