Out and About: Despite its fickle weather, February prevails as the month for ice fishing derbies. Accordingly, Saturday, Feb. 22, is the date for the Bud Light Fishing Derby sponsored by Maine Distributors of Bangor and the Air National Guard MAINEiacs. If you’ve set your traps in the derby during recent years, you perhaps wondered if the weather wasn’t ordered by the Abominable Snowman. Let’s hope, then, that this year’s participants are overserved with fair weather and fast fishing.

As in the past, the Bud Light Derby is restricted to Hancock County lakes and ponds where, according to derby rules, flags may fly only between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. Headquarters for the event is Violette’s Landing at Green Lake, where catches will be registered, measured, and weighed on certified scales by a fisheries biologist of the Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Fish must be registered no later than 6 p.m.

Three prizes will be awarded in each of the derby’s four divisions – salmon, brook trout, togue, and pickerel. First prize is a Jiffy “Model 30” 9-inch power ice auger; second prize, a Mora 7-inch power auger, third prize, a packbasket of ample proportions, plus harness. Also, the fisherman who ices the biggest brown trout will snag a bonus prize of $100.

Don’t go ‘way. The first-, second-, and third-prize winners of each division and the bonus prize winner are automatically entered in the Luckiest Fish Sweepstakes drawing for a Discovery 169 Old Town canoe. But don’t take up your traps yet. With a little luck you could hook one of six valuable items listed in the Shore Prize category.

If you plan to fish in the Bud Light Derby, an entry ticket will cost you three George Washingtons – on his birthday, if you please. But if you’re not disposed to drilling holes in ice and waiting for flags to fly, you can take your chances in the Shore Prize drawings by purchasing a $1 ticket.

Actually, you can’t lose because you’ll be contributing to a worthwhile cause. All proceeds from the derby will benefit the Air National Guard MAINEiacs Charities.

At last week’s public hearing in Ellsworth, Maine’s Atlantic Sea-Run Salmon Commission presented three proposals for changes in 1992 angling regulations. For the most part, Atlantic salmon anglers and club representatives attending the hearing opposed the proposals, which, essentially, would prohibit the killing of adult salmon statewide. The opposition instead favored continued encouragement of the catch-and-release ethic and a one-fish limit (salmon or grilse) per angler, per season, statewide. That would reduce the present season limit of five salmon on Down East rivers.

Public hearings, however, are not democratic processes, so it remains to be seen how much influence Atlantic salmon fishermen have in determining regulations. In accordance with that, the ASRSC will hold a public meeting on Feb. 27 in the Oxford Room of Alfred’s Restaurant (Comfort Inn), Civic Center Drive, Augusta. The meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

The following items are on the agenda: 1. Act on rule-making proposals (statewide salmon angling regulations); 2. 1992 allocation of hatchery stocks from federal hatcheries; 3. Miscellaneous – budgetary matters, collection of broodstock from “A” rivers, etc.

If fisheries regulations are your forte, Feb. 27 will be a good day to be in Augusta. On that date, the Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife also will hold a public hearing to consider rules pertaining to bass fishing tournaments. You may recall one of the rules was mentioned here recently. The hearing will begin at 7 p.m. in the Kennebec Auditorium of the Augusta Civic Center.

Department fisheries biologists will outline existing bass fishing regulations and present proposals for regulating bass fishing tournaments on Maine waters. Among the changes being proposed are: 1. A new definition for determining eligibility to apply for a one-day bass tournament; 2. Permit no weigh-in tournaments from May 1 through June 20, the spawning season for bass; 3. During the May 1-June 20 period, a new category of “catch-measure-release” tournament may be permitted wherein all bass caught must be immediately released to the location in which they were caught; 4. Larger open tournaments may be permitted only on lakes greater than 3,500 acres.

In my previous mention of the catch-measure-release tournament, I wondered if the regulation would require an observer on boats. A written reply from William Dillard, president of Northern Maine Bass Busters, asked if I was insinuating that bass fishermen were dishonest. The answer is, not at all. I merely brought attention to a requirement I saw practiced in other tournaments in which fish were measured and released.

If you’re an archery addict, you should hang a March calendar on your target backstop and drive arrows into the days marked 7 and 8. Those are the dates of the Maine Bowhunters Association’s first “Super-Shoot Weekend,” which will be held at the Maine Racquet and Fitness Club on Route 3 in Trenton.

The weekend competition will include a state championship indoor shoot using “blueface” targets at 20 yards. A board of directors meeting will be held at 3 p.m., March 7, followed by a 4-9 p.m. banquet and a 9 p.m.-1 a.m. dance held at “Crazy Gil’s” at the White Birches in Ellsworth. The banquet and dance are open to the public. Tickets for the banquet are $25 per couple, $8 per couple for the dance, $30 per couple for a combination.

For further information contact: Lynn Beaulier, P.O. Box 457, Millinocket 04462. Phone: 723-8415.