As most other anglers rested snugly in their beds early Saturday morning, Harold King had other plans.

He went fishing.

King, who recently moved from Michigan to Greenville, spent Friday afternoon setting up a tent just a few hundred yards offshore from the Rockwood public landing.

And come midnight, that tent was home, for the first Moosehead Lake Togue Derby with Ricky Craven.

“We haven’t been here long enough to build a shanty yet, so the tent had to serve as a shanty for last night,” King said on Saturday, as he eyed a string of fishing traps and waited for togue to bite. “The tournament started at midnight last night, so we wanted to be out here.”

King headed onto Moosehead with his wife, Michelle, and dog, Bear, and they hunkered down for the duration.

“I don’t think I wanted to know how cold it was last night,” Harold King said. “It was making ice, as quick as you could keep the holes chopped out, it was filling them back in.”

The tent provided little respite from the weather, which had warmed up to about 15 degrees by noon on Saturday.

“We had the lantern and the heater. And the dog,” Harold King said with a chuckle. “The three of us were all definitely pretty huddled up.”‘

Michelle King’s assessment of the camping trip was a bit more succinct.

“I survived the evening,” she said with a grin. “I had my dog. And him.”

The Kings were two of 494 anglers who took part in the derby, which was organized by the Moosehead Lake Region Chamber of Commerce and served as both a fund-raiser and fish-management tool.

Tim Obrey, the regional fisheries biologist for the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, explained that there are far too many small lake trout, or togue, in the lake, and the DIF&W wants to thin them out.

To that end, the department has added regulations that allow more fish to be removed from the lake. There is no bag limit nor size limit on togue less than 18 inches long, and anglers are encouraged to keep the small fish they catch.

“We know on average, in an average winter, we probably remove from [3,000] to 4,000 lake trout less than 18 inches in the wintertime,” Obrey explained. “We really want to try to double that for the next couple years to try to thin those fish down.”

Obrey got his wish over the weekend, as derby anglers showed up at weigh stations with bags full of small togue.

Anglers were given an added incentive to register their fish: For every fish taken to the weigh station, anglers were given another ticket for the shore prize drawing.

Obrey and fisheries staffers received a huge jumpstart in their management efforts, as anglers combined to 2,024 lake trout during the derby.

Craven, the former NASCAR driver who has a home on Mooshead Lake, spent much of Saturday morning driving his snowmobile around the lake, greeting anglers. On Sunday, he planned to fish with family members.

“We have met a lot of people. We’ve crossed paths with a lot of people. And I’ll tell you this: The fishing has been spectacular,” Craven said. “A lot of flags, a lot of fish, and I think the objective of pulling some togue out of the lake is working.”

Craven said he was amazed at the different ways anglers have fun while fishing.

“Everywhere I’ve stopped, I’ve seen that,” he said. “People are cooking. Or people are playing cribbage. Or there’s some type of entertainment going on besides the fishing. I realized, this is something I can really get into.”

Paul Thomas of Corinth ended up earning the derby’s top prize – $1,500 – with a 283/4-inch togue that weighed 8.29 pounds. James Bragdon of Albion was second and took home $750 with a 7.15-pounder and Penny Hatch of Penobscot finished third ($375) with a 4.03-pound fish.

The Children’s Miracle Network was one beneficiary of the charity event, as was the DIF&W, according to Obrey.

The biologist said some money will be reinvested toward regional fisheries management efforts, and he hopes a summer internship program can be funded.

Craven left on Monday for a 500-mile snowmobile ride, and said the combination of the derby and a destination ride was a nice replacement for the charity snowmobile ride he hosted for the previous 10 years.

“When you look at the four-day even now, it’s actually a much bigger event,” Craven said. “Two days of ice fishing, two days of snowmobiling. But we will continue to support the Children’s Miracle Network.”

jholyoke@bangordailynews.net

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