by Theresa Taylor
The Raquette Lake Fish & Game Club, Hamilton County Federation of Sportsmen Inc. and Raquette Lake Parks & Recreation hosted the 7th Annual Lamphear Memorial Fishing Derby on Raquette Lake on May 18 and 19th. annual spring fishing derby on Raquette Lake.
Thirty eight adults and seven junior anglers competed for top places in each division with four categories: bullhead, perch, lake trout and brook trout.
The contest began at 5 p.m. on Friday and ended at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
The weather cooperated and the black flies were nowhere to be found, which made for lots of weighed-in fish and plenty of contestants happy to have not donated their blood supply.
In the junior division, Ethan Bush of Long Lake won first and second place in perch with Bryce Hutchins of Indian Lake taking third place.
Bryce won first place and second in brook trout, with brother Garret Hutchins placing third.
Corey Andrews of Whitesboro won bullhead for reeling in a 14”, 1.8 lb. monster.
Garret Hutchins placed second with 14 3/8”, 1.4 pounder; and Nicholas Branch of Old Forge was close behind when he caught a third place 14”, 1.4 lb. bullhead bending the end of his pole.
In the adult division, Jamie Roblee of Blue Mountain Lake walked away with first, second and third in lake trout.
His largest was 23” and 4.2 lbs. with the second weighing in at 4.0lbs and 22 1/2”.
Lance Pierson of Raquette Lake ran away with brook trout, also winning first second and third places.
His largest was 17 3/4” weighing 2.6 lbs., with the second being 15 3/4” and weighing 1.8 lbs.
First place in perch went to Tom Beckingham of Raquette Lake with his son Wayne Beckingham of Old Forge weighing in for second.
Lance Pierson caught the third place perch.
Lance came away with another first and tied with Ben Harrington of Indian Lake for second and third place bullhead with 14 1/2”, 1.4 pounder.
Many thanks to The Raquette Lake Hotel & Tap Room for letting Fish & Game hold the weigh-in and contest at their establishment.
Penny and Sandy even weighed in a few early Saturday morning fish!
Thanks to Fish & Game President Wayne Kavanaugh for organizing the event this year. Thanks to Parks and Recreation for taking care of the plaques and donating towards the prize money.
And a special thanks to Tom Beckingham who drummed up so many extra contestants that we had our largest number of participants in the history of the event.
