EAST DIXFIELD — Brian Maxham has little time to ice-fish but he wants to see children have the opportunity.

A Maine Department of Transportation crew supervisor by day, Maxham, 59, makes tip-ups for ice-fishing on nights and weekends. A tip-up sits over the ice hole. When a fish tugs at the line, a small flag pops up to alert fishermen.

He builds and sells the tip-ups and wooden boxes to hold them from his More Acres Road home workshop under the name Max Traps.

“He just has a lot of enthusiasm to get children outdoors,” said Sharon Borthwick, a Wilton Fish and Game Association member. “He is so supportive. It’s fun to see him with kids. He is just a really nice guy.”

Borthwick helps with the association’s annual fishing derby on Wilson Lake. Although not a member, Maxham has helped some years, too.

Last year, he approached members of the group with an offer to supply a prize, a Max Trap commemorative box and five tip-ups, each year if the group would name the derby after Michael Rowe.

Rowe was a lifetime member of the association. He died in a logging accident at the age of 36 on Feb. 13, 2014. His parents, Jeffrey and Deborah Rowe of Wilton, are also very active in the group, Maxham said.

Although this is the association’s fourth fishing derby on Wilson Lake, it is the first Michael J. Rowe Memorial Ice Fishing Derby, Borthwick said.

The derby will begin at 6 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 14.

Maxham has a commemorative box of tip-ups ready for the child who catches the biggest fish by weight. There is also a secret prize for the child who catches the smallest fish, he said.

A shop course in middle school and renovation work on his home over the past 30-plus years have provided him with woodworking skills, he said.

Maxham started building traps around 2002. He makes 25-inch and 39-inch tip-ups. He creates other items such as The Jig, a hand-held wooden fish with a reel on it.

He also is working on purple tip-ups for Safe Voices in Auburn, he said. Purple is the color the domestic abuse prevention and services agency uses in its awareness campaigns, he said.

For the past seven years, he’s built 100 traps every year for the Phippsburg Sportsmen’s Association’s derby.

Maxham’s tip-ups have red or gray flags. The red flag represents his diabetes and the gray flag his daughter’s brain tumor, he said.

More information is available at www.maxtraps.com

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