Gilmanton man catches record-breaking cusk

MOULTONBOROUGH — Ryan Scott Ashley of Gilmanton reeled in a state record-breaking cusk from the ice of Lake Winnipesaukee on the night of Jan. 13. The fish came in at more than 12 pounds and 35 inches long. Ashley used a glow jig to lure his prize.

“You light it up and it’ll glow underwater,” Ashley explained, “it has a single hook on it, and I use a shiner. It’s pretty much what everyone uses.”

Ashley explained that the light not only gets the fish’s attention, but also counters the potentially negative effects of a flash.

“They can see the color,” Ashley said, “without the glow, they can’t see the color, they can only see the flash and that might scare ‘em. With a glow jig, you can make a duller looking jig that still has lots of contrast.”

Once the cusk took the bait, it was a true fight to the hole.

“It took me about 15 minutes to reel it in,” Ashley recalled, “his head hit the hole, and I just had to grab it. I had a 10 inch hole and his body had a 16 and a half inch girth, so he barely fit.”

As soon as the massive bottom feeder was on the ice, the veteran cusk fisherman knew this wasn’t an everyday catch.

“I’ve caught enough of 'em that as soon as I pulled it through the hole, I knew.” Ashley killed the fish, and kept its body in water over night. The next day, he began his quest to get the specimen weighed. His journey took him first to a bait shop, then Hannaford Supermarket. The fish market grocers suggested Ashley go all the way to the state and contact Fish and Game. Ashley took the advice, and ended up with a certified record-breaker.

The cusk came in at 12 pounds, 8.48 ounces.

“I ended up going to Fish and Game and weighing it, got there about 10, 11 the next day. The fish had been dead for 12 hours. Lost about 4 ounces of weight I’d say,” Ashley said, explaining that fish lose water weight very quickly after death. “A fish will lose between 2 and 8 ounces of weight, so you want to keep it in the water as long as possible to keep the weight on.”

For Ashley, catching big cusk is nothing new.

“I’ve gotten four 10 pounders, a bunch of eight pounders, my daughter won the Newfound Lake Derby in 2020 with an eight-pound cusk. she was three then, she’s five now.”

Unfortunately for Ashley’s daughter, she wasn’t present when he caught his 12 pounder. Ashley caught the fish at 9 p.m., an hour he says is ideal for successful cusk fishing.

“They usually bite at night; the best time is around 8 and 10 p.m.,” Ashley said, reciting his decades of experience.

“I’ve been fishing for cusk my whole life,” Ashley said. “I really got into it when I was 16 and got my license. It's just been a learning experience from there. I just really, really figured it out probably the last two years.”

Over those last two years, Ashley says that he’s learned how the cusk move, what they prefer to feed on, and when.

“I learned what the cusk were following. They were following the spawn, and I learned which fish were spawning and where,” Ashley said. “They're very aggressive, active fish. They’ll just eat anything: rock bass, smelt, perch, other cusk, they’ll eat whatever they can get their hands on. They’ll be in the deep water during the day, and at night they’ll come into the shallows.”

After Fish and Game posted a photo of Ashley holding the the huge cusk, the image and story has reached all the way to CBS Boston and even Newsweek.