Heap Plenty Cusk - 3 Youtube videos from last weekend (The Winni Dery)

[The Hairy Beast]

I spent a truly wild weekend seven days ago, Ice fishing the NH Winnipesaukee Derby. One of my old high school buddies invited me. I had never fished with this crew, so I didn't know what to expect, but Friday afternoon I bundled my son into the Explorer and we headed out for the lake.

I brought my popup shanty and whatnot, been using it to fish local tidal rivers (saltwater ice - scary) for smelts with seaworms. Sweetwater lakes are fairly foreign to me despite it being much safer than the porous saltwater stuff. Not knowing what to expect, I brought it all.



What a waste of vehicle space!

After a lot of twists and turns we finally took a run down a privately owned lane and came into a compound lit by myriad christmas lights, multiple buildings and lots of fellow anglers milling about with assorted beverages. Our host was grilling a few dozen ribeyes(he favored Montreal Spice dry rub). My buddy took me into the bunkhouse to set up beds for me and my 15 year old son, and then it was off to the bonfire at the edge of the frozen lake. And yes, that's an actual hockey rink in the foreground (they built it wednesday, plowing up snow and then they popped a hole and sunk a sump pump into it to flood the ice with a few thousand gallons of water). It was like an ice playground. They even trucked out sand to mke their own horse shoe pit.



Saturday morning came awfully early, Some of us ran out for coffee at dawn. Do we look hungover to you?



Well, it turned out that my portable Smelt rig was useless. They had everything - snowmobiles, 4-wheelers, a tracker, even a Jeep Wrangler on the ice.

The Tracker:



The young lady in the above shot is the Girlfriend of one of the younger participants. The main rule of derby weekend at the Compound is: NO WIVES. But girlfriends are allowed to visit during the day. Only the guys can sleep over.

I have posted a lot of pics in a previous thread - we placed on the board in two categories and I just got copies of the checks as a souvenir. I'm quite proud of our team and i consider any victory for one of us a victory for all.

Anyway here are three videos of us pulling 4 cusk in from 5 traps. We didn't place in that category, but we had fun. The kid in the helmet is my 15 year old son.