Derby Headquarters will be at Lake Shore Lunch Restaurant with registrations starting at 5:45 am on Saturday Jan. 15th.

Derby hours are from 6 am to 4 pm both days.

ENTRY FEE: $10 includes arms length of raffle tickets
RAFFLE TICKETS ONLY: $5 for arms length of tickets
PRIZES: Trophy & Cash for largest Togue, Salmon, Bass, Pickerel, Brook Trout.
Trophy & Cash for most Yellow Perch by Kids under 16 years of age.
PRIZES: "Super Prizes" (to be announced) for catching tagged fish "Fred", "Charlie", "Moby" & "Jezebell"

The tagged fish have been sponsored by
• 1- fish name Jezebel the Dexter Reg. Fed. Credit union
• 2- fish name Moby the Dexter Discount Tire
• 3- fish name Fred the Dexter Golf Course
• 4- fish name Charlie No sponsor yet.

PRIZES: One "Lucky" individual could walk away with $10,000 in CASH
PLUS LOTS AND LOTS OF DOOR PRIZES

All prized to be awarded st 4:15 pm on Sunday January 16th.

For advance tickets or more information contact: Jim Nicholas at PJS Bait & Tackle 924-5082 or call Vance McNaughton at 277-3128, Diane Nicholas at 469-5690, Jim Costedio at 270-2866.

More on the Derby By Sheila Grant: DEXTER – Provided Mother Nature cooperates and there’s safe ice on the lake, the Annual Dexter Fish and Game Association Ice Fishing Derby will take place this weekend. Derby headquarters have been moved to Lake Shore Lunch restaurant this year. Registrations begin at 5:45 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 15. Derby hours are 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days.

Derby entry costs $10 and includes an arm’s length of raffle tickets for a variety of prizes. An arms length of tickets may be purchased separately for $5. There will also be slow-cookers full of hot chili, beans and stews at headquarters, available by donation. Proceeds from the event to go support the DFGA.

“Right now on the shoreline we have two or three inches of black ice, and it’s supposed to get cold later this week,” said Vance McNaughton, DFGA president, on January 1.

Community support for the event has been good this year, he said, allowing the DFGA to offer some special perks at this year’s fishing derby.

“We have four tagged fish, each worth a $500 prize,” McNaughton said. The fish, dubbed Jezebel, Moby, Fred and Charlie, have been sponsored by A. E. Robinson, Maine Highlands Federal Credit Union, Dexter Municipal Golf Course and Dexter Discount Tire. There’s also one “Lucky” tagged fish out there that could net an angler $10,000. Prize-winning fish must arrive at headquarters dead, but fresh – not frozen.

“The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife tagged the fish for us,” McNaughton said. “We can’t say what’s been tagged, so they’ll want to fish for everything! The fish will be measured in pounds and hundredths of pounds, and it’s the last two digits in the hundredths of pounds that will have to match a number picked by the insurance company, on the list that they are going to send to us. There’s a one in 100 chance of having the right number. That will add a little excitement if we get a match. I’d love to see somebody match that one – it would be great!”

The DFGA was chartered on Sept. 21, 1951 and remained very active until the past decade or so. While the association’s checking and savings accounts had been kept active, meetings, activities and membership had dwindled. A new group of volunteers stepped forward and held their first DFGA meeting on Jan. 6, 2010 and their first event, last year’s fishing derby, 10 days later. And the DFGA members haven’t stopped running since.

During Dexter SummerFest, the group ran an open-water fishing derby, sponsored an appearance of the MDIFW “Wall of Shame,” and one member who is also active with the Maine Bowhunters Association brought that group to the event to run a children’s archery range for the day.

The DFGA also took over operations of the campground adjacent to the municipal beach in Dexter, which had been closed for several seasons due to lack of a caretaker and problems with vandalism.

“It wasn’t full most weekends, but overall it seemed to go quite well,” McNaughton said, noting that with both open-water fishing derbies and campground operations, there is a learning curve and that things will go even better this summer. “A lot of people put in a tremendous effort [to run the campground]. It was a lot more work than we realized was actually involved.”

In October, the group held a golf tournament fundraiser at the Dexter Municipal Golf Course.

“Everything we’ve tried has worked well in getting the word spread that the DFGA is back,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll see new members and get more people involved.”

The group hopes to operate the campground again this summer, to host a few educational seminars, and to host more family events such as pot luck dinners or barbeques.

Another project during 2010 was updating the DFGA website, www.dexterfishandgame.info. The group meets on the first Wednesday of each month at 6 p.m. at the Dexter Municipal Golf Course. For more information about the DFGA or the upcoming derby, call McNaughton at 277-3128 or Jim Nicholas, vice president, at 924-5082.
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