WILTON —Wilton’s fourth annual Wilson Lake ice-fishing derby got underway at 6 a.m. on Saturday from the boat launch off Lake Road.
The temperature was 5 degrees below zero and didn’t warm up much by noon. Snow flurries swept through on a light breeze by 10 a.m. as heavier snow showers began obscuring distant hills to the west.
Ninety anglers of the 100 who pre-registered spread out across the lake, with the bulk of them fishing in the west end around and north of the big island.
“That’s where all the fish are,” said Sharon Borthwick, a member of the Wilton Fish & Game Association, which hosts the event.
Although it was the fourth derby, it was the inaugural Michael J. Rowe Memorial Ice Fishing Derby. Rowe was a lifetime member of the association. He died in a logging accident at the age of 36 on Feb. 13, 2014.
Borthwick said Ross Clair, who owns the Wood-Mizer business in Chesterville, plowed out a large area off the boat launch for the children’s fishing area. There, starting at 9 a.m., Brittany Humphrey and Emily McCabe of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife taught a handful of children how to ice-fish.
Humphrey is the outreach coordinator and McCabe is with the department’s Hooked on Fishing program. McCabe looked on as Humphrey taught 8-year-old Faith Maurais of Jay how to fish in a previously augered hole in 10 feet of water.
Maurais scooped ice out of the hole. Humphrey asked if she wanted to hook a bait shiner on the line, and then reacted with surprise when the youngster said she wanted to do it.
“You want to do it? Perfect,” Humphrey said, trying to find a shiner in the bait bucket.
“Want me to go hand-diving in there?” asked Parker Mason, 6, of Livermore Falls.
When Humphrey found one and pulled it out, Maurais grinned and knelt beside the trap and the hole.
“Do you know where you’re going to hook it?” Humphrey asked, kneeling while holding the shiner.
“Right behind the head?” Maurais asked.
Humphrey showed her where to hook the fish. “Not too deep, because you want him to still be alive and swimming around in the hole.”
Maurais shrieked when the shiner squirmed as Humphrey set the hook into the fish. Taking the trap, Humphrey showed her how to reel out line down the hole and set the trap.
“You want to put it right in the middle so when the fish comes, your reel doesn’t hit the side of the hole,” she said.
The pair high-fived. “Good job,” Humphrey said.
Adults were fishing for togue, brook trout and salmon, with the heaviest fish netting $150, while youths age 15 and under sought togue, trout, salmon, pickerel and bass.
A wooden commemorative box of Max-Traps in Rowe’s memory was to be given to the youth who caught the largest fish. New this year was a smallest fish category for children. The winner also was to get a gift from Max-Traps, Jared Roy of Jay said.
He is a member of the association’s Youth Shooting League, which helped children fish and ran the food shack as a fundraiser.
Roy helped children outside with their fishing traps and inside the Fish Friendly Ice Shack that was donated last year to the association for the derby by state Sen. Tom Saviello, R-Wilton. It is large enough to accommodate six people and has three holes in the floor so the ice can be drilled out, enabling children to sit on a bench on either side and jig for fish.
Mason and his older brother, Gabe, 9, were taking turns fishing inside while marveling at live camera footage of the lake bottom with jigging angler Michael Davis of Chesterville.
When Roy turned the camera tether to show bait fish swimming around, the viewfinder revealed what looked like a gold wedding band on the bottom in sand in 7 feet of water. Roy said the area off the boat launch is a public swimming site.
“Oh, my God! I just got a nibble!” Parker Mason yelled, jerking the jig line sharply up. He rapidly reeled in the line before disappointment spread across his face on seeing the empty lure hook. Roy helped him sink it back into the hole through about 3 feet of ice.
Up at the registration station as of 11:30 a.m., the largest fish were hung under their species names for adults and youths. The largest were two beautiful togues. Jeff Farrington of Jay had a 22-incher that weighed 3½ pounds, and for youths, Ward Ladd of Farmington had a 19¼-incher weighing nearly 2½ pounds.
Ladd also had the biggest brook trout at 12½ inches and weighing nearly a pound.
Jim Neoschwanger of East Wilton had the largest brook trout for adults at 13¾ inches and 1½ pounds, and Summer Meeks had the largest pickerel for youths at 18½ inches and 1.36 pounds. Ryan Nelson was leading the Smallest Fish category with an 11½-inch pickerel.
Prizes and awards were to be given out when the fishing portion of the derby ended at 4 p.m.
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