Anglers flock to Fort Kent for muskie fishing derby

FORT KENT – Anglers came to northern Maine from as far away as Australia to participate this weekend in the second annual Fort Kent International Muskie Fishing Derby, which doubled its attendance numbers from last year, according to organizers.

About $5,000 in cash and prizes was up for grabs this year, compared to about $1,700 last year, drawing to the northern tip of Maine 206 anglers between the ages of 5 and 80 and from as close as Fort Kent and as far away as Missouri, Tennessee, North Dakota, Alaska, and California, as well as Australia, organizing committee member Darlene Kelly Dumond said Sunday.

“We offered a prize for the furthest-traveled fisherman and they definitely responded,” Dumond said.

“It’s just amazing,” she said of the wide variety of participants. “Some people carried our posters out of state and people were seeing them in little cabins in the woods – it was like they were all over the place. It seems people really came out of the woodwork for this.”

The two-day international fishing derby, which started at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning and ended at 7 p.m. Sunday, allowed participants to fish for muskie anywhere in the St. John River watershed.

The muskie, or muskellunge, is a large, sharp-toothed member of the pike family and is not native to the area. The fish was stocked in U.S. border waters by the Canadian government and made its way into the St. John River watershed. Muskie fishing is considered a great freshwater sports fish challenge, according to organizers.

“They’re a hard fish to catch,” organizing committee member Paul Berube said, explaining why people traveled so far for the event. “It’s just the thrill of catching the big fish.”

Organizers are calling the second annual event “tremendously successful.” Along with increases in sponsorship and registration, organizers said a Web site they created for the contest, www.fortkent-muskie.com, received more than 21,000 hits in the last week.

Activities held in conjunction with the derby, such as a dinner and street dance on Saturday night, also were a hit.

“Last night, we had street dance and a 70-year-old grandmother was dancing ’til midnight,” Dumond said Sunday. “And during dinner, we couldn’t get the muskie off the grill fast enough. People were amazed at the taste of the muskie and were saying, ‘I’ll never throw another one away.'”

Organizers said they could not have pulled off the event without dedicated local sponsors and volunteers.

“This community is unbelievable in the way it’s willing to help out,” Dumond said. “That’s what makes this little place successful.”

Since organizers exceeded their goal of 200 registrants this year, they have plans for even more growth next year.

“We’re hoping to get bigger companies to sponsor the event down the road and make the purse a lot bigger,” Berube said. “There’s a definite possibility of this event getting bigger than the Can Am [dog sled races].”

They’ll have lots of time to work toward that goal: Organizers are holding a meeting today to start planning for next year’s event.