Long Lake Trip

We'd heard a lot of stories about the giant landlocked salmon in Long Lake, situated at the very top of Maine. The lodge owner I spoke with a few months back said they hadn't caught any "big" salmon this fall, but plenty of "mediums," which to him meant 5 to 7 pounds (!!!)  Needless to say, we were pretty psyched to have three days to fish.

Unfortunately, three fishermen (not in our party) went through thin ice the first day we were fishing. It made the news in Bangor and Portand that night, and several people called to make sure our crew was OK. Here's the story from the Bangor Daily: Ice Fishermen Fall Through Thin Ice on Long Lake

Fishing with Tim Jackson (Jack Traps, INC) and Bob Foster, an old-school fisherman who used to fish with Tim's dad, we managed to land 16 salmon in three days. We didn't find the big fish - but caught several between 2-3.5 pounds, the biggest of which we brought back to the cabin for dinner! Our interview with Bob went well - we had great lighting and a beautiful ice shack in the background. Also - Dan caught his first salmon through the ice!

We captured some amazing underwater shots - shots that have never been done, shots that we've talked about for years now. These we'll save for the film!

Below are a few pictures from the trip.

Snowstorm

Salmon with hook-jaw, 3.5lbs 

What happens when the power auger jams up? Time to break out the chisel...

Opening Day, 2011

During the filming of Hardwater, we've witnessed some impressive fish being pulled up through the ice: an 18 pound togue on Sebago, several over 10 pounds on East Grand Lake, and a handful of pike over ten pounds.

When I'm not behind the camera, I'm usually fishing for big northern pike, and I've caught lots of them over 10 pounds - including a 19 and a 17, both from Long Pond in Belgrade. The action can be slow - maybe two or three flags a day. But it's well worth it when one of those flags turns out to be a monster. That was the case this past Saturday - landing the biggest northern I've ever caught (to be fair, my dad hooked and played the fish out for the first 20 minutes, I finished the last 10 minutes and grabbed the fish under the gills). She was 43 inches long and 20 inches around. On a scale that evening, she was an even twenty-two pounds.