Have the good old days left for good – only to be remembered when you pull the chair up beside grandpa with open ears and a full cup of coffee – or are they still brewing? I believe they’re still being manufactured today, and another one is born every time you slip into your L.L Bean boots, and open the lid of your tackle box.

I realize most of us have access to those old black-and-white photographs of relatives holding massive strings of brook trout and salmon squeezed inside the borders of a 5-inch-by-7-inch frame, and would like nothing better than to have been on that trip.

But just because the bag limits have been lowered and the strings have a few more vacant spaces, it doesn’t mean the best is behind us.

I’ve seen that it doesn’t always take a couple 3-pound brook trout in the cooler to bring memories time can’t erase. I’m reminded of this when an empty-handed angler fresh off the ice is more concerned about sharing with me his latest fishing experience than thawing out in front of the car heater.

On many occasions, the story goes, the closest the fish ever got to the frying pan was three or four passes by the hole before snapping the leader. Just because the fish was lost, it doesn’t mean the story won’t be remembered.

Those few minutes – when your heart pounds, your line circles the hole and you watch your spool constantly doling out new line beneath the ice – will be carried with you every time you strap on your pack basket.

That trip may never deliver any memorable photographs, but when it’s accompanied with a couple lake trout from the past, and that buck you stopped in its tracks last November, you can’t help but believe the best is yet to come. A few more years of stockpiling stories like this, and the sound of coffee brewing will echo through your home as you reveal stories from the good old days.

Mark your calendars for Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 3-4. The Orrington Rod and Gun Club will be hosting its 14th annual ice fishing derby. The event will take place on Fields Pond and Brewer Lake in Orrington. The angler with the heaviest salmon will take the $100 first prize, while second place pays $50 to the angler holding the heaviest white perch and third place is worth $25 to the sport with the heaviest pickerel.

In order to qualify, all fish must make the scales at T.J.’s Market in Orrington no later than 5 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 4. If your trophy fish is bumped out of competition, stick around. Immediately after the weigh-in, shore prizes will be awarded. All ticket holders stand a chance to win 200 gallons of heating oil from Bradstreet Fuel, two hours of shooting time at the Archers Edge in Old Town and the list goes on.

Tickets can be purchased at the following locations: Hobbs Garage in Orrington; Van Raymond Outfitters in Brewer; Old Town Trading Post; T.J.’s Market in Orrington; Snows Corner Mobile in Orrington; and Pickard’s Sport Shop in Brewer.

Regional biologist Ron Brokaw reported anglers are finding success fishing for brown trout in Hancock County this season. Molasses, Jones, Walker and Flanders ponds have been reasonably productive providing browns between 15 and 17 inches. Don’t be surprised if you ice a 3- or 4-pounder. A few already have been caught this season, Brokaw said. Keep in mind that both Hancock and Washington counties have a special regulation that require brown trout to measure 14 inches before they can be taken from lakes and ponds.

At Jordan Pond on Mt. Desert Island, a special regulation allows anglers to keep three togue measuring more than 14 inches in a single day. The new law is expected to thin out the large population of small togue, and boost the growth rate, said Brokaw.

Jordan Pond also is supporting a small number of salmon in the three- and four-pound class.

In Aroostook County, Jim Ayotte of Sinclair, reported some real bruisers were landed this past week from the ice-covered waters of Long Lake. The heaviest landlocked salmon was 81/2 pounds, followed by a couple tipping the scales at seven and six pounds. For the most part, smelts have been the primary bait, but Ayotte urges anglers to purchase them before arriving, because bait shops in the area have sold out.

Sharon McPhee at Macannamac Camps on Haymock Lake continues to see a number of brook trout between 14 and 17 inches, taken from Big Eagle and Spider lakes. Big Eagle is only about a 30- minute ride by snowmobile from Haymock Lake.

Answer to last week’s question: Twelve inches of solid, clear blue-black ice can support how much weight ? Eight tons.

Question: How many lakes and ponds in Maine carry the name Long Lake/Pond?

– News staffer Terry Farren

outdoor_report@bangordailynews.net