Northern Challenge draws 714 anglers on coldest weekend so far

by Dan McClelland

Ice anglers obviously don’t mind the cold, because 714 of them hit the ice at the Tupper Lake Sportsmen Club’s Northern Challenge on Lake Simond Saturday undeterred by the frigid blast that rolled through the North Country last weekend.

Organizer Dave McMahon said when he left his house that morning to go to the clubhouse on Lake Simond Road at 3a.m. it was 35 below F.

At the start of the derby at 7a.m., it was still about 20 below, he said. The high for the day was about eight degrees above zero.

On Sunday, when all the fishermen were headed back home, the mercury jumped back up to 35 degrees F.

The weather hadn’t really cooperated for Tupper Lake’s biggest winter event. The weeks leading up to the Challenge saw some relatively balmy winter weather with many days above freezing and not many frigid nights. Fortunately for the organizers, on Friday and Saturday it dipped to the mid-thirties below when an Arctic blast roared through the Northeast. That solidified the lake cover, which had been about 10 inches thick a week before the derby.

Pre-registration through ROOST was down a little this year at 390 participants. It appears some anglers were waiting for the weather to change and consequently registered on derby day.

The overall total was down from some years in the past which saw nearly 1,200 participants.

Mr. McMahon saw many familiar faces among the registrants.
“Some of these folks have been coming for seven or eight years” and one or two from the start over 30 years ago.

“They are a nice group of people.”

He said he and his volunteers combed the lake after the ice huts were all gone Sunday and found very little debris. Nor was there very much litter around the club grounds. “They really picked up after themselves,” he noted.

Mr. McMahon also canvased the many motels where many fishermen stayed and “there were no complaints at all.” The motel owners were very happy to have the guests at an otherwise very quiet time of the year.

He considers participation-wise this was something of “a down year,” with the sketchy weather preceding their big annual event.

“But it was a good turn-out and everyone who came seemed to enjoy themselves. There were no complaints.”

“Everything ran smoothly,” and that’s testament to the organizing committee and all the volunteers who helped, he stressed. He estimated about two dozen volunteers from the start of planning to the finish of the derby made it again the success it always is.

Dave and the other organizers were scheduled to have a committee meeting yesterday to review the 2023 event and “go over anything we want to change for next year, anything we want to add while the event is fresh in everyone’s mind.”

Mr. McMahon said that one of the things that really speaks to the quality of the people who come here to fish happened when a Paul Smith’s student lost his wallet during the derby.

“Some one out on the ice found it and turned it in to the command trailer. We went into the wallet and found his telephone number and called him and he came over and got it. All of the money he had in the wallet was still there.”

The organizer said he was a very happy man.

Editorial note: Kudos to Dave and the other organizers and volunteers of the Tupper Lake Sportsmen’s Club on another top “Northern Challenge.” You put Tupper Lake on the map again last weekend with all your hard work! A list of prize winners will be published in next week’s issue.