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By GEORGE SMITH georges@leader.net
Friday, January 28, 2000 Page: 3B
Three years ago, the inaugural ice fishing derby held by the Nanticoke
Conservation Club at Moon Lake went off without a hitch.
But each winter for the last two years, Gary Gronkowski and other club
members have kept their fingers crossed. They watched the thermometer. They
sharpened their augers. They studied the weather.
But no dice; there was no safe ice. Mother Nature snubbed them.
The club’s ice fishing derby at Moon Lake in Plymouth Township had to be
canceled.
Not this year.
Cold temperatures have resulted in at least five inches of solid ice on
Moon Lake, and the derby is on for Saturday.
The club’s second annual derby will run from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Registration
fee is $5 for adults; anglers under age 16 fish for free.
Cash prizes will be offered for the heaviest bass, trout, bluegill, perch
and crappie taken from the lake during the five-hour contest.
The prizes will be $100 for each species, plus 75 percent of the entry fees
split among each species.
“This is the fourth season we wanted to hold this, but it’s our second
annual event,” said Gronkowski. “We had to cancel for the last two years,
even though last year was close.”
Gronkowski said almost 100 anglers fished in the club’s inaugural derby.
And that was not counting the young people.
“We had 90 fishermen, but remember, the kids fish free. And if they catch
the big one, they get the prize money,” he said.
A special ice fishing clinic (which is almost filled) for young people will
be held at the lake Saturday morning.
“Our club members will show the kids a video, give them some instruction
and get them out on the ice. That way the kids will have the whole
experience,” Gronkowski said.
He added that Moon Lake is perfectly suited for such an event, and it holds
good numbers of fish.
“It’s just the right-size lake,” he said.
At the inaugural derby, the largest fish was a bass that weighed 1.75
pounds. Gronkowski said that only one trout was taken that year, even though
the state Fish and Boat Commission stocks thousands of trout in the 47-acre
lake.
“Our club members will be out there with a power auger helping any of the
kids who need it,” said Gronkowski.
The sportsmen’s club – among the most active in the region – has adopted
Harveys Creek as a special project and holds annual cleanups on the waterway.
Club members help float-stock the creek with trout and introduce trophy trout.
Next month, club members will erect wood duck boxes on a Mountaintop
wetland, and when the weather warms, the club has agreed to maintain the fish
commission’s access on the Susquehanna River at Retreat.
“On Saturday, I expect there will be a lot of kids and a lot of families
at Moon Lake. We will have food, hot dogs and a big pot of soup on. Everyone
will have a good time,” Gronkowski said.
Smith may be reached at 829-7230.