TUPPER LAKE – About 1,000 fishermen from five states are looking forward to this community’s annual Northern Challenge Ice Fishing Derby Saturday.

The Tupper Lake Rod and Gun Club will host the derby from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Simon Pond.

Dave McMahon, the event’s chairman for the last 15 years, explained its evolution.

“The club has had the derby about 18 years,” McMahon said. “It actually got its start from one of the sports shops in the town, the Tip-Top Sport Shop. Chris Delair and his partner actually started it, and (when) the sport shop went out of business, they approached the Rod and Gun Club and said, ‘Hey, this is a good thing that we got started. Do you guys want to carry on with it, or do we just dump it?’ The club looked at it and decided that we’ll give it a try and see how it works out, and it worked out extremely well for us.

“It’s been very profitable, not only to the Rod and Gun Club, but to virtually every business here in Tupper Lake.”

McMahon said the derby usually attracts between 800 and 1,000 people each year. The club will distribute more than $30,000 worth of prizes to the derby’s participants. The event’s $35 entry fee covers the cost of its prizes.

It’s a catch-and-release tournament for northern pike. The club awards prizes every hour for the largest three fish caught by participants.

“We pay $800 an hour,” McMahon said, “$500 for the biggest fish, $200 for the second and $100 for the third biggest by weight, and that’s based on 1,000 entries. Otherwise, we pay 80 percent.”

Door prizes are drawn at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. The larger prizes are distributed at the end of the tournament, including the cash prizes for the fish, five 50-50 drawings which average around $2,000 apiece, a six-hour fishing boat trip with Fish Doctor Charters on Lake Ontario valued at $600, and two ATV four-wheelers.

In addition to the Tupper Lake Rod and Gun Club, the event has several local sponsors, including the Adirondack Regional Federal Credit Union, the Adirondack Leathernecks, the Tupper Lake Dive Team, the Tupper Lake Archers and the Tupper Lake Volunteer Fire Department.

McMahon said the club also does an archery shoot in March that benefits New York Bowhunters’ Camo to Camo project.

“New York Bowhunters sends care packages overseas to their military,” McMahon said, adding that the archery shoot’s proceeds benefit the program each year. “Last year, we donated $1,000 towards them.”

With such a large influx of people, the event is an economic boon for the entire Tupper Lake area, particularly the lodging industry.

“All the rooms over here right now are taken up, and we are sending people to Saranac Lake,” McMahon said. As of last week, the amount of participants in this year’s derby was ahead of last year’s count, which is a positive sign.

“For the last week, it’s just been a constant flow of people in and out getting tags,” McMahon said.