Staff Writer
MADAWASKA LAKE — A seasonally-warm Sunday afternoon took the icy chill out of ice fishing for the fifth year of the Youth Fishing Day on Madawaska Lake, sponsored by Northstar Variety owners Dave and Sara Anderson. Almost 200 individuals made their way onto the ice with varying degrees of confidence ranging from ice fishing beginners to expert fisherman but at the end of the day, everyone participated in the spirit of the event, which was getting youth outside to experience ice fishing and enjoying some fresh air.
Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet
Owners of Northstar Variety David Anderson, left, and Sara Anderson, right, first started youth ice fishing day on Madawaska Lake five years ago to share their passion of the outdoors with their friends and family. They’re pictured here with their niece Jazmine Robinson, 4, of Caribou. It was Robinson’s first time ice fishing and snowmobiling and she seemed to thoroughly enjoy it.
Whether the weather had anything to do with it is debatable, but the fishing was a little slow on Sunday. The youths, however, were pretty quick as they hustled, sledded — or in the case of the young fishers, toddled — to check their traps routinely, filling in the time gaps with warm barbecue, family interaction and making the occasional ice angel.
Only four fish were caught, but judging the high energy of participating youths, few fish caught didn’t seem to be indicative of a low success rate.
According to Sara Anderson, Youth Fishing Day is an opportunity for kids to experience ice fishing and enjoy some fresh air while they do it; experienced youth fishermen and curious first-timers watched the traps side by side enjoying the company they kept, which is something that goes hand-in-hand with ice fishing.
“Some folks have a lot of ice fishing experience and will bring out their own equipment, while other people have never even stepped foot on the ice before,” Sara explained and of course, those who never experience ice fishing weren’t just handed a trap and shooed out to the lake; “We bring all our gear out so that people who’ve never ice fished before can come out and give it a try; we’ll take them to the hole, show them how to hook up a fish and other things to do so that they have the experience needed to discern whether or not ice fishing is something they’d like to do.”
A dozen volunteers from Sportsman’s Inc. — a sportsman’s club geared toward hunting, fishing, archery, and soil/water conservation — headed out on the lake to open up the fishing holes and teach beginners what they need to know for ice fishing.
Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet
At right, Owen Berube, 6, of New Sweden shows off the trout that he caught during Youth Fishing Day on Madawaska Lake, sponsored by Northstar Variety of New Sweden. Maggie Landeen, 4, of New Sweden, attended the event with Berube.
Brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, parents, family friends crowded around the fishing poles, entertaining each other while waiting for the trap-flag to trigger that they’d caught a fish.
“Ice fishing is very much a family oriented sport is a lot of ways,” Sara explained.
Josh McCormack, 12, of Woodland, likes to go ice fishing every weekend with his dad, Pat, and his favorite parts of ice fishing are being outdoors, spending time with family, and having fun.
In the early part of Youth Fishing Day, McCormack had caught a 6.5-inch trout, but let it live to swim another day in the pure catch-and-release fashion.
The Andersons’ first started sponsoring the event through Northstar Variety five years ago when Madawaska Lake was opened for ice fishing.
“We knew a lot of local kids who’d never tried ice fishing and arranging this event at the lake was very convenient,” Sara said. “They stock the lake, it’s right here and we decided to bring up some family and friends, have a barbecue, and make a day of it.”
From the humble beginnings of about 25 participating youths and a barbecue came the energetically relaxed Youth Fishing Day of today.
“We couldn’t have undertaken this large project by ourselves,” Sara said, thanking all the people who donated time and funds to assist with such a successful, and growing, Youth Fishing Day.
Assistance from community member like Sheldon Landeen of New Sweden, who donated four Heritage traps to the two youngest and oldest youth fishermen on the lake; prize-winners were Natalie Landeen, 3; Garin Hanley, 3; Racheal Wasson, 15 and Colby Johnson, 15.
Other volunteers include Denise McCormack, Karyn Thornton and Cindy Wilcox who donated their time in the ‘kitchen’ on the ice. Supplies were donated by Pepsi and Coke, KG Snacks, Maine Distributors, Country Kitchen and Peterson’s Septic Services; Carl Soderberg, owner of Soderberg Construction in Caribou and an owner of the former Stan’s location, has donated the use of the land for Youth Fishing Day since the program’s inception.
With such tremendous community support, every youth that participated received a sharp-looking winter hat, and over 18 individuals went home with prizes that ranged from ten fishing traps to two gig poles, gift certificates to Northstar Variety and miscellaneous fishing gear.
In a fun-raising raffle for Sportsman’s Inc. Ryan Fitzpatrick of Madawaska Lake won an auger.
