The United States Cross Country Snowmobile Association is Coming to the East Coast!!!

The United States Cross Country Snowmobile Association is coming to the east coast! After years of races in the mid-west the USCC will hold their first ever race in Maine on Saturday, March 20th. The USCC looked all over Maine to find the best location for the race and chose Moosehead Lake. The event will include Pro, Semi-Pro & Amateur races. Victory Motor Sports of Abbott and Indian Hill Trading Post are the two main underwriters of the races along with support from another 30 local and national businesses. One of the most anticipated races is the Indian Hill Trading Post Maine Amateur 100 which will see amateurs from all over the state competing for the bragging rights of being the USCC’s Maine Amateur winner. The event promises lots of action and a chance to see some of the top Pros and their sleds. Check out www.maine100.com for more info.

The Rockwood Ice Fishing Derby just finished this past weekend and the winners this year were:
Charlie Mcennis of Rockwood, ME 18 pound 6 ½ oz 37 inch Togue
Joe Hardison of Rockwood, ME 2 pound 6 oz 19 ¾ inch Land-Locked Salmon
Hunter Willams of Bryant, ME 1 pound 5 oz 17 inch Brook Trout
Ian Boniakowski of Greenbush, NJ 8 pound 11 ½ oz 32 inch Cusk

Bob Garner of Topsham, ME was second place in the togue division with a 12 pound 10 ½ oz, 32 ½ inch long togue. But the real story is that Bob was using 6 lb test leader and asked a nearby angler to help get the fish through the nine inch hole. After grabbing the fish and getting it on the ice both men noticed that Bob had actually hooked a 14 inch salmon and the togue had grabbed the salmon for a quick snack and was unable to get free!

While the Derby was going on, I was down in Suffern, NY manning The Maine Highlands booth at the World Fishing and Outdoor Exposition, the largest outdoor show in the northeast. The turnout was great and we had the opportunity to talk with several thousand show attendees about The Maine Highlands. It always amazes me how many people I meet at the shows who have not heard of Mt Katahdin, Moosehead Lake or Gulf Hagas, three of the natural wonders of Maine.

That’s why we do the shows, to get the message out to outdoor enthusiasts that our region is hard to beat. Our booth has photos of white water rafting, ATVing, hiking, canoeing, fishing and other activities available in the area. One look usually brings people over to ask questions and gives us the opportunity to brag about our beautiful region. We spent a considerable amount of time discussing fishing since we have so many “Fly-Fishing Only” waters all of which offer excellent and in some cases “World Class” fishing. While many other areas of the United States have equally great fishing few can offer the peaceful and uncrowded experience available on our streams, rivers & ponds. Most of the crowd we talked with planned on visiting Maine this summer and hopefully many of them will check out the Maine Highlands. The one negative note was everyone’s fear that fuel prices might go back to $4.00 a gallon. Let’s hope not.

Roger Currier of Curriers Flying Service is running a Moosehead Lake Ice Out contest on his Curriers Flying Service Facebook page. Roger is offering a flight for two in one of his float planes to the lucky winner of the contest. This year if I was guessing I would think ice out would be around April 15th. Remember that the earliest ice out date since we began keeping records in 1848 was April 14, 1945. For more info on this subject check out my earlier blog of January 6, 2010, on Global Warming.

Bob Hamer, Executive Director for the Moosehead Lake Chamber of Commerce