4th Annual Ice Fishing Derby

DOVER-FOXCROFT FIRE DEPARTMENT’S

4th Annual Ice Fishing Derby

Observer file photo/Stuart Hedstrom

    REELED IN TWO BIG ONES — Then 10-year-old Jediah Dean of Sebec had the two largest white perch during the 2013 Dover-Foxcroft Fire Department Ice Fishing Derby on Sebec Lake. Dean caught a pair of perch that weighed in at 1.3 and 1.26 pounds on a Sunday afternoon at the weigh station by the boat launch. This year’s derby will be held on Feb. 28 and March 1.

Dover-Foxcroft Fire Department’s
fourth annual Ice Fishing Derby
scheduled for this weekend

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — For the fourth consecutive year, anglers will head out on Sebec Lake to see who can come up with the biggest catch in the Dover-Foxcroft Fire Department’s annual Ice Fishing Derby on Saturday, Feb. 28 and Sunday, March 1.
    Derby hours will be Saturday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. The drawing will take place on March 1 at noon. The weigh-in station will be located near the ice-covered water at Greeley’s Landing, with tickets available at this location, in town at Mountain’s Market on West Main Street or through any member of the Dover-Foxcroft Fire Department.
    A number of different cash prizes — funded by local businesses — will be awarded in this year’s Dover-Foxcroft Fire Department Ice Fishing Derby. In the adult division honors will go to the top lunker  and top two salmon, togue, trout, pickerel and white perch. In the junior division, for entrants under the age of 16, business-sponsored prizes will go to the top giant, salmon, togue, perch and trout catches.
    For more information, please call Fire Chief Joe Guyotte at 343-2267.

Sucker removal continues at Little Moxie Pond

By Tim Obrey
Regional Fisheries Biologist,
Moosehead Lake Region

    When our research project began on Little Moxie Pond in 1994, the pond was not considered one of the best trout ponds that the Moosehead Lake Region had to offer. We netted the pond each fall from 1994 to 2001 as part of a statewide study on trout pond regulations.
    But a funny thing happened on the way to evaluating trout regulations on this 73-acre native trout pond in Shirley. When the project began, the pond was full of common suckers. And while there were a few trout present, most were small and the fishing was slow. As a side project, we also removed all the competing fish species from Little Moxie Pond. Only brook trout were returned to the pond alive.

Maine IF&W photo

    A KEEPER — IF&W biologist Tim Obrey measures a trout taken from Little Moxie Pond as part of the department’s ongoing efforts to reclaim the body of water.

    We removed over 3,400 pounds of suckers in the first two years. The changes were quick and dramatic for the native brook trout population.
    In the first year of the project, we estimated there were 670 brook trout in the pond and only four trout exceeded 12 inches. That is not a high quality fishery by our standards.
    In 1996, after some pretty serious sucker removal, we estimated the trout population to be over 1,300 fish with nearly 300 exceeding 12 inches and several over 16 inches. The sucker removal resulted in better survival and growth rates for native brook trout in this small headwater pond.
    The benefits lasted into the early 2000’s when natural drought conditions caused a serious decline in the brook trout population. In 2001, there were less than 60 trout in the pond as a result of two very hot, dry summers. But the trout rebounded nicely and by 2006 the population had increased to over 1,000 fish with no additional sucker removal. This gives us some idea about how vulnerable these shallow ponds are in the summer to high water temperatures, but also how resilient populations are over time and how they can rebound quickly in good conditions.
    We returned to Little Moxie Pond in the fall of 2013 for a follow up netting and found that the suckers were also resilient (unfortunately) and were now very abundant after no removal effort since 2006.
    In 2013 and 2014, we removed 3,300 pounds of suckers. The trout were still abundant but their growth had slowed and there were very few quality sized fish. We plan to return at ice out next spring for another week of netting and removal.
    We know that these types of removal projects can greatly benefit native and even stocked trout fisheries by improving growth and survival. By investing a week of netting for just two or three consecutive years, we can get 10 years of benefit in the right pond.

Contributed file photos

    PRIZE CATCH — During the Dover-Foxcroft Fire Department’s ice fishing derby last year, which was held on March 1-2 at Sebec Lake, Levi Steadman hauled in a catch weighing 7.12 pounds. Steadman had both the largest lunker of the derby and the biggest fish, earning him the $400 prize.