Not so long ago, Maine winters were a lot colder. Around this time of year the mercury would plunge far below freezing and stay that way for days, sometimes weeks even here on the coast. Around the end of December anglers would haul out their wooden “Jack traps” and tackle in anticipation of the upcoming ice fishing season which started Jan. 1 and continued to the end of March.

The second Sunday in January was always special in Wiscasset because that’s when the fire department held its annual Ice Fishing Derby that drew scores of fishermen from all over. Bundled up from head to toe they began arriving at the firehouse with their day’s catch around sundown, the weigh-in beginning at 5 p.m. There was a drawing, too, for a $100 cash door prize, which was a lot of money in 1979 when I covered my first ice fishing derby. First, second and third place prizes were awarded for the biggest catch in seven fish categories including: salmon, brown trout, togue, pickerel, large and small mouth bass, and perch. A grand prize was awarded for the biggest fish of the tournament. As I recall, the fish were weighed on a set of scales on loan to the fire department from Mike Kelly who owned Mike’s Log Cabin on the Gardiner Road, now home to Market 27.

Just for fun, let’s turn the calendar back to the WFD Ice Fishing Derby held on Sunday, Jan. 18, 1981. The mercury had been below freezing all week, blustery and downright bone-chilling on “derby day.” Nearly every fish entry was frozen solid. Stanley Curtis Jr. and John Harvey, both members of the Wiscasset Fire Department, were serving as derby judges. I remember Stan rapping an ice-encrusted brown trout on a wooden table to get everyone’s attention so the weigh-in could get started. It was Stan, now deceased, who brought amateur boxing to Wiscasset; a ring being set up at the high school where several boxing events were held. John Harvey still calls Wiscasset home and lives next door to the former one-room schoolhouse off the Birch Point Road.  

Others helping run the derby were Gordon Merry, our fire chief then and Ann his wife who have both passed away. Also there were firemen Ben Rines Sr., Bill Cossette Jr., John Blagdon and Larry Gordon. Rines and Gordon are also now deceased. Larry served for many years as chairman of the Wiscasset selectboard; his wife, Norma Gordon, who once taught elementary school here, continues to reside on the upper end of Federal Street. Ben Rines Sr. resided on Churchill Street with his wife Ginny. He had been a WFD member for 50 years and remembered when the department was based in the small building known now as the Scout Hall on Lincoln Street. Ben worked for more than 30 years at the Mason Station, featured in a previous column. Bill Cossette continues to reside in Wiscasset having owned a plumbing and heating business here for many years. I remember calling him early one morning around this time of year to fix a broken water line in my home. He remains active in Post 54 of the American Legion serving as its Commander. John Blagdon, my neighbor down the road, can trace his Wiscasset roots way, way back. Although retired he continues working part-time at Ames TrueValue. John and his wife Gert were founding members of the Wiscasset Ambulance Service; Gert serving for a time as ambulance director.  Gert, a CNA, continues working, too, at the Lincoln Home Senior Retirement Community in Newcastle.

The largest fish in the 1981 derby was caught by Ken Curtis, a name that I don’t recognize; he reeled in a salmon that weighed just shy of four pounds. John Pitcher of Alna, a student at Wiscasset High School, caught the largest brown trout which weighed 2 pounds, 11 ounces. John and his family now live over in Lisbon Falls. A few years back, I worked with him briefly at L.L. Bean’s Brunswick Manufacturing facility, although I think he now works at Bath Iron Works.  Wiscasseter Dorothy Cost, better known as “Dottie,” caught the largest pickerel that weighed 3 pounds, three ounces. Dottie, a graduate of Wiscasset High School, was married to Bill Cost Jr. Both she and Bill were also founding members of the Wiscasset Ambulance Service, which by the way had used a converted Cadillac hearse as its first ambulance. I remember Dottie was a big fan of stock car racing and for a number of seasons served as scorekeeper at Wiscasset Speedway. She sadly passed away in 2008 at 67, a fairly young age.

Just about every local business contributed something to raffle off at the derby drawing. The prizes that year included all kinds of random things like a fire escape ladder donated by Louis Doe Home Center in Newcastle, motor oil from Bob’s Gulf in Wiscasset and five pounds of Kirschner-brand Natural Casing hot dogs donated by Gordon Huber, the owner of Huber’s Market. For years the Huber family sold sandwiches, pizzas, beverages and groceries from their small store on Route One near where Dollar General is today. Whitfield Drugstore located downtown on Main Street donated just the thing for Valentines Day – a box of sweet chocolates. Pendleton’s Village Market that was located next door to the pharmacy on the corner of Middle and Main streets offered a fresh cut porterhouse steak from their butcher shop that had a huge steer’s head hanging over the counter. Oscar and Edie Cronk, the owners of Cronk’s Outdoor Supply on the Gardiner Road, could always be counted on to donate handmade wicker pack baskets, ice traps and fishing knives to give away to the fish derby winners.

Well … times have changed. Now those freezing, ice-making temperatures don’t arrive until the end of January, or early part of February. The sub-zero weather if it comes at all doesn’t seem to last as long either, not here on the coast. Wiscasset Fire Department tried moving back its ice fishing derby date but as you probably guessed eventually gave up holding it.

Gordon Merry’s son John Merry, a longtime WFD member, couldn’t remember when the last ice fishing derby was held. “You’re right about there not being enough ice but interest in the derby had fallen off as well; maybe because people had to travel farther inland to find good ice,” he told me. Merry said, the fire department was also having trouble finding a Marine Warden willing to help identify the fish and monitor the weigh-in. Over the years some of the heavier fish entries had gotten their extra weight by swallowing rocks and lead sinkers.

By 1995 the fire department had moved its ice fishing derby to the middle of February. The grand prize for the biggest fish at that derby was a Jiffy Ice Auger donated by Wiscasset Ford. The winner was Alan Varnum of Dresden who caught a big togue tipping the scale at over eight pounds. Varnum told me for the newspaper story I was writing he’d caught his fish on Lobster Lake located north of Greenville. Obviously no lobster has ever set foot in the freshwater lake. It got its name from its unique shape. Varnum didn’t say whether he caught his fish in the lake’s so-called “Big Claw” or “Little Claw.” I’ve included a couple of pictures I took of the ’81 fishing derby and a newspaper advertisement appearing in a February 1995 issue of the former Wiscasset Times, the weekly newspaper I published. 

Phil Di Vece earned a B.A. in journalism studies from Colorado State University and an M.A. in journalism at the University of South Florida. He is the author of three Wiscasset books and is a frequent news contributor to the Boothbay Register-Wiscasset Newspaper. He resides in Wiscasset. You can contact him at pdivece@roadrunner.com