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| Lake Trout |
This year we rented a cottage on Meredith Neck, just a short walk to The Lake. I drove up on Sunday and stayed through Thursday. Cynthia drove up with the dogs on Monday and left on Wednesday.
February 3, 2019
The first stop was in Tilton to buy bait at a general store. Next I drove over to Sanders Bay and fished till sunset. No catches, not even a flag on the tip up. Before leaving I set up six Cusk Devices baited with extra large live shiners. Stopped at a pizza joint to buy a chicken parm sub for dinner and settled into a cozy cottage for the night.
February 4, 2019
The next morning I got up early to check on the Cusk Devices on Sanders Bay. Half of them had the bait stolen. I chummed the holes with chopped mackerel and reset the the devices. Headed back to the cottage in Meredith to spend the rest of the day fishing nearby while waiting for Cynthia to arrive with “the boys”, Choggie and Scuppy our newly acquired rescue dogs. Choggie is a Bichon Frise. Choggie is also another name for a Cunner, a small saltwater fish in the Wrasse Family. Cunners have sharp little teeth so there is somewhat of a resemblance. Scuppy is a white Toy Poodle and was named after the Scup, another small saltwater fish.
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| Cynthia and Scuppy |
Just before Cynthia came out onto the ice a tip up flag went up signaling that a fish had taken a bite on a large smelt. A few minutes later I pulled in a Lake Trout. It was the only fish we caught for the day. However we enjoyed the unusually warm winter day and Choggie had a great time barking at his echo.
February 5, 2019
We had a leisurely morning and then drove over to Sanders Bay to check on the Cusk Devices. As I started to pull in the second device I felt something heavy tugging on the end of the line. It was a twenty two inch Cusk! We pulled up the devices and drove back to our cottage in Meredith where we fished for the remainder of the day. One other fish was caught. It was a Landlocked Salmon that was immediately released because in New Hampshire it’s illegal to harvest a salmon caught through the ice. In fact the fish shouldn’t even be taken out of the water. At least we had the Cusk for dinner.
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| Cusk aka Burbot |
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| Cusk Tacos Fixings - fish francaise, spicy coleslaw, soft tacos |
February 6, 2019
Cynthia took the dogs and headed back home in the morning. I chose to spend the day fishing close to our cottage. This was a decision I later regretted. Got skunked! Not even a bite.
February 7, 2019
This was to be my last day of ice fishing for the year. I decided to go to an area where there would be more action. The area is called States Landing and is located along the northern shore. Last year I caught Chain Pickerel and Fallfish at this spot.
Once out on the ice I drilled one hole over a shallow weed bed and another in deeper water. It only took a few minutes for a flag to pop up at the shallow spot. As I expected it was a Pickerel. Then soon after I caught another pickerel...and another...and another. Meanwhile the Yellow Perch found the bait in deeper water. Pulled in the tip up from the Pickerel spot and tried some jigging before packing up and heading home to Cape Cod.
The home waters were still frustrating local anglers by being frozen enough to deter open water fishing yet not frozen enough to support ice fishing. Fortunately for me I would soon be fishing in tropical waters.
