What once looked like a bunch of wood pilings along the west shoreline of Big Spirit Lake’s Templar Lagoon (boat ramp area) in early December, has now become the newest of several fishing piers in the Iowa Great Lakes. “I like to call it a fishing board walk,” says Mike Hawkins, northwest Iowa Fisheries Management Biologist. “It is a free standing boardwalk made entirely of wood.”
Anybody who fishes for bluegills and crappies in the spring and even the fall knows how fish are attracted to underwater wooden structure. That’s been part of the issue at the Templar Lagoon. People have tried to access the private docks on the east side of the boat ramp area, and have been kicked off the private property. It has led to some pretty intense and ugly confrontations.
Now, all anglers will have access on the west side of the Templar Lagoon with a structure that has an expanse of over 300 feet from north to south, along with three jut-outs wide enough to handle wheel chairs. The boardwalk will parallel shore but be out in the water so that water can be accessible on both sides of the 6 ft wide walkway with water depth being in the 4-5 foot area at the deepest.
“We have a lot of boat accesses here in northwest Iowa,” says Hawkins, “but we see the need to provide better fishing access for shore anglers.” As a result, DNR officials have been working over the past few years to add public fishing piers, with the Templar area being the latest.
Christensen Construction Company of Estherville was in charge of the construction, and according to Dean Christensen, went as planned. Now all that is needed is open water, a little sunlight for warmth and the crappies and bluegills will be in the lagoon.
Previous to this, the DNR established a new wood fishing pier on the west side of Center Lake, which has provided some great recreational opportunities over the past year. The steel pilings for this pier are surrounded by stone to protect them from ice. The deck is about 15 by 20 feet and gets anglers about 40 feet away from shore.
According to Hawkins, there are floating piers in the planning stages for Silver Lake (Dickinson County) and Five Island Lake at Emmetsburg. These will give shore anglers more opportunities to “get out on the water.”
What is nice about the money allocated for these projects is that they come from fishing license funds. So, it comes from the people who will be using the structures.
You will also notice a few new courtesy docks appearing at boat ramps on smaller lakes in the area. “We’re replacing some of the old courtesy docks with new ones a few at a time.” Next on the list for Hawkins and other DNR staff is to work on finding funding to begin replacing and repairing some of the public courtesy docks at the Iowa Great Lakes. “These docks are bigger and quite a bit more expensive than those found on smaller lakes. They see heavy use and really take a beating over the course of a year.”
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