On Saturday and Sunday, the Colby Classic ice fishing derby celebrated its 40th anniversary in Saranac Lake, and as it turned out, during a winter that hasn’t been too friendly for outdoor sports, the weather and ice conditions proved to be just fine for the family-friendly event.

In fact, this year’s Saranac Lake Fish and Game Club Colby Classic featured a field of around 280 participants of all ages, which was 100 more entries than a year ago.

The Colby Classic offers prizes in both adult and youth divisions for salmon, trout and perch caught in Lake Colby, as well as northern pike that can be taken on other bodies of water in the area. There were also tagged salmon and trout worth prize money, including one for $1,000, but none were turned in this time around.

Although she was smaller than some of the fish hooked in the derby, Evangaline Myatt was the youngest person who appeared at the event this winter. She is a leap year baby who was just born on Thursday across the street from Lake Colby at the Adirondack Medical Center. Her mother, Chantelle Myatt, brought the bundled up 2-day old girl for a brief visit on Saturday to honor her father, an avid outdoorsman who tragically died in 2023.

From the left, Owen Rushford, Pete Manor and Shannon Manor display their haul of perch Saturday afternoon. (Provided photo — Lou Reuter)

“The baby has been Tilly’s focal point,” said the newborn’s grandmother, Bonnie Myatt. “She’s been carrying on like a bloody trooper. She really has. Evangaline’s father was a hunter, he was a fisher, her mom wanted to honor him, and in doing this, she wants to raise her daughter to love the outdoors like the rest of us. To her, it’s like the first step of starting a whole new life.”

Another first-time visitor to the Colby Classic was Michael McLaughlin, a resident of Boonville. He was part of a crew of a dozen family members who gathered for the event and stayed in a vacation rental just across the street from the Lake Colby beach.

“It’s the place to be,” said McLaughlin, who grabbed third place in the adult salmon division in his first trip to the Colby Classic. “Some weeks back, I was on line looking for somewhere to go ice fishing and I saw there was a derby here. I’ve tried to ice fish down my way but there was nowhere to go this winter. In the Syracuse area, there are a lot of places to go if it’s cold enough, but if not you have to drive. You have to head up north and here we are.”

Mark Chomich, who lives in the Westchester County town of Yorktown Heights, has been a longtime participant in the Colby Classic and took home the grand prize, a day on Lake Champlain with Irish Raider Outfitters Fishing Charters. Chomich was automatically entered in the big drawing after taking first place in the adult trout division.

‘I caught a 14-inch rainbow, which isn’t very big for the derby, but it held up,” Chomich said. “This is actually the first year I made the leaderboard. I ended up holding on and winning, and to top it all off, to win the grand prize, that’s just awesome. We do a lot of ice fishing, and I don’t know if I saw it in the Outdoor News, or somewhere, but we found out about the Colby Classic at least 15 years ago and we’ve been coming ever since.

“We just love ice fishing. We ice fish every minute we can,” added Chomich, whose license plate reads Flag Up. “We went to Minnesota this winter. It was a great trip, but the ice wasn’t good out there. We couldn’t get out too far. This weekend here just made things perfect. Conditions were great. We like the town. We come here, we spend our money, we have a good time. I think with this derby, it’s a lot of family. I like the little door prizes and everyone is just so friendly. It’s good people, a laid back atmosphere.”

“This year all the lakes in surrounding areas didn’t seem to grow ice well enough to have good ice fishing derbies,” said Colby Classic committee chairman Rocky Nogales. “It’s a warm winter, and we’re concerned about the future for ice fishing. But then again, we had very thick hard ice last year.

“I think a big reason we had 100 more participants this year is because we’ve had people from other areas who didn’t know about this lake yet come because there wasn’t enough ice elsewhere. Up until the last couple of days prior to the event, we had people calling us to see if they were going to drive up from Albany or Rochester, or in from Plattsburgh. We also had the additional value to the tagged salmon. They’re still out there.”