The Annual Ice Fishing Derby!!!! '97
Ahh the annual ice fishing derby is here once again! This year we welcomed new anglers to our "hardwater" team. Kevin Poulos joined us and had a fine debut season catching a fine Lake Trout, a big Salmon that had to be released and a very large fish of unkown type which he "released" just under the ice, more on that later. Pete also had a triumphant return to the derby. After missing the '96 derby due to work schedule conflicts, Pete showed up in true form...he not only looked good (which see), he fished well too. Chris Znoj returned for a third consecutive year, providing the all important weekend narration, side remarks about our mothers, and other gut busting sarcastic remarks, not to mention a lunker yellow perch!
The biggest change this year was Tom's luck streak. It came to a screaching halt. Out of five fisherman, Tom was the only one that got blanked (he balmes the location, and thinks we should return to last year's spot. Lets put this into perspective: last year Tom caught three lakers, but they were also the only fish of the weekend. In 1997 six large fish were caught and two good ones broke off)...sorry Tom.
The first fish caught of any size to speak of was a Salmon caught by Kevin.
This was while
practice fishing on the Friday before the tournament began. Unfortunately,
it is illegal to take salmon through the ice
in New Hampshire so this fish had to be released.
The tournament started on Saturday morning. Several fish were caught throughout the weekend. Unfortunately all I caught were salmon, which all had to be released. Ever determined to take home the Grand prize, Pete was quick to determine that one of my salmon was a rainbow His comments... He sounded so sure that the others all chimed in and went along with the rainbow theory. I had to play biologist for a moment and explain why I was sure this was not a rainbow.
Also notice that a salmon's mouth extends to the rear of its eye, a trout's mouth extends
much farther.
Well anyway, the fish was released, much to the displeasure of Pete Civitenga.
Things got hot again not too long after that. Pete was jigging patiently in one spot for
about half an hour
when his patience paid off! After a good battle with his underwater advisary, Tom, determined
not to see another fish break off at the hole, reached into the icy water and grabbed Pete's
fish.
It was a nice laker. Not a lunker, but a quality fish. 
