Here’s who caught the biggest fish in the Schoodic and Sebago lake ice derbies
By Pete Warner, Bangor Daily News Staff
The late-week thaw made for some slippery conditions on many Maine lakes over the weekend, but that didn’t deter the dedicated anglers who participated in two of the state’s biggest ice fishing events.
The Schoodic Lake Ice Fishing Derby in Piscataquis County celebrated its 60th anniversary with a strong turnout. The tournament was held on Schoodic Lake, along with Embeemee, Seboeis and Boyd lakes.
Wayne Meserve of Charleston took home top honors, pulling in a lake trout that weighed 7.86 pounds and measured 27 1/2 inches. Not only did he earn a cash prize of $400 for first place, he also took home a new power ice auger for landing the largest fish of the derby.
Other winners included Patrick Keeran of Beaver Cove with a 28-inch, 6.81-pound landlocked salmon and Kerry Curtis of Dresden with a trout weighing 2.49 pounds and going 20 inches. Lennon Pleasant of Conway, Massachusetts, caught the largest perch (21 1/2 inches, 2.88 pounds and David Kosewki of Falmouth, Massachusetts iced the biggest bass (20 1/4 inches, 6.39 pounds).
Rachel Perley of Medway of Medway edged Ryan Nadeau of Hermon in a tiebreaker as both caught cusk measuring 28 inches and 5.09 pounds, and James Smith of Bradford was tops in the pickerel category (5.35 pounds, 25 1/4 inches).
In the ages 5-15 division, Keith Cook of Skowhegan won a lifetime fishing license for his 4.12-pound, 23-inch togue.
The fishing was a little slow on Saturday as anglers registered 216 fish, including 106 pickerel, 54 togue and 29 perch. The action picked up considerably on Sunday as participants took 190 pickerel, 75 perch and 38 togue among 349 registered fish.
The two-day total was 565.
Complete results from the Schoodic derby are available here.
In Cumberland County, anglers braved the chilly temperatures and predictably unpredictable ice conditions on Sebago Lake during the 21st Sebago Lake Ice Fishing Derby.
The event, sponsored by the Sebago Lake Rotary, attracted some 800 registrants to its events, which encompassed Sebago and all bodies of water in Cumberland County.
Caleb Slocumb of North Yarmouth emerged as the big winner of the derby, putting a 15.86-pound, 36 1/2-inch togue on the ice.
His entry easily outdistanced runner-up Jonathan Sarbins (10.55 pounds, 30.5 inches) and third-place winner Andrew Dalton (9.80 pounds, 32 inches).
Ben Carlin made it a clean sweep in the pike portion of the proceedings. He won the division with a 35-incher that weighed 9.48 pounds, but also claimed second (34 3/4 inches, 8.80 pounds) and third (31 inches, 7.38 pounds).
Add it all up, that’s 25.66 pounds and 8 feet, 4 3/4 inches of northern pike. The species was illegally introduced into Sebago almost 20 years ago and may pose a long-term threat to the landlocked salmon, lake trout and feeder fish in Maine’s second largest lake.
Other category winners were Devin Prue, pickerel (3.76 pounds, 25 1/4 inches) and Greg Lachance, perch (1.54 pounds, 14.5 inches).
This year, the Sebago derby also offered contest entries to anglers for each fish they registered. The move was made to encourage taking more fish out of the lake, but future visitors to the Preble Street shelter in Portland also will benefit as donated fish are processed and used to make chowder.
More complete results from the Sebago derby can be found here.