Anglers cast their lines in 11th annual Moosehead Lake Togue Derby

GREENVILLE — Here’s a quick summary on the 11th annual Moosehead Lake Togue Derby with Ricky Craven. The weather was pretty good by derby standards and travel conditions were great on the big lake for the three day ice fishing event on Jan. 26-28.

It seemed like the best fishing was on Friday and Saturday morning, then it tailed off as the weekend wore on. The Natural Resource Education Center (NREC) sold 728 tickets this year (up four tickets from last year’s record) and we had 143 children’s names entered in the youth raffle.

The winner of the biggest togue was David Larry of Abbot with an 8.3-pound fish. It was in exceptional shape and almost two inches shorter than the second-place fish which was weighed in by John Gallant of Augusta at an even 7 pounds. Jacob Turner of Hermon came in third with a nice 6.2-pound fish.

The grand door prize, which was a choice of three vacation packages for two adults (Orlando, Las Vegas or Caribbean cruise) or $1,500 cash, was won by Billy Clifford of Nobleboro. We also gave away some firearms, and ice auger/jet sled ice fishing package, a check for $250, and dozens of other great door prizes.

Kyle Bagley of Parkman won first prize in the youth drawing and Trevor Martin from Hartland will be cruising around town this summer on his new bike donated by Northwoods Outfitters in Greenville.

Ricky Craven emceed the wild game dinner on Saturday night and helped draw the names of the prize winners. A good time was had by all. NREC would like to thank all the sponsors and donors that make this derby into a terrific community event. We hope to see everyone again next year! You can check out the NRECmoosehead Facebook page for more photos and information about the derby.

Photo courtesy of NREC
CATCH OF THE DERBY — David Larry of Abbot had the biggest togue during the 11th annual Moosehead Lake Togue Derby over the weekend. Abbot’s catch weighed 8.3 pounds.