ROXBURY — Students and instructors in the Region 9 School of Applied Technology’s Outdoor Skills and Leadership program hosted a Winter Outdoor Extravaganza ice fishing event Friday on Roxbury Pond for about 90 T.W. Kelly Dirigo Middle School students.

Middle school Principal Jason Long said the students caught at least four or more fish in two and a half hours before heading to their buses to return to Dixfield school due to the wind.

“We can control everything but the weather, and everything went great except the wind,” Long said.

However, he said Region 9 instructors Jon Longley and Jeff Rainey, who is also a Master Maine Guide, did a “remarkable” job putting the event together.

“It’s a huge undertaking to safely transport kids on and off the lake, have the warming shelters set up, and train their own (Region 9) kids to be guides. We came here; all the holes were drilled, the traps were ready to set, it was really well done,” Long said.

Max Berg, a student at Dirigo Middle School in Dixfield, does snow angels while waiting for a flag Friday during the Winter Outdoor Extravaganza ice fishing event hosted by Region 9 School of Applied Technology’s Outdoor Skills and Leadership program on Roxbury Pond in Roxbury. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Longley said their first crew of Region 9 students were sent out about 7 a.m. and another group came out at 8 a.m. to unload the side-by-side ATV vehicles, bore holes in the ice and secure the ice shacks. A different group came at 9 a.m. to finish preparations in time for the middle school students’ arrival at 9:30 a.m.

Instructor Rainey said the school had help with shuttle transports, from the shore to the middle of the lake where they were ice fishing, by the Mexico and Paris fire departments, run by Region 9 alumni students.

He and Longley created the Outdoor Skills and Leadership program around March 2020, Rainey said.

As the students got ready to leave the lake, Longley said, “some lessons (were) learned,” and the kids had a lot of successes during their ice fishing event. “The weather was not cooperative by any means, and it was not scheduled to be this gusty. But lots of young people made their way off with some nice smallmouth bass today,” he said.

“I think we decided that it was probably best to call it (end the fishing) at about 11, and there were some cold, but happy, happy students. I mean they caught some beautiful fish today,” Rainey said. “That’s why I do this; the big thrill I get out of this is that young lady that caught that fish, she’ll remember that for the rest of her life.”

Rainey also shared that although their ice fishing day was cut short because of the weather, he and Longley will be going to the middle school to bring gifts of wooden jig rods from Jack Traps to the four students who caught fish, paid for by a program from the Maine Department of Inland Fishing & Wildlife’s Hooked on Fishing — Not on Drugs.

The other student participants will receive fish and animal tracks identification cards, Rainey said.

Students brace against a strong, cold wind as they head back to their bus Friday after the Winter Outdoor Extravaganza ice fishing event hosted by Region 9 School of Applied Technology’s Outdoor Skills and Leadership program on Roxbury Pond in Roxbury. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

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