Ice Fishing for Giant Brown Trout - ft. Eric Haataja - 4K

Yeah, I have no idea what I'm doing here. I've never ice fished before. Actually, well, I did it once in Canada, but it doesn't count, because we didn't catch anything. I got cold and I left. But you can see beautiful Milwaukee in the background. We're drilling more holes right now. We're getting more rods in the water. We actually hooked a fish before I can even get the camera set up. So I got a good feeling we're gonna get in some serious fish. All I want to do is one giant. This is a good place for a big old trout, buddy. Let's do it, man. Last day, bottom of the ninth. Here we go. All right, let's do it. So we got propane tanks. We got a ton of fishing rods. We got gloves. Yeah, we gotta have those things. What is that right there, a tent? It's actually, considering that we were out in the elements the last two days, and it was minus 25, minus 30, it's 21, or it's what, 15 degrees right now? A high of 21 today. It actually feels warm. It does, actually. Compared to the last two days. But it's cold. You know, the cool thing is, you can take all this stuff off. We can crank up the heat, 70 degrees. You can fish right in there. It's luxury. All right, we're gonna stake down the tent right now. See this? An ice fisherman's best. So just like you would put up a tent. When you're camping. When you're camping and it's a little windy, what do you do? You put your stakes in first. So here, you drill them. So we just take the old, we'll space them out. We'll put one here. Maybe we'll put one here. And we're just gonna zip it in. We've got the best gear here for the conditions. Stuff that will float in. Ice picks to get us out. Ropes. You just gotta be prepared, right? And we have an ice spud bar. So we're always checking the perimeter of all the ice. It's all the same here. So there's about five inches. That's enough to easily hold an ATV or snowmobile. So we're pretty safe, though. I mean, I've got kids. You got kids. There's no fish worth dying for. But I will tell you, when you're out in the ocean or you're here on the ice in crazy conditions, you just never know what can happen. You gotta be prepared. All right, got our first fish here. I just saw it, guys. It's a big brown trout. Now, I have no idea how to land this thing. Oh my gosh, there he is. He's going, he's stripping drag. It's gonna be a little while if he's big. Not yet. He's fighting like a big brown, though. So you see it? You see him? Big as in how big? Like 10 pounds. There he is, see him? Oh yeah. That's a big fish down there. And if you're catching big fish, I don't care if you're catching from the ice, through on the beach. It's all good. Oh my gosh, let's get him, Eric. Is he a big one? Yeah, he's a giant, dude. Here's the deal. You got to experience it. Oh yeah. Oh. Oh yeah, it's time. Let's land him, dude. Let's land him. I don't want to lose him. All right, here we go. Easy. Easy, easy. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Got him. You ready? That's called a tail grab, baby. Oh, yes, here we go. Look at that hook jaw. You wanted it. Oh, easy. Watch his head, yep. Oh my gosh, guys. You wanted a kite hook jaw, and there you go. Look at that. Look at that fish. Yeah, man. That's a giant. Let's get some pics real quick, and then we're going to get him back, all right? Look at that. Look at that mouth, guys. Joe, get a couple pictures. That's a cool mouth. Hook jaw, look at that thing. That's the biggest brown of my life there, guys. That's what I came up here for, one of these giants. Catch it through the ice. Epic. Let's let her go. Yes. Uno numero el brownie. My hands, so cold. So cold, guys, but so worth it. Okay, let's go warm up. They're steaming. One thing you gotta know about him, he loves hot chocolate, hot chocolate. Let's go get you some hot chocolate. Let's go. That was awesome fish. Another fish on, guys. Whoa, he's got some head shakes, too. Whoa. Oh man, that feels good. Ooh, there he is. There he is, right here. Ooh, ooh, right here. Nice and slow, lift, yep. Keep that little bit of a bend in your line. So the most important thing, guys, you don't want this to float. Oh, there he goes. Now, can the line get cut on the ice, or no? Rarely. Rarely? Yeah, normally the line does not get cut on the ice. What pound line is this? It's a steady pressure, you know? It's like eight or 10 pound. Eight pound. It's a good fish. Once it gets to your tip, use your arm, and you just lift and drop. He's got some weight to him, too. Now, you see how that line slides through here? Look, it's actually not a bobber. It just stays in the hole so the line can slide through. So, like, right now. Oh, there he is. That's a good fish, man. That's a nice one. That's a good one. Real cool. I might grab him. That's a good one. Hey, Eric, can you just dive in there and grab him, bro, with your head? I will. I want you to bite his tail. I was just gonna say, grab him with your teeth. Yeah. Eric's getting ready here. See, we've got a boat. All right, ready? Look, we've got a boat. Five inches of ice. What do you do when there's, like, 20, like, two feet of ice? It takes longer to drill. It's usually colder. I mean, it's just a start, you know? The start of our 2016 ice season. Oh, he's big, bro. Yeah, he is. He's a nice one. He's a good one, man. Another hookjaw, I think. Yeah, another kite. Hookjaw buck brown. Oh, man, guys. This is epic. You wanted some browns? We got them open water. Oh, yeah. Could be, could be, could be. Oh, yeah. He's running, he's running. It's crazy, you had him right to the hole. He was like- And he literally came right up. He was like, hello. How do you wanna grab him? I'm gonna grab him by his tail if he keeps giving me his tail. Sometimes you get a shine at the tail before the head. Got that. And when you do, you take it. Yes. There he is. Awesome job, man. Tail grabbing tight here, support his belly. We got a couple picks. Oh, my gosh, guys. Nice job. Welcome to Milwaukee, buddy. That is such a cool fish. Look at that mouth, guys. That's the kite right there. That is just so cool. Little treble hook right there. I gotta get a pliers and get him unhooked right away. Then we're gonna get a quick pick. Yep. With your cell phone? Yeah. There he is. Look at how pretty that fish is. Gorgeous, look at the colors. So cool, I just wanna- Yeah, put his head in there, his eyeballs. We'll get one, two picks. The eyeballs are gonna start freezing. Yeah. You ready? Yep. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Awesome. Number two, guys. Not bad, not bad. Another hook jaw. That's what I like, those hook jaws, man. So here's what I'm thinking. Little snack time? I just had a snack, but yeah, we can get a snack. But you know what? My hands are so cold right now. We need some hand warmers. Oh, my gosh, guys, it is freezing. These gloves, like, I love holding that fish, but back to the heated clamshell. Yes. There you go. Yes, let's go. Let's go right there. Let's go, man. Guys, I'm gonna tell you what, though. Is it worth it? Absolutely. I mean, my hands are burning right now. They're so cold, but- If you wanna catch the biggest trout of your life through the ice, in the boat, open water, hey, in North America, you know, this is one of those places. You want big browns? Yeah. There's very few places on planet Earth that you can catch a giant brown trout through the ice. So, what we have here is, it's actually called an ice stopper. It's running through the line. Basically, you can let your hole completely freeze over, as thick as you want, and that line will still slide through the inside of that ice stopper there, so that you don't miss any bites. So, when the hole, when everything, it can completely freeze? Completely freeze. And your line can still move? If you get a bite, your rod will still pop up, and you will still potentially catch- Now, if you didn't have that, your line would freeze, fish would bite, and it'd probably break the line, right? It would either break the line, or take the bait without you even knowing it, because without that ice stopper on there, it's basically, your line is locked in that ice that would be in the hole there, you know? So, that little blue thing right there, that is like the key to success right there. When you're fishing in these kind of temperatures, absolutely. All right, after Eric totally deceived me, brutally, with that nonsense, we do have a real fish on now, so let's see. Oh, beautiful, this is what you came here for. It's a sucker! Are you sure it's not another big mac? It's a sucker, come here. Oh, musky bait! Musky bait, yes! Yes, and he inhaled it, too. Your first sucker through the ice. Hey, can you give him a kiss? No tongue, no tongue. Oh, man! Congratulations! Hey, that's the same as a freshwater bonefish. I mean, a sucker, that's a hard thing to do. Now, you almost got the, you need one more. You need a brownie, and then you got the trio. What's a brownie? Big mac, brown trout, sucker, and a brownie. You know, like a chocolate brownie. I already got a brownie. I got a brown trout. I got a big mac. Dude, you know what, bro? Guys, I'm telling you, he's been ice fishing too long. He's got permafrost in his brain. I'm talking to American Airlines trying to get my new flight plan, because that flight got canceled so they could do a snowstorm, and I'm on hold. And we got a rod set up for you. And the rod just went off, so we're on hold right now, and we literally just got a bite. I'm gonna assume it's not a sucker. Oh, it's a sucker! Yes! Another sucker! Yeah! That's awesome. Look at that sucker, guys. That's a prime musky bait right there. All right. So let's put him back in the hole. Remember, Eric said this was a good fish. Look, and I'm, guys, look, I'm still on hold. Still on hold. So we had enough time on hold to catch a fish, so. Be careful, that's very scary, okay? It is, it is. But we caught two really nice fish today. Are you fishing in Milwaukee? Yeah, I flew up from Florida. I flew from Florida to go fishing on ice. Like, think about that. Perfectly legal, yep. This is a big one, isn't it? It's heavy. The snowstorm has begun. My flight is canceled. I'm stuck here with Eric for the next 24 hours. Well, you're gonna have to, it's my daughter's birthday today. Yeah. How awesome is that? Happy birthday, Hannah, I love you. We are here on thin ice, catching world-class trout. You wanted a big one. Hopefully this is it, man. It seems pretty like the big one. Dude. This is heavy, guys. Yeah. This is a good one. I promise. I'm cold right now, too, so. There's no prank going on now. It's not possible. See, there's nothing. Take a look at your surroundings. This is a fish. I'm cold. Oh, he's running. This is it, guys. Oh! I just saw him. I just saw him, dude. I just saw him. Is he big? Yes. Watch it, rod tip low. Yeah, yeah. Keep it in the water so it can get up. Keep the rod in low? Yeah. There you go. Okay, keep him coming up, yep. Running out of battery. We're running out of light. We got a snowstorm. We got a canceled flight. We got Big Macs. We got brownies. What else do you want, baby? This is what we do. This is the fish, guys. Oh, yeah. This is the one you came here for. I think so. Help us out here, Lord. Let's let Josh catch this big old brownie. Yeah. Big old brownie. I'm excited. I am excited. Just like when the fish was underneath the boat, he's in the water right now. So do we have an extra battery in case? Yeah, it's right here. Okay, great. Here's the thing. We're using light line, too. We're using like eight pound floral carbon, right? So it's not like you can tighten a drag down. They're line sensitive, little hooks. So it's a lot of like you play them out. You use a long rod. It's not easy. Yep, just lift. Just try to lift straight up. Keep him coming. Yeah, just like that. Oh, man, he's going again. Dude, you're gonna run out of camera battery, dude. I'm telling you. Oh, yeah. This is it, man. You want to see everyone catch these giant fish when they hook up, you know? Oh my gosh, guys. It's been hours since our last bite. I was losing all hope. And then. And then the big man. And then the two suckers. Okay, and then this. Here he comes. I just saw, he's huge. He's huge. He's freaking tank. He's a tank. Oh. He's a big one. He's real big. Oh, man. Oh. Here we go. Oh my goodness. Here we go. It's a big one. Big, big, big one. That's why you came here, buddy. Right here. This moment, right now. Come on, look at him underneath the ice, right beneath our feet. Stay on, baby. Stay on. Look at that. Grab him. I can't grab him yet. Hold on, hold on, hold on. I don't want to put my hands in her gills. Okay. We got to get her on the side. Easy. Don't lose him. Easy. Don't lose him. Lift up slow. Hold on. All right, there we go. Oh, yes. Oh. Look at that. Oh, yeah. Oh. Giant, giant brown. How much do you think this thing weighs? Like 16 pounds? Oh, yeah. That's a big one. Beautiful. Look at that big old brown, dude. Don't drop her. Oh my gosh, guys. That's what we came up here for. She just spit that out, too. Look at that. Look at that fish. Dude, we did it. We did it. You want a big brown in the boat, on the ice? Oh my gosh, it's a giant. Congratulations, dude. We're going to get a couple quick pictures and we're going to get them back. Yep. We're going to let this beautiful fish go. Wow. Ready? And. Yes. Bottom of the ninth flight is canceled, but we did not get a cancellation on them brown trout. No, my fingers are so cold. Awesome. You said you would eat a shad if you caught a brown. No way. That's what you said. Oh my gosh, dude. You know what? We still got some lines, though. We can still get a bigger one. That's a giant, though. How much did that fish weigh? I think 17 pounds. That was a teener, man. Congratulations. It's a big fish, dude. Through the ice? Through the ice, man. Your personal best biggest brown? I love it. That's what you get when you come here, folks. My fingers are cold. Nice work on the hot rod, too. I love it. On Eric's own rod. I can't thank Eric enough. He put me on some giant trout. He promised it. I flew all the way up from Florida to do it. This is my first official day of ice fishing, and it was epic. I can't wait to do it again. I mean, we caught four good ones, a couple suckers today, and a nice big mac. I mean, really, can you complain about that? Was that epic or what? The big mac. I forgive you for the big mac. We will catch some more big fish. You gotta come back. I will. And go after some other giant fish. I need to come to Florida. I promise, I'm coming to fish with you in Florida. Guys, I don't know if you can tell, it's a blizzard out here. My flight got canceled. It is snowing like cats and dogs right now. We've had some of the most extreme conditions while he's been here, but we caught some giant fish. Minus 25. For all you guys on YouTube. Make sure you go and check out Eric here. His YouTube channel, link's in the description. Big thanks to the guys here, Colin, Joe. They were a huge help. They were grinders, guys. Grinders, right? The link to their social media, also in the description. Hope you guys enjoyed this video, and we'll see you next time. Black Tip H Fishing is brought to you by Frog Tongs, designed for you, created for the outdoors. Sudacore Nutrition. And Southern Fin Apparel. Look at that head. Look at that mouth. Beautiful. Dude, Eric, we need to get a picture of this one, I think.