By Richard Boulanger Hawkeye Hunting and Fishing News April, 2010
The rule is that "first ice" and last ice" provide the best fishing. They can also be the most hazardous. With proper equipment and a safe approach you can get on the ice and find a safe place to fish well into March. Unseasonable warm weather might well prove me wrong this year??
Mike Burlage, from Dover, and I just completed a two day ice fishing marathon at Lake Winnipesaukee. Many of the access sites have open water and are lined with bob houses that have come off the ice a couple of weeks earlier than normal. But Mike and I hoped to find lake trout and white perch bunched up in shallow water bays. Mike likes to eat lakers and I like to fill my freezer with delicious white perch fillets. We would normally have scheduled our trip for the middle of March but the Lunar calendar told me that the best fishing would be the first few days of March. That's the reason I called Adrien Lavoie of YOADRIEN charters, to schedule a guided trip for the 1st and 2nd of March. I'm glad we chose the early date because it looks like most of Lake Winnipesaukee will have open water for the April 1st salmon season.
Mike and I checked in at the Lazy E Motel and Cottages Sunday evening. The Lazy E is located right on the big lake and offers discount "Stay & Fish" packages for those chartered by Lake Winnipesaukee guides. For $20 each we had our own room, a full sized bed and a fireplace. Adrien was scheduled to pick us up at 5:30AM so we were both sound asleep well before 9:00 PM. Dick Pinney AKA "The Dickster" , outdoor writer and professional guide, was also to join us. Dick called Sunday afternoon to let us know that the hurricane winds of the February north easter had demolition the trees in his GreatBay neighborhood. Dick said that he had set up a portable generator and was cooking meals on his grill. He asked me NOT to let him know if the fishing was great.
Mike woke me with a knock on the door at 4:30AM. By the time we checked the weather channel and made coffee Adrien had parked his pickup and 24 ft trailer at the top of the parking lot. We tossed our coats and lunch in the back seat and he headed north towards Meredith. Last year he had launched at the Meredith public access but he told us it was just open water and ice cakes. He punched an address in his auto gps and it guided him to one of his many secret access points along the north shore of the big lake. In a few minutes he had dropped the big door on the trailer and unloaded an amazing 6 passenger tracked vehicle and two oversized sleds. Twenty minutes later we were a mile onto the lake and he was making circles on the ice while looking for a secret spot on the gps which showed him the lake bottom as well as places he had previously found fish. Satisfied with our location he hopped out and drilled our first tipup hole. He sounded the depth, hooked on a small live smelt and carefully lowered it to the bottom. Adrien barely turned to us when the flag popped up behind him. I didn't want to lose the first fish but Mike convinced me to take the line while Adrien held the tipup. After a five minute tug of war I turned the head of a 3 lb. lake trout into the hole. Too early in the day to think about keeping fish Adrien deftly removed the hook and sent the fish back down the hole.
That was pretty much the way the day went. Adrien scattered 4 tipups within a hundred yards and we jigged pairs of holes as he marked fish with his high tech Lowrance fish finder. When the action slowed in the middle of the day he pulled the tipups and moved them a quarter mile to another secret hole that didn't show up on the lake maps. Again it seemed that a fish had been waiting for him to drop the smelt to the bottom. Mike took the line but the fish had dropped the bait. Adrien told him to drop his smelt baited jig to the bottom and it seemed that Mike spent the next half hour fighting one laker after another. Mike loved the fish on Adrien's fish finder while it gave me a chance to play with my new Vexilar sounder. Both Mike and Adrien preferred the multi colored image on the expensive Lowrance but I still like the simplicity of the Vexilar because it is made for ice fishing and gives me an instant view of my jig and the fish that are watching it. My Vexilar FL8 doesn't provide the bottom zoom feature of Adriens Lowrance but next season I think I might invest in the Vexilar FL20 with both a 12 ft. and 6 ft. bottom zoom feature. It's so much like a video game I think the grandchildren will love it.
The temperature was in the 30s but the wind gusted to 20 mph. We were happy when Adrien stopped to fillet the big pile of fish and end the day. We had released 17 3 to 4lb lakers and kept a dozen big white perch and some nice yellow perch. Mike took a yellow perch that weighed 1.4 lbs. Adrien mentioned that he thought we got a late start so we might try to get on the ice a little earlier the next morning. On the drive back to the Lazy E he phoned AJ at AJ's Bait & Tackle in Meredith and begged him to be open at 5:30AM. When we got back to the Lazy E we agreed to head right over to T-Bones for supper and be on our pillow immediately after.
Again, Mike woke me at 4:00am and told me that Adrien had been rumaging around his next door room for a half hour already. I brewed up coffee and had a donut. I barely pulled my boots on when Mike told me that Adrien was already loading the trailer. Ten minutes later Adrien stopped at McDonalds and we bought coffee and egg mcmuffins to eat on the run. Five minutes later we were waiting for AJ to open the store. Adrien bought a couple dozen super looking smelt and I picked up a couple of AJ's famous jigs. Adrien then headed east to a new location and after a maze of curving shorefront roads I was completely lost. Adrien never fishes the same spot more than once every two weeks. He had promised to take us to a couple of spots that we could find on our own next season. I forgot to bring my gps unit so I couldn't mark the route and shorefront access. If I can't find them on Google they will again become Adriens secrets.
At 6:00 AM Adrien had unloaded the track vehicle and two sleds and we were headed north in the center of a large bay. Fifteen minutes of circiling trips and after rerouting around open water at one of the rocky islands he made a series of ever smaller circles and again decided that we were on top of one of his secret spots. No luck this time! It was twenty minutes before we had a flag and the fish dropped the bait after a short run. We jigged several holes and found a hoard of small yellow perch. One hour later Adrien packed us up and headed back south to try a spot that had been good two weeks earlier. A quarter mile south and several more circles and he put down a tipup in the middle of what seemed a featureless cove. Within an hour that hole provided 4 lake trout one of which was a dark bodied 6 lb+ laker that was one of the biggest trout that Mike had ever taken. But Adrien wasn't happy? He packed up again and moved a little bit north to a site just east of a rocky point.
The first two flags popped up before Adrien could even cut holes to jig in. One was a nice laker and the other was a 3lb smallmouth. While we jigged up yellow and white perch and a couple more smallmouth the tipups provided more lakers and a nice rainbow in only 4 ft. of water. By 3:00 PM the sun and clear sky had provided 40 degree temperature while Adrien filleted our perch. Mike decided to keep his big laker intact to bake when he got home. On the way home Adrien took us for a tour of several access locations that we could use in the future. He was really trying to find solid ice that he could use for a couple of customers who had phoned to ask him to take them fishing during the last few days of fishable ice. There's no doubt in my mind that he found them fish.
Why Pay for a Professional Fishing Guide???
By Dick Baker, Hawkeye Hunting and Fishing News Dec. 2008
Every spring I spend the second week of May at Ames Farm Camps on the west shore of Lake Winnipesaukee. The entire week is spent catching salmon and lakers in preparation for the Winni Salmon Derby. My son Dave and I have our own boat and we always catch fish. So, when I told Dave that I had chartered a guide for Monday morning, he was doubtful. “That’s going to cost us 300 bucks! Tell me why.”
Why? In the first place, fishing out of our 18 foot Starcraft means that two of us have to control the boat and tend to the gear. Typical Winnipesaukee weather is windy and rainy. We fish only with live shiners so one person captains the boat while the other is responsible for two downriggers and two flat lines. We catch fish because we are constantly monitoring location, wind, depth, speed (slow), and distance on the flat lines. Each bait has to be checked regularly as shiners don’t live for more than a half hour when dragged on the end of a hook. Trolling a lifeless shiner can be a waste of time. We love to do it but it’s not relaxing.
On a charter, however, I have no qualms about letting the captain do all the work so that I can simply fight fish and take pictures. Most important is that these guys know the water and they hook fish. It can be expensive but it’s fun, relaxing, and educational.
It’s a learning experience. These pros know the lake and love to share their experience and teach you how to fish. I was taught to fish Winni by one of the best of the old-timers, but Winni is a huge body of water and fish move around a lot. We often meet first timers who come in fishless for days on end.
If you don’t catch salmon on Winnipesaukee, you’re doing something wrong! You probably need to hire a guide for a day. I’ve never spent a week fishing a big lake without chartering a professional for the first day. Why pay hundreds of dollars for license, food, lodging and fuel and spend days trying to locate fish?
Anyway, at 5:00 a.m., a nice-looking Grady White pulled up to the dock next to our boat and Adrien Lavoie introduced himself. I’d asked around and was told that “YOAdrien” Charters was the best. Adrien also introduced us to Jack, who would share our morning charter. Jack was a first-time salmon fisherman and had been told that Adrien caught lots of fish on Winnipesaukee.
There was no sunrise between Rattlesnake and Diamond Islands. It was rain and fog for the entire morning. Adrien powered the boat directly for the south end of Rattlesnake Island and set the gear out as if he had done it a thousand times. All the while he kept up a friendly chatter of fish and Winni stories. It took him awhile to set all the lines because we kept stopping to reel in salmon and rainbows. I don’t think we went for more than 15 minutes without hooking a fish. When we ended the morning we had boated 37 salmon and rainbows and lost many. That’s more than I’ve even caught in one day! Adrien seemed to think it was just a “good” day. The trip cost three of us $100 each but it was a super fishing experience. And, I learned a few tricks that I planned to use during the Salmon Derby.
Now, ice fishing should be a different matter. I have my own ice fishing gear and think I know my stuff. Anyone should be able to poke a few holes in hard water and catch fish. All you need is a sled and some warm clothes. So, when I told Dave that I had hired YoAdrien Charters to take me ice fishing on Winni, he was incredulous! “Dad, I’ll freeze with you for free but I’ll be darned if I’ll pay to suffer.”
I drove south the day before Easter and met Adrien at 7 a.m., in front of A.J.’s Bait and Tackle in Meredith. Adrien had a big white Chevy ¾ ton with a Ski Doo and two big sleds mounted on a high rack in the bed. He introduced me to his good friend, Dan, a professional pilot and super friendly guy. Adrien had already purchased some of A.J.’s best shiners so we loaded my pack basket and drove to a boat landing out on Meredith Neck.
In no time Adrien had the snow machine unloaded and the two sleds tethered in tandem behind it. I slipped behind him on the machine and Dan sat in the rear sled on a huge blue bean bag. Adrien traversed the lake for about 10 minutes but I didn’t have the slightest idea where we were. It was one of his secret spots and I will never be able to find it myself. He did, however, point out a couple of spots near the launch site “that would always produce some fish.” That’s why you hire a pro, because this winter I will fish those easy access spots and slowly expand my terrain until I find Adrien’s “secret spot.”
Adrien uncovered sled number one and pulled out the power auger and set up three high-backed swivel seats. While I poured some coffee and opened the donuts, Adrien drilled triangular groups of holes scattered over a couple hundreds yards of lake. Dan followed and skimmed out the holes. It was cold and windy but Adrien had chosen this spot because it was sunny and protected from the north wind. I was on my second donut when Adrien and Dan came back to base camp. Adrien held up two graphite jig rods and asked me to choose my weapon of the day. One was armed with a bright yellow jig with gold tinsel and the other a pretty blue and white bucktail. I liked the blue and white one. He attached a slim piece of sucker belly to each jig and told us to jig it just off the bottom.
Dan had jigged before so he was kind enough to show me the technique of bouncing the jig a few inches off the bottom. A few minutes later Dan’s rod doubled over and he fought a nice two pound laker from 30 feet of water. Ten minutes later he did the same thing. Adrien told me it was time to change and he tied one of the yellow jigs on my rod. Fifteen minutes later I had a hit and pulled up a rotund one pound white perch.
We were at this area because I told Adrien that I wanted to eat some of Winni’s big white perch. I grew up in Maine where my Grampa was the local perch expert. He convinced me that big white perch produced fillets that were “way better than those bony salmon and stinky togue.” Now that I live in northern New Hampshire, I have learned to love salmon and trout but I miss the white perch.
Adrien is a kinetic character and was constantly afoot or running the snow machine to check the bait on tip-ups or moving them to new locations. At each of the three holes he set one of the tip-ups. When we got a flag we would check the hole with his Lowrance fish finder. Perch move around in dense schools so we were hoping to find the schools with the tipups and then jig the adjoining holes until the perch moved. Adrien told of times when they had caught 30 or 40 monster perch at just one set of holes.
Well, we didn’t discover the “honey hole” but we caught lakers and perch at each of Adrien’s selected locations. We caught perch and a bunch of 2-4 pound lakers. Adrien had brought along a popup bobhouse in case it was too cold but the sky was clear and the breeze moderate. We hopped from flag to flag and jigged a few more fish at each location. It was fun and we were never bored. We fished until 2:00 p.m. We had a half-dozen big white perch and released 23 lakers. That’s more lakers than I have ever seen in a day on the ice!
Maybe my photos will temp Dave and his friends this winter. If not, I’ll be on my own with YoAdrien, again.
KTP Fishing Reports March 24, 2008
Adrien Lavoie (YOAdrien Charters) A Winnipesaukee Fishing Guide was guiding a party of ice fishermen. His group landed an astounding 23 lake trout using live smelt on tip-ups and small bucktail jigs Tied by AJ's Bait and Tackle and tipped with cut bait.
Meredith's Hal Lyon's fish stories are award-winning tales.
By Kevin Sperl, The Meredith News March 13 2008
MEREDITH — Meredith's Hal Lyon is prone to telling fish stories, and some of them are good enough to have attracted the attention of the New England Outdoor Writers Association.
Lyon's book, "Angling in the Smile of the Great Spirit," was awarded the association's 2007 Best Book Award for its presentation of the lives of 15 master anglers and their accumulated 600 years of fishing experience on Lake Winnipesaukee.
NEOWA, established in 1942, is the oldest regional outdoor writers organization in America and is comprised of authors addressing issues of natural resources, conservation and outdoor heritage.
"I was very humbled to have won the award," said the 72-year-old resident of Bear Island. "There are a lot of very good writers in NEOWA and, even though I have fished for many years, I have not done much outdoor writing."
Lyon's book was first published in 2004 and quickly sold out of its initial printing of 5,000 copies; a second edition followed in 2007. It was the subsequent limited edition hardback collectors version that caught the attention of NEOWA.
"The hardback edition is numbered one through 1,000," said Lyon. "And the first 500 have already sold."
Not one to sit back and admire his success, Lyon recently pulled into Shep Brown's Marina on Meredith Neck, seeking out ice fishing guide Adrien Lavoie, to film scenes for his series of fishing DVDs entitled "A Love Affair With Angling."
Hopping on the back of Lavoie's sled, Lyon and his videographer, Eric Zeller, made their way to a fishing spot two miles out, nestled in the shadow of Red Hill.
Lyon credits the success of the book for making the production of his fishing DVDs possible.
He explained that the first in the series, "Falling in Love" introduced each of the master anglers in his book, while the second, "The Love Affair Deepens," will provide instructional information about both ice and fly fishing.
Glen Smith of Moultonboro is one local fisherman who has been inspired by Lyon's work.
"We moved up here a couple of years ago and found Lyon's book at a local bookstore," said Smith. "It really got me interested in salmon fishing."
Hooking up with Travis Williams of Cool Water Charters, one of the master anglers in the book, Smith, along with his son Noah, rigged up a boat for fishing and started catching fish.
"We then went out with Adrien during last year's spring derby and our group caught 32 fish," said Smith. "It was a really good day."
During the filming of the ice-fishing segment Lavoie's expertise at pulling fish through the ice was obvious as he landed 10 lake trout, one bass and a white perch during three hours of filming.
"Adrien is such an accomplished angler and professional guide for ice fishing," noted Lyon. "He is the only ice-fishing guide for the Big Lake that I am aware of."
Taking a break from filming, Lyon made note of one of the major benefits of successful fishing.
"Catch and release is important but catch and fillet is also important," he laughed as he prepared the day's catch for that night's dinner.
For more information about Lyon's book and series of fishing DVDs, visit www.deepwaterspress.com. For more information about the fishing guide services offered by Lavoie, visit www.yoadriencharters.com.
