RAYMOND — The Sebago Lake portion of the Sebago Lake and Cumberland County Ice Fishing Derbies has been canceled.

For the second year in a row, poor ice conditions and concerns about safety prompted the Sebago Lakes Rotary Club, which organizes the combined derby event, to make the decision.

The derby will be held this Saturday and Sunday exclusively on smaller Cumberland County lakes and ponds.

“Safety is foremost, we don’t want to see any fishermen get hurt,” Mark Wasowski, president of the Rotary, said Tuesday at a meeting to announce the decision. “We’re just being realistic based on the past things that we’ve seen at different derbies.”

The Maine Warden Service conducted a flyover of the lake earlier this week to survey the ice conditions from the air, and the report for Sebago wasn’t a good one for derby organizers.

“The ice conditions are horrible. For the third week in February, it’s probably some of the worst ice conditions we’ve ever seen,”  said Sergeant Jason Luce of the Warden Service, who was on the flyover. “And the problem is, it gives the illusion that there is ice there. The ice is all snow-formed ice, it’s not real solid ice. If you put a little heat on it, it will disintegrate.”

“So as far as we’re concerned, there’s no safe ice out there on Sebago. A lot of the smaller ponds are safe, but we urge people to check as they go, as we always do,” Luce said Tuesday.

Last year, both the Sebago Lake and Cumberland County derbies eventually had to be canceled after a string of warm weather leading up to the event. While the Rotary organizers are frustrated that they’ve had to cancel the Sebago Lake Derby once again, they are encouraged that the conditions appear to be workable on the smaller lakes and ponds for the Cumberland County Derby.

“The thing I like about this year is at least we can do Cumberland County,” Wasowski said.

The two derbies were combined several years ago as a backup with this situation in mind, he said.

The popular two-day event raises money for charity, and offers about $12,000 in prizes for participants, including an ATV. The Polar Dip that was supposed to happen this weekend as part of the derby has been postponed to a later date.

Registration for the derby is open through Saturday at noon. Entrants and people interested in registering can find more information about the derby – including which ponds and lakes qualify for the event, and where the weigh stations are located – by going to www.icefishingderby.com.

Matt Junker can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 123 or mjunker@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @MattJunker

A sign in Raymond for the Sebago and Cumberland County Ice Fishing Derbies has been edited to reflect the Sebago portion being canceled due to poor ice conditions.

A view of the ice on Sebago Lake looking out from the boat ramp at Raymond Beach on Feb. 21.