A record-breaking cold snap that struck the Pine Tree State last week may have rescued the ice fishing season for some, but not every spot in Maine is open. 

On Thursday morning on the shore of the Kennebec River in Randolph, Jimmy Worthing Smelt Camps was unseasonably quiet. Where there are normally as many as 60 shacks on the ice, workers said, they were instead lined up in the camp’s parking lot, partially covered in snow. 

The ice, packed together in huge, loose chunks like ice cubes in a glass, shifts often on the fast-moving water, making it dangerous to venture too far from the riverbank. 

To the southwest, Sebago Lake is home to one of the state’s largest annual ice fishing derbies. It is still scheduled for Feb. 18-19, but won’t be happening on the lake itself, according to Ingo Hartig, a member of the Sebago Lake Rotary Club and organizer of the derby.

Hartig said the lake still hasn’t frozen, despite below-zero temperatures blanketing the state last Friday.

“The winds just chopped it up every time,” he said.

Luckily, Hartig said, the club has a backup plan: The derby will continue in Cumberland County, held on a series of smaller surrounding ponds. Hartig said the derby raises on average anywhere from $20,000 to $25,000, with proceeds going to the Sebago Lake Rotary Charitable Fund.

For other derbies, last weekend’s cold snap came just in time.

“It saved us,” said Will Bartlett, organizer of the Royal River Rod and Gun Club’s annual derby on Lower Range Pond. “There’s 12 inches of ice on our pond now.”

In Limerick, Michael Ward, a member of the American Legion Post 55, said the post’s derby on Holland Pond has been an annual undertaking for the past 13 years. 

In all that time, he said, organizers only postponed it once, about eight years ago, and that was only for a week due to a storm that had struck. 

This year’s derby is set for Feb. 26, with last week’s cold snap ensuring more than enough ice is on the pond, Ward said.

“Everyone says there’s plenty,” he said.

Ward said the annual derby raises as much as $2,000 for a fund that offers fuel assistance and other emergency assistance to veterans in need.

For some, the derbies have a special stake. 

The annual derby on Big Indian Pond in Saint Albans and Morrill and Great Moose ponds in Hartland is a fundraiser for the Harland Fire Department. 

This year’s derby is on as scheduled for Feb. 18-19.

“Everything’s a go,” former Fire Chief Charles Gould said. “Last weekend helped out tremendously with the ice, I guess.”

Gould said if enough tickets sell, the derby can raise as much as $4,000, which is a lot for a department with an annual budget of under $30,000.