"Big Eagle" Ice Fishing

Eagle Lake.  A confusing name in its simplest form with the State of Maine housing 3 water bodies sporting the name - Eagle Lake, and two others named Eagle Pond.  Luckily one is located in the southern portion of the state and therefore does not find its way into the folklore and stories told here in Northern Maine.  That only leaves two lakes to distinguish between, so in true Maine fashion, the simple solution was to rename one and thus the larger water body became unofficially “Big Eagle Lake” or just “Big Eagle”.  This is the second lake in the chain of lakes that form the headwaters of the famed Allagash River.  Enough rambling...more fishing!  About 40 miles of pavement and 75 miles of gravel logging road separate my house from this famed fishing hole.  By leaving the house at 4:00a.m. we were able to navigate the majority of those miles before we reached prime fishing time.  As soon as we arrived, we unloaded our gear and piled onto snowsleds to make the final trek of our journey down onto the frozen expanse. We drove down the winding path through the trees descending into the waterway until we broke out onto the lake.  The lack of camps and it's remoteness adds a feel to the lake that cannot be described until experienced.  We made short order of drilling through the 30 inches of ice and dropping our baits into the depths.  Preferences for bait varied, but my preferred setup was a large lake smelt 2-3' off the bottom in hopes of hooking onto one of the monster togue that are rumored to inhabit the lake.  The day started with Mike Michaud "The Legend" (check him out via our guides page!) hooking onto a nice 3 pound laker.  Before it had cleared the hole, Ron Soucy had his own battle on with what would be our largest fish of the day.  The 5 pounder was beautifully spotted with a forest green/black background.  We followed up those with four other togue in the 3-4 pound range, caught by Tim, John, Corey and myself.  In between the togue, I managed to hook into two small cusk and Rocky Bard also picked one up.  The action was steady, with several flags in between to keep us running.  Unfortunately not all parties were able to catch fish with Jesse and Bob getting skunked, but for every day you go without fish, you are that much closer to catching a monster.  The weather was beautiful and as we rode home, I watched the sun set and a feeling settled over me that all was right...or maybe it was just exhaustion!  

Check out the action in the photos below.  I also captured lots of video footage that I will try to compile in the near future and get posted.  Also, open water season is knocking on the door so stay tuned for lots of upcoming action!

Ice Fishing Video

This is the most recent creation by Ridge Runners & River Rats.  It is a compilation of video from the outing described in my recent post on Madawaska Lake.  I tried to keep it a realistic length for people to watch and if you have comments on how to make it better, just let me know.  Enjoy!

Brook Trout ... Lots of em'

February 15.  The date doesn't mean much to most people, but here in Northern Maine that signals "opening day" on a favored locale in these parts.  Tim Cyr, Josh Caron, Nick Pelletier and myself decided we were going to head out to this popular location, Madawaska Lake, for opening day.  Madawaska Lake is one which is stocked annually by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.  They put 1700 brook trout in this year, to supplement the native fish for this heavily pressured lake, so my hopes were high about the action we would see.  The majority of these brookies were 12-13" when they were stocked back in the fall, but 100 of them were brood stock fish which are all over 17".  These fish held special interest among our group as big fish are always nice to hook onto.  We arrived at the bait shop just as it opened to make sure we were on the ice as soon as possible to claim the prime territory.  We arrived in the nick of time, and just finished setting up as trucks started rolling into the landing.  As I was drilling the third hole the first flag went up.  A quick battle revealed a fat 12" trout that had eaten the bait.  A quick clip of the hook and he was back down the hole to swim again.  As we continued setting up, the action became fast and furious and at one point 5 out of our 20 flags stood straight up.  All told, we had over fifty flags and landed over thirty trout between four of us.  That kept the action very steady and we had a lot of fun.  We found time to eat well, with moose meat burgers with bacon and onions made into the patties and bratwursts in between flags.  Most of the fish we caught were in the 12-14 inch category, with 80% of them being stocked fish.

One fish stands out in my mind.

I heard the yell - "FLAG".  As I turned to see where it was, my heart skipped a beat when I saw it was the "camp hole" which meant it was my flag.  I had only taken a couple of steps towards it when "ping" I saw another of my flags rocket upwards signaling other fish had taken the bait.  As I neared the first trap, right beside our "base camp" I noticed the reel wasn't spinning on the tip-up, so I continued right past it to the second flag.  I knelt to grab the line as the reel spun wildly, quickly setting the hook and starting a game of tug-o-war with the finned creature.  It started to come up the hole and just before it was out of the water, it came off the hook and started back down.  Reacting, I dove my arm down into the icy water and managed to grasp the slippery fish and fling him out reach of the hole.  Looking down I realized I was now soaked to the elbow on one arm, but as I looked at the fish I forgot all about it.  It was a beautiful 15" trout that had obviously eaten well as it was very thick.  Shaking myself back to reality from enjoying the fish, I remembered I still had another flag to check.  I ran back to the camp hole which by now had attracted a couple of my fellow fisherman to watch the spectacle unfold.  Pulling the trap from the water, the line was not moving but distinctly angled to one side.  As I increased tension on the line, it suddenly got heavy...real heavy!  I could feel a slight head shake to confirm I had a fish and was not stuck on bottom, so I started pulling the line hand over hand.  Reaching my leader I knew the fish was now close and I peered into the hole as the swivel on the hook slid into view and then a head that seemed to fill the hole.  It started up the hole and I almost had the fish without a struggle, but all of a sudden it came alive and dove back down for its first run.   After seeing the fish that rolled in the hole, Nick Pelletier stripped off his coat and rolled his shirt sleeves to dive in after the behemoth if necessary.  I managed to turn the fish back to the hole and got him pointed up and with a sweeping motion Nick grabbed the fish and flung him to a secure spot.  Still in shock, I stumbled over to the fish and couldn't stop admiring it.  An 18.5" male brook trout that weighed 3lbs. 1oz. was laying in the snow.  His belly was a deep purple, almost black that continued onto his jaws which were very dark in color.  Moving up the sides the deep purple faded into a reddish orange color transitioning up into the silvery dark green speckled sides.  The dorsal fin was centered on his humped back with the tiger stripes very evident on the translucent fin.  Truly a beautiful fish, it was my largest brook trout to date that came through the ice.  Check out the pictures below and a video is on its way!

Shed Hunting Report

The shed hunting season is well under way for this year.  Reports are trickling in of people finding antlers.  I would say most of the bulls should have lost their antlers by now and all you have to do is go pick them up.  Sounds easy right?  Not so much...Currently the average for the "shedders" I talked to is about 100 miles of prime areas covered for every antler find.  This can be greatly increased if you can find areas that haven't already been checked by someone in the last couple weeks, but that is getting harder to find with this hobby increasing in popularity.  The recent weather we have had really dropped the snow pack and any of those buried antlers might start surfacing.  I would think right now if you can get into some ground not already looked at, the pickings would be prime.  One of the largest antlers I have heard about comes from Peter Tabor who noticed three tines sticking up through the snow and as he pulled on them the snow started moving three feet away as he unearthed the 24 pound behemoth!  

Then there are days when it really pays off and you can find 8 antlers in one day!

I would say if you are looking for antlers you had better get out there soon before a snow storm buries whatever is out there.  Good Hunting!  Stay tuned for some more fishing reports and video footage.

Ice Fishing Video

The much anticipated (probably not, but I will tell myself that) video footage from the GoPro camera!  I am also playing around with some different video editing software, so I put it into a trailer type video.  Lots more footage to come as I figure everything out!  If anybody has any thoughts or comments on how to improve either the video footage or the blog itself, let me know.

Trapline 2012

    Trapping has long been a part of the American heritage and was the original basis for most of the early exploration.  Fur was often regarded as currency in these early days and the trappers of the time were known to disappear into large watersheds for months at a time in pursuit of beaver pelts.  While most modern day trappers are not so dedicated, but rather pursue the fur bearers in more of a recreational manner, there are a few motivated individuals who still pursue the fur in the deep woods for long periods of time.
    I am in the category of recreational trappers who pursue the fur bearers of Northern Maine on a part time basis.  I got my start in trapping thanks to my uncle Bob Hersey.  As a kid we would always go visit around the holidays and I was awe struck by the piles of fur in his shed.  My fascination grew and then Bob offered for me to tag along on his trapline.  I quickly agreed, jumping at the opportunity and desperate to learn more about this fascinating hobby.  His patience was unending as I asked question after question soaking up information faster than a sponge.  I quickly learned that when trapping, every morning feels like Christmas, as you never know what might await you.  After tagging along once, I was hooked.  I proceeded to take the Trapping Safety Course, which is a requirement for all new trappers in Maine, learning additional information from the instructor Jerry.  I wanted to go back and take the course every year, as I had so much fun.  That first fall, Bob very generously offered to set a joint line with me.  I know he did so sacrificially, because had I not been hanging traps next to his, the likelihood of his catches would have been increased, but he showed me the ropes and I had a blast.  We trapped muskrats, mink, otter, fisher and beaver.  I had a very successful first season, in large part due to the fact that Bob guided me and taught me how to read animal sign.  I was familiar with looking at deer sign, but the small signs that I would have otherwise missed Bob pointed out.  He also showed me how to handle the fur after I caught it.  The painstaking process of preparing a beaver hide, the delicate cuts on a mink to miss the scent glands and skinning muskrat quickly were all lessons that were taught and committed to memory.  Check out the picture below for the fur picture from my first season.

My First Trapline

     I have trapped a little almost every year, only missing one or two years when I was in college and not able to find a place to put up my fur and store my traps.  This past year I had decided to do a little more targeting fisher and marten.  I knew that I would not have the time to devote this past year for canines or to put up any beaver catches, so I focused my efforts on what I could handle.
      Starting the first week of November, I started hanging steel at every opportunity I had, before work or on my lunch break and before I knew it, I had a respectable trapline set up.  I tried to keep about two dozen traps up for most of the season.  I was very pleased with my results, as I had a minimal amount of time to devote to trapping and all in all put up some good numbers.  I like to look back at the pictures and see the transition as the season progressed.  The season started with temps up into the 40's and rainy then got gradually colder until we finished the season with more snow than I could navigate through with my four-wheel drive pickup.  The season ended with the following total - 19 muskrats, 10 raccoon, 5 fisher, 5 marten, 2 mink, 1 beaver and one weasel.

Opening Day - Ice Fishing 2013

The first day of 2013, found me waking with the sun to do a little “hard water” exploring, often referred to as ice fishing.  Most of the lakes here in Northern Maine open to ice fishing on January 1^st and it has long been a tradition of mine to fish opening day.  This was something I always used to do with my grandfather, so I am trying to carry on the tradition and get out and set my “flags”.  Brent and I headed out to check the ice thickness and drill some holes.  As we left, the mercury was hovering in the single digits and the wind was howling.  The windchill was somewhere around 24 below zero Fahrenheit which is hand numbing to say the least.  As we eased onto the ice the presence of several ice shacks gave us a sense of security, but we still stayed close to shore as we ventured past the shacks to the unclaimed territory.  After we had given everyone a wide berth, I drilled a test hole and found about 9 inches of ice.  Six inches of it was the nice black ice that is the strongest and the top three inches were the slush ice that has a white appearance to it.  I urge caution to everyone as the venture out, as there were spots of only 1-2" of ice.  We proceeded to setup our "base camp" and start setting out flags.  We only had a couple of traps up when Brent had a flag.  Running back, we saw the line flying off the spool indicating the sure sign of a running salmon.   Brent set the hook and quickly pulled in the yards of line as we anxiously awaited a glimpse of the silver streak at the other end of the line.  It's arrival at the hole showed the undersized fish, so we quickly snipped the line to let the fish grow.  It was in the 13" range.  We continued setting flags and just before we finished Brent had another flag.  This fish had taken lots of line and the smelt, but pulled a disappearing act as it was not tugging on the other end of the line when we arrived.  We finished setting and then it was my turn for a flag.  I quickly set the hook and pulled the fish in hand over hand only slowing as the flash got nearer the hole.  This fish was larger and a quick measure put it at 16 1/2", which meant it would have been my only fish I could keep over 16".  As it was still early in the day this beauty was released to swim another day.  The rest of the day was slow as we had a few flags with some bait thieves and I iced a large yellow perch.  Brent managed to pick up another of the undersized fish which we pulled out for a quick photo op before sliding it back into the icy depths.  A quick reminder to everyone that if you are planning on releasing a fish, keep it in the water as much as possible.  The fish do not fair well when they are pulled out onto the ice.  I brought along my new GoPro camera and got some really nice footage.  Check back soon for the compiled video as well as my trap line post which is almost finished!