Photo Courtesy Schroon Lake Fish & Game Club. 2013 Derby Contestant Stacy Pruesser with her winning 4.8 pound pickerel. Nice catch!

With less than 48 hours to go, Schroon is preparing for the invasion of the Ice Fishing Derby Crowd – as the 22nd annual contest kicks off Saturday morning.

The Derby, hosted by the Schroon Lake Fish and Game Club – brings folks from all over to our neck of the woods, and this year conditions are almost perfect .

Our spies tell us that the lake has a good base of 20 inches of snow. The weekend weather while cold – calls for the possibility of just a few flurries. Driving vehicles on the lake IS NOT RECOMMENDED!!!

Typically this weekend is a boon for local bars, restaurants, pubs – in fact any place that sells adult beverages – as well as motels, inns and B&Bs.

For the first time in the event’s history, the club’s Joe Steiniger will be live blogging about the derby on the club’s new Facebook Page, which you can find by clicking here.

“I hope to keep a leader board running of sorts, letting folks know what the big catches are,” Joe told Schroon Laker today.

With fairly good cell service on the Lake, fisher folks should have no trouble using their smart phones to access the information.

Good luck to everyone in the contest. Got fish tales? Share them with us in our comments section!