More than 1,000 anglers spread across the ice Valentine’s weekend for the Sebago Lake Rotary’s 25th annual Ice Fishing Derby, making it the third-largest in the past decade and one of the biggest winter events on the lake in years.
While some people were making dinner reservations or picking up chocolates, others were loading snowmobiles and bait buckets before daylight.
My crew arrived at the lake Friday night, enjoyed a hearty meal and turned in early before a cold start. Saturday morning found us loading snowmobiles and heading to a carefully chosen location in single-digit temperatures.
After setting traps and dropping jigs, it didn’t take long for the first flag to fly. Butch DeSanctis of Durham iced a solid 5-pound lake trout to get us started. While it wasn’t likely to top the leaderboard, every entered fish qualified for the derby’s fish pool, which offered thousands of dollars in gift certificates.
Warden Mike Pierre stopped by to check in and alerted me to one of my flags that had just popped. I hurried over and soon had a 20-inch lake trout on the ice.
“It’s going to be a great derby,” I said.
Not long after, 14-year-old Colton Boulayt of Minot landed a nice lake trout of his own. After several more hits and misses, the action slowed and we snowmobiled to the Raymond Beach registration station, one of three around the lake, to take in the festivities.
There we saw the fish everyone had been talking about. Adam Hamilton registered a 17.45-pound lake trout measuring 38.34 inches — a true whopper. We stood there admiring it, knowing it would take something special to knock it off the top spot, though there was still Sunday to go. The giant togue drew a steady crowd and ultimately held up as the derby’s winning fish.
Sunday brought stiff winds as we relocated and set up in another secret spot. Brian Boulay, Colton’s father, put up the pop-up shelter and warmed breakfast sandwiches while jigging inside. I initially tried to jig from my snowmobile with my back to the wind, but eventually retreated into the shelter.
Inside, Brian watched a fish track his jig on his fish finder before striking. He landed our first and only fish of the day, his first lake trout caught on a jig. Fittingly, the jig was made by his son under the CB Baits label.
When lines were pulled Sunday afternoon, the derby concluded with strong participation and impressive catches.
Togue winners
1st — Adam Hamilton, 17.45 pounds, 38.34 inches ($1,000)
2nd — Lance Sistare, 12.98 pounds, 34 inches ($500)
3rd — Dave Sheldrick, 10.77 pounds, 29.75 inches ($250)
Pickerel winners
1st — Cheyann Rocray, 3.44 pounds, 24 1/8 inches ($250 Kittery Trading Post gift card)
2nd — Ben Carlin, 3.28 pounds, 24 inches ($150 gift card)
3rd — Daniel Dunnells, 2.95 pounds, 23 3/8 inches ($100 gift card)
Perch winners
1st — Mike Canton, 1.62 pounds, 14 7/8 inches ($250 gift card)
2nd — Jaylee Remington, 1.44 pounds, 13.5 inches ($150 gift card)
3rd — Jared Terroni, 1.44 pounds, 13.5 inches ($100 gift card)
Most pike caught
1st — Ben Carlin, 8 pike ($500)
2nd — Joe Carlin, 6 pike ($250)
3rd — Arthur Mullin, 5 pike ($100)
Dozens of fish pool entrants also earned thousands of dollars in gift certificates, and Chris Hansen won the $5,000 grand prize drawing. Rotary Club member Cyndy Bell said turnout ranked among the strongest in the past decade, crediting participation, generous sponsors and favorable weather.
Proceeds from the event support multiple community beneficiaries, with the primary recipient this year being Feed the Need, a program of the Sebago Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce that assists families and individuals in the Sebago Lake region.
With the entire surface of Sebago Lake frozen over and prizes galore, the 2026 derby was a tremendous success. We didn’t bring home any hardware, but we were proud to support a great cause — and had an absolute blast doing it.
