Organizers said more than 1,300 people registered to fish, and that doesn’t include the non-fishing family and friends.

As snowmobiles and four-wheelers zipped around one ice shanty after another, people hauled northern pikes up through the ice. The lake surface was dotted with more than 6,000 tip-ups, devices that alert fishermen when a fish has taken the bait.

Dave McMahon, the longtime organizer of the tournament put on by the Tupper Lake Rod and Gun Club, said the 1,300-plus participants was “higher than normal, way higher.

“It’s just phenomenal,” he said. “We’ve got people from Kentucky, a couple from Virginia, we got some from Colorado. The people have been really good about it; they’re coming here year after year after year.”

A small city of more than 1,300 people, according to organizers, descend on Lake Simon in Tupper Lake for the 2017 Northern Challenge Ice Fishing Derby. (Enterprise photo — Justin A. Levine)

McMahon said not everyone comes just for the derby; some come for reunions or family gatherings. Nevertheless, the derby site is the nexus of Tupper Lake during the first weekend of February.

State Department of Environmental Conservation officers were on scene checking fishing licenses and vehicle registrations, but McMahon said that there are usually very few infractions for the officers to deal with.

There were cash prizes for the biggest fish caught each hour, and 50-50 raffles and door prizes as well. McMahon estimated that the derby would give away about $33,000 worth of prizes, including two four-wheelers, underwater cameras and guided fishing trips. The winner of the “lunker pool,” or biggest fish of the day, walked away with an estimated $5,000 in cash.

Organizers have not yet released the final results of the fish caught.

Although the tournament officially ran from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, McMahon said he and other volunteers would be on site until late evening.

“We do the cleanup; we check around to make sure there’s no garbage left,” he said. “The last thing we want to do is offend one of our neighbors here on the lake. And the people that come here and fish are usually really good about it. In the last four or five years, we haven’t picked up a half a garbage can full of stuff. The people are really good about it.”

“It’s awesome. This is pretty cool,” Bill Depan said early in the day. He claimed he had caught the smallest northern pike in the lake.

Depan and his friend Joe Foll, both from West Leyden, had worked all night Friday plowing roads and then drove to Tupper Lake for their first time, just to be in the tournament. They had one simple thing to say: “We’ll be here next year.”