WILTON – Three weeks ago, Joe Weston Jr. of Jay hauled his ice-fishing shack onto the eastern end of Wilson Pond using a four-wheeler off the boat launch.

But fluffy snow – not thin ice – prevented him from reaching the deeper waters where he normally fishes, he said Wednesday night. So he banked it up and tied it off.

“There’s 13 inches of ice right there in 28 feet of water, and there’s eight inches of good solid ice,” he said. “I’ve ice-fished probably eight years now, and this is the first time I’ve ever been there. The first year I ice-fished it, I had a friend of mine with me and we went out on opening day on his truck.”

Using a pickup truck, he plans this weekend to haul the 8-by 8-foot hut and its wood stove out to deeper water to fish for lake trout. Normally he fishes from the shack about 400 yards off Kineowatha Park beach where the water is 86 feet deep. This year’s late start, however, due to unseasonably warm temperatures, kept him away.

But David Boucher, a fisheries biologist with the state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, said last week’s subzero temperatures have dramatically improved ice conditions in western Maine, just in time for a series of ice-fishing derbies that are scheduled for the coming weeks.

“We measured up to a foot of good ice on several lakes, and there were few problems with slush,” he said as part of a report this week on ice conditions in Maine. “It looked like opening day on some waters.”

Jan. 28 was the first day of high angler use in southern Maine, fisheries biologist specialist Brian Lewis said.

“While the ice is in far better shape than just a couple of weeks ago, caution and common sense are still needed, especially on the larger lakes,” Boucher said.

“It’s still dangerous on parts of Wyman and Chain of Ponds,” fisheries biologist Forrest Bonney said Wednesday by phone from Strong. “Ice conditions are quite variable. There’s over a foot in some areas, and then it kind of just tapers off.”

Department spokesman Mark Latti also continued to urge caution. “Conditions are still tricky because of the late start,” he said Wednesday.

“When the ice started to form, and there was snow on top of it – the snow acts as an insulator – so it takes a lot longer to form ice. It’s still a good idea to check the ice. At some places, I wait to go out until I start to see ice-fishing shacks. I’m extremely nervous when I’m the first one on a lake. That’s usually a good indicator of thin ice,” Latti said.

Despite these urgings, Lewis said some anglers are still overestimating the safety of southern Maine’s hard water and are breaking through with larger machinery than ice augers.

Still, the return of seasonal temperatures and ice was great news for organizers of the 28th annual Larry Mercier Memorial Mexico Lions Club Ice Fishing Derby at Roxbury Pond in Roxbury. This week they began marketing the event, which usually attracts more than 200 anglers. It’s scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 17.

“As of this weekend, the ice is 15 inches thick out there, and shacks are starting to gather, but they’re still at the pre-stage level,” said one of the organizers, Roland Patenaude of Rumford.