AUBURN – Heater; check. Bait; check. Bag chair; check. All the comforts of camping without actually being able to camp; check.

“I’ve been here since noon by myself,” said Red Driscoll of Sumner, looking out over the largely frozen Lake Auburn. Driscoll has come to the lake for fishing season’s opening day for the past eight years.

Roughly a half-mile walk into the woods off Lake Shore Drive, a group of fishing enthusiasts had set up chairs near the Salmon Point shoreline where the water had opened a few feet out.

They had two filled bait buckets with aerators to extend the life of the bait, a sled packed with a heater, a battery-operated radio, a cordless drill (the battery will power the radio), and of course, food. Everything a person might need for a successful first-day-of-the-season fishing experience.

George Lyon of Auburn has been fishing opening day starting at midnight for six years, though for Brendan Harvey of Buckfield and Howard Washburn of Oxford, it was a first at Lake Auburn.

“I took two days off,” Lyon said.

Salmon and togue are what the men hope to hook, though Driscoll said he was eager to land a brook trout.

Making things a bit tricky, ice on a body of water cannot be disturbed, according to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s rules. Fishermen are not allowed to break the ice, so PVC pipe is used to push baited lines under the ice. It’s a trick well-known to Lake Auburn anglers.

Because Lake Auburn is a source of drinking water, a person’s skin or body can’t make contact with the water, adding another level of challenge to opening day.

“It’s a $2,500 fine if you touch the water,” Lyon said.

An Auburn police officer trekked the Salmon Point trail to make sure the crew hadn’t set up tents and wasn’t planning to camp there – at least in the traditional sense.

No one had a tent, but all four men agreed the cold air wouldn’t get in the way of fishing at midnight.

They’ve got their heater, warm clothes and a portable ice shelter set up on land. Nothing to do but count down to midnight.