Winter fishing funds summer camp

NORWAY — Here’s a story your bound to buy, hook, line and sinker. 

And the beauty of it is, it’ll only cost you $1.

The Norway-Paris Fish & Game Association has scheduled its 39th annual ice fishing derby for Saturday, February 21 and Sunday, February 22.  From sunrise to sunset on those two days, ice fishers can bring their catch to the Little Red School House beside Lake Pennesseewassee, on Route 118 in Norway, to be measured against others caught across the state on that day.

The biggest fish in six classes walks away with a $50 prize and, perhaps more importantly, bragging rights for the year.   Classes include large bass, togue/lake trout, salmon, pickerel, brown trout and brook trout/splake.

Event organizer Jim Alberi notes that last years big ‘ol fish, a six pound salmon, was caught by an 11-year old Norway girl, who triumphed over comers in every age category, male and female.

“We try to make this a family event,” says Alberi.  “Its a day for parents to get out with on the ice with their children.”

About half of the winners each year are youngsters, says Alberi, although he observes that adults seemed to step up their efforts a few years ago, when the prize was bumped from $20 to $50.

Fish can be pulled from any pond or lake in Maine for the Norway derby, so long as they are weighed at the schoolhouse that day.  The entry fee is just $1 and proceeds are used to send up to 10 children to the University of Maine 4-H Camp and Learning Center at Bryant Pond (formerly known as the Maine Conservation School.)  Founded in 1956 at the direction of Gov. Edmund Muskie, the Bryant Pond facility annually schools thousands of Mainers of all ages in outdoor skills.

Fish and Game members — 200 strong — sell more than 2,000 tickets every year.  Sales get a decided boost from the fact that there’s no need to go out in the cold to support the cause.  All tickets go into a barrel for an equal chance at “consolation prizes,” including Oxford 250 tickets, a weekend trip to Black Brook Cove Campground in Wilsons Mills, an L. L. Bean fly rod and a set of two-dozen streamer flies.

“We do have some nice prizes,” says Alberi.  “I guess that’s why do so well.  That and the fact that it costs just $1 to enter.”

Tickers may be purchased from any Fish and Game member, at Woodman’s Sporting Goods, in Norway, or at the schoolhouse on the two days of the event.

“You can also get tickets most any place they sell bait,” says Alberi.

During the derby, club members will sell hamburgers and hot dogs at the schoolhouse as well as many other homemade goodies. The club cook book will be available for $8, as will 2009 club memberships for $3.

Stop in anytime during the event  for good food, good friends, and limitless stories about the one that got away.

For more information, contact Alberi by calling 743-8339, or Sylvia Bosse at 739-6070.