Competition was friendly but fierce at the 37th annual Children’s Ice Fishing Derby on Rip Van Winkle Lake in Tannersville. The Derby kicked off at 10am on Sunday, February 22nd as the thermometer read 27 degrees, perfect weather for 65 tightly bundled girls, boys, and their parents who gathered on the ice to fish.
Open to children 16 years old and under, anglers compete in either a Senior or Junior Division for trophies for the Biggest Fish, the Most Fish, and the Smallest Fish. Brady Mitchell, age 10, recalled how he was nosed out of the 2025 trophy for Biggest Fish by a half an inch, and was determined to haul in a winner this year. Addy Fischer, age 4, proudly declared that she comes to the Derby every year and had been fishing, “since I was a baby.”
The free Ice Fishing Derby is an opportunity to inspire children to discover the sport of ice fishing and enjoy the company of other anglers. “It’s all about getting the kids outside to do something fun,” said Josh Woolheater of the Stony Clove Rod & Gun Club which co-sponsors the event with the Catskill Mountain Fish & Game Club. “Kids just love it when a fish comes out from under the ice,’ said Bob Monteleone of the Catskill Mountain Fish & Game Club who organized the day.
Ice fishing, I learned, is a community sport. Unlike highly competitive striped bass fishermen and secretive trout anglers, the folks gathered for the Derby were friendly and generous. Families arrived with food and drinks to share. More than one cold beverage was offered to this reporter who uncharacteristically declined. Event sponsors provided free hot chocolate to all participants. The gathering around several of snowmobiles parked on the ice resembled a family reunion.
Safety is the first part to learn about ice fishing. According to the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation website, ice should be at least 4 inches thick to walk on. Ice began forming on Tannersville Lake in late November and became more solid as January’s cold stretched into February’s freeze. Today, the ice measured 18 inches thick according to event sponsors.
In preparation of the Derby, club members cut holes into the ice using power augers. They also cut a live well into the ice where all the fish were kept after being measured. Several anglers opted for small hang jigging rods with spin casting reels. Most of the competitors used a mousetrap looking device called a tip-up placed over the augured hole. Made of wood or plastic with reel, line, hook and bait attached to it, the tip-up has a flag that is tripped when a fish takes the bait. Live minnows, or shiners, were the bait of choice in this case. When the flag stands up, it’s fish on! An angler then takes the line below the reel, sets the hook with a firm tug, and hand lines the fish up and out of the hole.
First to emerge from the hole is a snout and a duck-billed mouth glistening with razor sharp teeth. Then a black striped eye followed by a torpedo-shaped emerges. It is a long, thin, dark green and yellow fish with a black chain-like pattern on its sides. It’ the chain pickerel, an ice fishing favorite. A local fish to Catskill lakes and ponds, chain pickerel are known as rapacious, ambush predators that lie in weedy shallows waiting for passing prey such as frogs, crayfish, turtles, even other pickerel. Of this aquatic assassin, Henry David Thoreau wrote in his first published book in 1849, he had “caught one which had swallowed a brother pickerel half as large as itself, with the tail still visible in its mouth.”
By the conclusion of the Derby at noon, fewer than a dozen fish had been caught. All of them were chain pickerel. Cameron McGuin caught the first fish, an 18.75-inch pickerel, on a tip-up using a shiner. This stately fish earned Cameron a trophy. Other winners were Tommy Nobile, age 3, Byron Decker, age 11, and Brady Mitchell who was savored his victory – along with free hot dogs provided to everyone by the sporting clubs. In addition, prizes including shiny new jigging rods and tip-ups were awarded to every child who entered. In all, over 100 children and parents came out to the Annual Ice Fishing Derby. After the ceremony, competition resumed with a snowball fight.
In his 2010 essay, “The Patch,” John McPhee noted “A sautéed young pickerel is more delicious than most fish.” However, none of the Derby catch landed on the table. After the ceremony, the pickerel were released back into Tannersville Lake. So, if you are hungry to try ice fishing or pickerel, now you know where to find them.
7 Fishes is a new column in the Overlook News about the fishy people and places in the communities of the Catskill Mountains and Hudson River Valley.
