ROXBURY — The Mexico Lions Club will host the 34th annual Ice Fishing Derby on Feb. 16 at Roxbury Pond.

According to Roland Patneaude, a member of the Lions Club, the derby is the club’s most popular fundraiser and is expected to have a good turnout.

“I’ve been involved with the derby for 30 years, almost as long as it’s been around,” Patneaude said. “We’ve kind of expanded it since then. Now the club is raising money for hearing aids and eyeglasses.”

The derby will begin at 7 a.m. and finish at 3 p.m., after which the prizes will be awarded. The entrance fee is $10, and the first-, second- and third-place prizes for the largest pickerel and bass will be $200, $150 and $100, respectively. A $2,000 grand prize will be awarded to any participant who catches the tagged fish.

“The tagged fish from last year is still swimming around down there,” Patneaude laughed. “I should be getting the tagged fish for this year very soon.”

One change that Patneaude and the Lions Club have made is leaving the chef duties to the Mexico Explorers.

“Usually the club has manned the lunch wagon that we bring in,” Patneaude said, “but this year we’ve invited the Explorer program to be the new chefs. In fact, we’ll be having a meeting on the seventh of this month to talk about it with them.”

He said that the Mexico Explorers will be allowed to keep any proceeds made from the lunch wagon.

The derby will also be handing out door prizes, which Patneaude said are “mostly provided by all the mom-and-pop shops around here.”

“They donate 150 percent for this derby,” Patneaude said. “The big stores don’t usually give us anything, except for Hannaford. We’ve sent out letters to Cabela’s and L.L. Bean’s, and we get a very nicely written letter telling us no. But the small stores, they’re willing to help out.”

Patneaude said the club will be keeping an eye on the ice as the derby approaches.

“I went driving down Route 26 and Route 5 the other day to check on the ice, and I got to say, there’s a lot of open water,” Patneaude said. “Right now, Roxbury Pond is fine, but if it loses another half inch, we’ll need an extension on the ice.”

In the 34 years the derby has been held, Patneaude said it has only been canceled once due to open water.

“It was a few years after the club started doing the derby,” Patneaude said, “but it was a different story back then. We used to do it near the end of March. Ever since I’ve been involved, we moved it to February so the temperatures are lower.”

Despite the recent spike in the temperature, Patneaude has high hopes for the derby this year.

“Last year, we printed out 500 tickets and ran out before it even started,” he said. “I’d like to run out again this year.”

mdaigle@sunjournal.com