MEREDITH — Proving that you don’t have to fish on Lake Winnipesaukee to win the $15,000 top prize in the Great Meredith Rotary Fishing Derby, Thomas LaBrecque bagged the winning black crappie on Cawley Pond in his hometown of Sanbornton.
Standing on Sunday afternoon with his wife, Lisa, at derby headquarters in Hesky Park on Lake Winnipesaukee’s Meredith Bay, a jubilant LaBrecque said he used “a large shiner” on Saturday to reel in the black crappie which weighed 2.52 pounds and was 17.125 inches long.
Because the fish was the largest black crappie of the two-day derby, it was entered into a final drawing along with the largest of six other species. By random selection it went to LaBrecque.
“Oh my God, unbelievable,” shouted LaBrecque when master of ceremonies Pat Kelley announced his name.
LaBrecque, who is retired, said he will use the money to further his fishing, although several friends and family members loudly told him he was first buying them dinner.
He confessed that “I was real close to missing it (the fish),” which as his wife explained, had “almost come off the hook.”
LaBrecque said Sunday was the first time he has won anything in his nearly 40 years of fishing the derby, which awards a number and variety of cash prizes and also allows non-fishermen a chance to win simply by buying a ticket.
This year, that person was Arthur O’Connell Sr. of Franklin, who caught no fish but landed a $5,000 prize, nonetheless.
Fish and Game Conservation Officer Chris Brison, who has worked at the derby for 12 years, and had previously competed in it for 25 years, said the great news is that despite a second year where the ice didn’t set up in Meredith Bay to permit bob houses, no one was injured.
He said the difference between prior derbies and the 2023 and 2024 derbies is that this year “We’re on foot,” whereas his normal ride would be a snowmobile or an ATV.
Meredith Bay, when fully frozen, can support hundreds of bob houses, ATVs, snowmobiles and even pick-up trucks. It sometimes did so simultaneously with the New England Pond Hockey Classic.
Founded 15 years ago on Meredith Bay, the Pond Hockey Classic is held the weekend prior to the derby.
For the past two years, however, unseasonably warm weather has forced the Pond Hockey Classic to relocate to nearby Lake Waukewan. Last week, because the winter of 2023-24 is yet another weird one, the Lakes Region Sled Dog Club, after shortening the completion from three to two days in 2023, outright canceled what next weekend would have been the 95th running of the Laconia World Championship Sled Dog Derby.
Brison said Fish and Game was prepared for potential problem at the 2024 Fishing Derby.
“I trailered an air boat, like you see in the Everglades,” to the Marine Patrol docks in the Glendale section of Gilford, he said, adding that during the 2017 Fishing Derby, he operated the boat which was used to recover two drowning victims.
Three friends from Massachusetts had left one of their summer homes in Moultonborough on snowmobiles with the goal of riding across Lake Winnipesaukee to derby headquarters, but the trio encountered open water on the way there.
Brison said the 2024 derby saw temperatures in the upper 50s, which is very unusual. Asked how attendance at the derby compared to 2023, he said, it’s difficult to estimate, because fishermen scatter to other ponds and lakes when Lake Winnipesaukee doesn’t freeze properly.
To prove that point, he said some of the fish that arrived for weigh-in at derby headquarters were caught in Lake Francis in Pittsburg and Big Diamond Pond in Stewartstown, both of which are located in the upper reaches of Coos County.
Mike Pelczar, who is the chairman of the Meredith Rotary’s 2024 Derby committee, said 4,444 tickets were sold at $40 apiece to fishermen. The amount is equivalent to what was sold in 2023.
A Meredith native who grew up fishing with his father and grandfather, Pelczar said the irony of what he called “a suspect ice year,” as in 2023 and 2024, is that “people actually use the caution they should be using.”
