Danny Paradis of Frenchville holds the profitable salmon – 6 kilos, 3.4 ounces – within the 2020 Lengthy Lake Derby in St. Agatha. This 12 months, the Lengthy Lake Derby is giving out $22,000 in money prizes and $45,000 in prizes. It’s Maine’s richest derby. Jean Paul Paradis photograph
For practically 1 / 4 century, the Sebago Lake Ice Fishing Derby has been the most important of the handfuls of ice fishing derbies held throughout Maine every winter. Now, an occasion in Aroostook County has taken over that mantle.
The Lengthy Lake Derby in St. Agatha drew simply 290 fishermen at its inaugural occasion in 2006, however has steadily grown to incorporate as many as 1,800 members. It’s now held on 10 lakes within the Fish River chain of lakes and has drawn greater than 1,000 members every of the previous 4 years. This 12 months, the Lengthy Lake Derby will give out $22,000 in money prizes for individuals who place within the big-fish classes and $45,000 in whole prizes, together with a Polaris side-by-side ATV and a totally outfitted ice shack.
Aroostook County is a stable six-to-seven-hour drive from southern Maine, however fishermen who make the trek say it’s price it. The Lengthy Lake Derby is scheduled for Jan. 28-29.
“I’ve been going there to ice fish with my associates within the winter for 10 to fifteen years and to the derby the final seven years,” stated David McQuade of York. “It’s extra distant. You would be fishing all by your self. The following ice shack is perhaps 200 to 300 toes away, however that’s not yearly. Some years, the following one is 1 / 4 mile away in both route. The individuals are pleasant and I feel the fishing is extra spectacular as a result of there’s extra native species. You don’t discover that down right here.”
The Sebago Lake derby was first held 22 years in the past. The occasion shifted to a Cumberland County-wide derby that included 25 water our bodies beginning in 2013, after it had been canceled due to lack of ice 4 instances in 12 years.
The occasion has drawn 500 to 1,200 members over the previous a number of years for the reason that county-wide format was adopted, stated derby organizer Cyndy Bell. This 12 months, it should award $5,000 in money in a grand-prize drawing and a complete of $15,000 in prizes.
Each derbies donate to a number of charities annually. Registration for the Sebago Derby value $25 for people and $35 for households (two adults and as much as 4 youngsters). Registration for the Lengthy Lake Derby prices $20 per day and $30 for the weekend for adults and $10 per day and $15 for the weekend for youth ages 13 and underneath.
Fishermen who enter the Lengthy Lake Derby yearly are drawn by the distant outside wilderness and the dearth of fishing strain in Aroostook County, which is residence to 67,000 residents within the largest county east of the Mississippi, in line with the U.S. Census. They usually additionally come for the promise of massive fish.
Ice fishing members within the Lengthy Lake Derby can unfold out, as proven above in 2020 on Lengthy Lake in Sinclair. It’s one of many 10 our bodies of water within the derby, Maine’s largest and richest, with $22,000 in money prizes and greater than $45,000 in whole prizes. Jean Paul Paradis photograph
The Lengthy Lake Derby has a practice of massive winners with the most important salmon thus far weighing 7 kilos, 14.2 ounces and the most important togue, or lake trout, thus far weighing 18 kilos, 9.6 ounces. The biggest brook trout caught within the derby was 3 kilos, 14 ounces, whereas the most important muskellunge, which isn’t native to Maine and never present in southern Maine waters, weighed 26 kilos, 9.9 ounces.
“It’s a giant territory the place there are big-sized fish,” stated Tom Younger of Hookset, New Hampshire, who fishes the derby yearly. “Folks come for the camaraderie, they like the journey, they just like the winter ambiance, the beneficiant prizes and, after all, the massive fish.”
They’re additionally drawn by the native, wild trout, that are plentiful.
Trout Limitless reported that Maine is the final stronghold within the Northeast for wild brook trout with the state boasting 97 % of the intact wild lake and pond brook trout populations within the japanese United States. And plenty of of these waters are in northern Maine, in line with the Maine Division of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
Daniel Sheffer of York holds up a lake trout on Eagle Lake close to Fort Kent in the course of the Lengthy Lake Derby in 2020. David McQuade photograph
Half the registered fishermen for the Lengthy Lake Derby come from southern Maine, stated Paul Bernier, who based the Lengthy Lake Derby when he labored for the city of St. Agatha in 2006 and has continued as its director.
Generally temperatures can dip into the sub-zero vary and get as chilly as 10 to twenty levels under zero. McQuade stated you simply layer up and make use of an ice shack. Regulars say it’s a welcome local weather understanding it produces very thick and secure ice.
“Being in southern Maine I’d as properly be in New Jersey so far as the climate goes,” stated McQuade, who’s 71, and likes to cross-country ski in addition to ice fish.
The gentle begin of this winter has left open water and questionable ice thickness all through the state – together with in northern Aroostook County.
Jean Paul Paradis of North Carolina jigs on Sq. Lake within the Lengthy Lake Derby in 2014. Courtesy of Jean Paul Paradis photograph
Sgt. Mike Pleasure, with the Maine Warden Service in Aroostook County, stated on Jan. 10 that most of the bigger lakes within the Fish River Chain of Lakes had open water or skinny ice. Usually, a few of these lakes are frozen in November, however Pleasure stated the rain and wind that got here to the area after the Christmas storm opened up some waters on the massive lakes.
“The larger lakes – Eagle, Sq., and Lengthy Lake – are extremely popular this time of 12 months. Lengthy Lake can doubtlessly produce traditionally large landlocked salmon. That’s the prize for folks fishing Lengthy. It traditionally freezes first, however individuals are not venturing out past the coves,” Pleasure stated.
The forecast requires temperatures in St. Agatha to be under freezing – day and night time – in the course of the two weeks main as much as the derby, in line with climate.com.
Jean Paul Paradis of Huntsville, North Carolina, plans to journey to The County for the derby as he does yearly, like loads of Fort Kent natives. Paradis needs to assist the native charity and go to household. However he additionally loves the pleasant camaraderie and the spirit of Aroostook County that’s evident within the ice derby’s vibe, he stated.
“The derby could be very pricey to my coronary heart and to the hearts of loads of locals,” Paradis stated. “I already put in my registration charge. Perhaps this 12 months we’ll hit 2,000. It’s very a lot a giant deal up there. I like fishing and that is an superior place to do it. It’s actually chilly. Nevertheless it’s stunning. It’s not a simple expertise. Generally it’s important to drill a gap by 40 inches of ice,” he added with amusing.
Each of Maine’s largest ice fishing derbies elevate cash for charities.
Because it was based in 2006, the Lengthy Lake Derby has continued to donate funds to the Edgar J. Paradis Most cancers Fund in Aroostook County, which it gave $10,000 to final 12 months. Prior to now three years it additionally has donated $12,000 annually to the Northern Maine Medical Heart Basis.
The Sebago Derby chooses completely different beneficiaries annually, akin to native meals pantries. This 12 months it should donate to the Feed the Want Meals Pantries. It additionally donates all lake trout caught for meals for the homeless and the meals insecure at Preble Avenue. Final 12 months, 7,500 kilos of fish had been donated, Bell stated.
Additionally a part of the Sebago Derby’s unique mission is culling the lake trout in Sebago to assist the wild landlocked salmon populations, and the derby has performed that. Regional Fisheries Biologist Jim Pellerin stated the Sebago ice fishing derby mixed with the 2 different togue derbies held on Sebago in the course of the open-water season assist to skinny the lake of smaller togue, which advantages the native salmon.
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