The current January thaw notwithstanding, plenty of ice anglers have enjoyed a relatively early start to their season this year.

Since that’s the case, it’s certainly not too early to start planning for the fishing derbies that begin cropping up later this month, and continue through the season.

Over the past several days I’ve received information about several derbies, which I’ll pass along over the coming weeks.

There are, however, a few interesting tidbits from some of the region’s largest derbies that I thought you ought to hear about as soon as possible.

Let’s take a quick trip to a few lakes, and take a look.

. Moosehead ready for big debut: For 10 years, NASCAR driver Ricky Craven staged a successful snowmobile ride for charity.

This year, the charity event has shifted its focus. The result: The first Moosehead Lake Togue Derby, which will be held Jan. 26-27.

According to regional fisheries biologist Tim Obrey of the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, Craven will host the derby, with proceeds split between national and local charities.

And the derby offers a good chance for biologists to continue their efforts to decrease the burgeoning togue population in Maine’s largest lake.

“As you probably know, Moosehead has had an abundance of togue for the past 15 years and growth rates have suffered,” Obrey wrote. “We have tried to thin them down by liberalizing the regulations over that period, but we have never been able to reach our management goals.”

The result: The DIF&W has instituted a variety of short-range and long-rage changes it hopes will address the problem more effectively.

For instance, the DIF&W has removed the size and bag limit for togue under 18 inches. You can keep as many short lake trout as you want.

The bag limit for fish longer than 18 inches has been increased to two fish, from one.

A number of other methods of population control are also being utilized, and Obrey hopes the togue-only derby, which is being organized by the Moosehead Lake Chamber of Commerce, will also help reach management goals.

With a top prize of $1,500 for the largest togue registered, it seems certain that ice anglers will flock to the lake for the tourney.

For more information, go to www.mooseheadlake.org.

. East Grand derby to be held later. Long considered one of the state’s fishing hotspots, East Grand Lake has hosted a successful derby for the last nine years.

The first eight were held late in January.

Last year, warm conditions and unsafe ice prompted organizers to shift the date to February, and they’ve decided that conditions would be more predictable if they continued to stage the event later in the winter.

Therefore, this year’s Greater East Grand Area Ice Fishing Derby – now a three-day affair – will be held from Feb. 22-24.

Organizer Buck Plummer of Brookton said expanding to three days made perfect sense.

“There’s so many people from away that come to fish this derby, and most of them pull in during the day on Friday,” Plummer said. “Most of them go out fishing on Friday anyway. We thought we’d give them the chance to register a fish if they get lucky.”

Derby participants can fish East Grand, Brackett, Deering and North lakes.

The grand prize remains $1,000, and can be won by anyone who buys a derby ticket.

. Schoodic derby institutes minimum-length requirements on togue, salmon. Billed as the longest-running derby in the state, the Schoodic Lake Ice Fishing Derby is a successful even sponsored by the Milo Fire Department.

This year’s tourney, which will be held on Feb. 16-17, will be the 46th edition.

DIF&W biologist Gordon “Nels” Kramer said fire department officials continue to work closely with his department to tinker with the derby in order to help meet management goals.

Several years ago, that meant instituting a minimum-length requirement for cusk, to prevent people from registering small fish just so they could be eligible for a prize.

This year, DIF&W and fire department officials talked about further tinkering with fish registration.

Kramer explained that a year ago, nearly 400 lake trout were caught, killed and registered.

“We proposed to the Milo Fire Department that they consider doing away with the registered fish drawing or come up with another method, like a length limit, to deal with the problem [they faced] with registering all those fish.

Fish grow fast in Schoodic Lake, Kramer pointed out, and 2-year-old stocked salmon weigh more than four pounds, on average.

Schoodic’s lake trout are wild, while 500 landlocked salmon have been stocked each year since 2004, after a 12-year stocking hiatus.

Derby officials met and decided to put in a 22-inch minimum length on togue and salmon registered during the derby, which Kramer hopes will both cut down on the workload for derby volunteers as well as help the DIF&W manage the lake more effectively.

Ice fishing day in Somesville

Avid Down East angler Dennis Smith has a deal for anyone looking to introduce someone to ice fishing.

Smith and other experienced volunteers will gather on Long Pond in Somesville on Saturday for a program called “What’s a Tip-Up?” or, more accurately, “Learn to Ice Fish.”

Participants will meet at Pond’s End and the program will run from 10 a.m. until noon. The event includes an introduction to equipment, fish species, bait, ice conditions, tips and techniques.

Families and prospective anglers of all ages are welcome. For more information, call Smith at 288-5457 or e-mail him at rexphish@adelphia.net.

jholyoke@bangordailynews.net

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