Clarks Taxidermy & Bait Shop
712 State St Boone, IA 50036
1st Annual Rod and Reel Tournament
Aug 15th 2009 7am to 4pm
Rules and Regulations:

1.Entry Fee of $25 per person and an optional $10 big fish contest, $5 of the entry fee will go towards the fish feed following at The Adobe Lounge
2.Boats will take off in the order that they signed up.
3.All State and Federal laws apply.
4. Tournament hour’s 7am to 4pm boats must be in the water at 6:30am
5. Teams must fish from boats. Teams will consist of 1 or 2 persons. A 3rd person will be allowed, but you may only use 4 poles. One member of each team must be age 18 or older. If fishing out of the boat you must be within 100 feet of the boat
6. Bounderies are anywhere reachable by boat from the New 30 boat ramp
7. Boats must stay at least 50yds from all boats
8. A maximum of 30 fish per team will be weighed in. Blue, Channel and Flathead Catfish must be a minimum length of 12 inches. No culling at ramp or at weigh in. No dead fish will be allowed to be weighed in. All fish will be released.
9. There be a weigh in at 12pm to 1 pm. and at 4pm. All fish weighed in at noon weigh in will be counted towards total weight
10. .Fish can only be caught by rod and reel method. No foul hooked fish will be accepted.
11. Any legal bait may be used.
12.. No jug, trot or set lines and no fishing baited holes. No chumming and no snagging
13. Fish must be carried to weigh station in tubs or coolers with water proportionate to the size of fish. No stringers at weigh station.
14. Big fish breaks heavy stringer tie, heavy stringer breaks big fish tie.
15. Tournament director or any participant can protest any team before 5:00pm on the day of the tournament. If unable to resolve protest tournament director will appoint a 3 person committee to hear both sides and make a decision. Decision of the committee is final.
16.. Tournament director, sponsors, are not responsible for deaths, injuries, damages, liability, theft or any loss of any kind to participants. By signing the entry form you release all promoters of all liability.
If you have any questions please contact Mike Clark 515-432-7875

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has confirmed the presence of mercury above consumption advisory levels in tissue samples from largemouth bass collected from Red Haw Lake in Lucas County, Upper Centerville Reservoir in Appanoose County, and Grade Lake in Clarke County.

Individuals should consume no more than one meal per week of largemouth bass caught from these three lakes.

Every year Iowa DNR biologists collect samples of fish for laboratory analysis to determine the wholesomeness of fish for human consumption. Edible portions of these fish are analyzed by a certified lab and results are compared to consumption advisory levels as identified by the DNR and Iowa Department of Public Health in the state’s consumption advisory protocol. The risk-based protocol went into effect in 2006 and is based on US EPA and FDA guidance. This protocol is the basis for issuing consumption advisories for Iowa waters.

This brings the total number of advisories in Iowa to 14. All of Iowa’s consumption advisories recommend that individuals should consume no more than one meal per week of the fish species of concern.

Previous advisories issued for Iowa lakes include Cedar Lake in Cedar Rapids for common carp and channel catfish, and Cedar Bend Lake for common carp in Linn County for PCBs. Advisories due to mercury have previously been issued for largemouth bass at Lake Geode in Henry County, Morman Trail Lake in Adair County, Nine Eagles Lake in Decatur County, and North Banner and South Banner lakes near Indianola,.

Other advisories in Iowa rivers have previously been issued for mercury include the Cedar River from Floyd County north to the Minnesota border for smallmouth bass, walleye and northern pike; the Upper Iowa River from the lower dam in eastern Winneshiek County upstream 24 miles for any species of fish; and the Volga River, including the Little Volga and the North Branch Volga River from the town of Volga upstream in Clayton County for smallmouth bass.

Mississippi River Pool 12, which is the area between Lock and Dam 11 in Dubuque and Lock and Dam 12 at Bellevue in Jackson County, has a consumption advisory for walleye, sauger, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, white bass and northern pike.

The DNR has information on these contaminants and consumption advisories on its Fish and Fishing webpage at www.iowadnr.gov/fish/index.html then click on Fish Consumption Advisories in the navigation bar on the left.

Fish are still part of a healthy diet. To achieve the most health benefits – which also include proper growth and brain development in children – the Iowa Department of Public Health recommends that Iowans of all ages should eat fish at least twice per week. This includes fish you buy or catch yourself. For information on the benefits of eating fish or what types of fish are safe to eat, visit the Iowa Department of Public Health’s webpage at http://www.idph.state.ia.us/eh/common/pdf/env/fish_health_issues.pdf.

Friday

It was unbelievably cold all weekend,  the 60’s, in July? Its unheard of! We got down to the Queen dock at the Marina around 6:30pm. The cabin cruiser we stayed on, ‘the TimTation’ is owned by my friend’s uncle, who was spending the weekend working on his new dry docked houseboat. Its over 60 feet long and has been completely gutted and is in the process of being entirely redone. After checking out the boat and drinking a few beers we went ahead and went back to the dock to night fish. We fished until we ran out of worms. I caught several bluegill and 6 catfish. None of my catfish were more than 1.5 lbs.  My friend hooked into the biggest carp I have seen in a while. It must’ve been 20-30 lbs. Its head was as big as mine! He tried to reel it in a little too quickly and it snapped his line after it broke the surface. He did pull in a4-5 lber. He held the pole and I got belly down on the dock and grabbed it by its lip to put it out.  We drank about 3 bottles of wine between both of us and our new friend Norm, before passing out in the Cruiser.

Saturday

Saturday morning my friend and I woke up around 8 AM, went to grab some breakfast and then headed back to the lake. Apparently his uncle needed some help removing a generator from the new houseboat. They had the bright idea to have my friend and I stand on top of a cube truck with ropes to ’stabilize’ it, while they lifted it over the side of the boat. Realizing this was a recipe for disaster they opted to instead just cut away part of the railing and use some rollers to get the generator to the truck.

After avoiding that disaster I went back to the docks to fish some more. I caught another catfish and a few bluegills before getting called back up to the dock because they were about to launch the boat. I had tried to use some cranks and spinners but the water was fairly murky and I didn’t have any luck.

The boat launch gave me a chance to start drinking. I had a few beers while they slipped it into the water. It only had bubbles coming up from one place, but we think that place was actually the tires. There was a leak however, from where my friend’s Uncle drilled screws through the bottom of the boat! Eventually they pulled it back out, grinded off the screws and patched it with some boat epoxy and told us it was about time to go boating.

While we were watching them put the boat in the water I saw 2 guys cleaning fish at the courtesy station. That had caught a lot of catfish. They had 2-3 in the 5lb range and a bunch of 2lbers. They said they were fishing up near honey creek.

While we waited for them to show up back at the docks to go boating we had a little contest to see who could catch more bluegill. We probably caught around 60-70 in about an hour while waiting. We could catch them at will on that dock. We went out boating and drinking for several hours on the cruiser. Everyone got extremely drunk, once I hit land again I tried fishing again but the wine would let me have none of it. I almost passed out with my hand on the line, laying on my back on the dock, but my friend grabbed me and put me on the floor of the boat.

Some of the Catfish from the first night

Sunday

We woke up around 9am and just lazed around. I found an extremely comfy lawn chair and sat in there with my line in the water for about an hour before catching the biggest catfish of the weekend. It was still less than 2 lbs so don’t get excited, but it was fun to catch.

Around noon we packed up our stuff and headed back to Des Moines after saying thanks and goodbye to our hosts.

The 1st Annual Steve DeHague/Randy Kitsch Fishing Festival

July 18th At Diewold’s Cabin in Burlington, IA

REGISTRATION WILL BE AT SULLIVAN SLOUGH BOAT LANDING AT 6:00 AM

FISHING WILL BE FROM 7:00 A.M.—NOON

WEIGH-IN WILL BE AT DIEWOLD’S CABIN STARTING AFTER NOON HOUR, TIME WILL BE ALLOWED FOR EVERYONE TO GET THERE BOATS BACK ON THE TRAILERS, THERE WILL BE PLENTY OF PARKING FOR ALL VEHICLES AND TRAILERS BEHIND OUR CABIN LOT 13 AT SPORTMANS CLUB

ENTRY FEE IS $15.00 PER PERSON, THIS WILL COVER A TRAVELING PLAQUE FOR STEVE DEHAGUE’S BIGGEST FISH WINNING TEAM,PLAQUE FOR KINGERS(RANDY KITSCH) MOST WEIGHT CAUGHT AND $5.00 OF THE $15.00 FOR MOST FISH CAUGHT WHICH WILL BE A100% PAYBACK OF THE $5.00, ALL EXTRA MONEY AFTER THE PLAQUE PURCHASES WILL BE TOTALED AND DONATED EACH YEAR TO, THE BIG HOLLOW PROJECT, IN MEMORY OF STEVE AND RANDY FOR A FISH CLEANING STATION TO BE BUILT AT THE MAIN BOAT RAMP IN THE NEAR FUTURE WITH THEIR NAMES ON IT

BRING A BOAT AND PARTNER WITH YOU AND IF YOU DON’T HAVE A BOAT OR PARTNER JUST SHOW UP WITH YOUR GEAR AND WE WILL HAVE A BLIND DRAW

FOR TEAMS TO PARTNER EVERYONE UP- IF WE HAVE EXTRA PEOPLE WITH NO BOAT WE WILL PUT ALL BOAT OWNERS NAME BACK IN THE HAT AND DRAW UNTIL EVERYONE HAS A SPOT IF THERE IS 3 TO A BOAT THERE WILL NOT BE ANY DEDUCTIONS FOR THIRD PERSON AT WEIGH-IN ,SO IF YOUR 3RD PARTNER DOESN’T CATCH A FISH GIVE THEM A LIFE JACKET BEFORE YOU HEAD BACK AND POINT ‘EM TOWARD THE CABIN FOR THE FISH FRY TO FOLLOW

THERE ALSO WILL BE A SPECIAL PRIZE FOR THE WINNER OF, OH YES “THE BIGGEST SHIT FISH AWARD” SO SAVE YOUR CARP, LOUIS P. KESSLER, THAT MAY BE THE ONLY THING YOU CATCH

WE WILL HAVE A FISH FRY IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE WEIGH-IN

BRING SOME EXTRA $1.00 BILLS I’M SURE WE WILL HAVE SOME VERY INTENSE WASHER GAMES GOING ON AND PLENTY OF FISHING STORIES

BE SAFE AND BE LEGAL CAUSE I DON’T KNOW YOU IF YOU CHEAT AND THE MAN CATCHES YOU

ANY ?’S CALL CURT DIEWOLD 3195720501

BEER WILL ALLOWED…….WE’LL SEE YOU SAT. AND PASS THE WORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FYI: I am pretty sure this is a catfish tourney.

The "World's Largest Bullhead" statue was constructed in 1958 by Carl Frick

After years of planning and community involvement, Crystal Lake is at the end of its long road back to becoming the North Iowa treasure it once was. “It used to be one of the great little fishing spots in North Iowa, and soon it will be back to that level,” said Tom Haan, head of the Hancock County Board of Conservation.

The lake has gone through an extensive dredging and renovation process that has been in the works since around 1991, when fundraising efforts began throughout the community. The process has taken nearly 20 years to complete, but is finally reaching its end.

Lake classification reports in 1980 and 1991 identified Crystal Lake as a high priority candidate for lake restoration, and it was placed on the impaired waters list in 1998. Crystal Lake is one of Iowa’s 34 natural glacial lakes and the 269-acre lake has been suffering from organic enrichment due to sediment build up. The lake had been crippled by high phosphorus and nitrogen levels for years before the dredging process began.

A sediment pond was also constructed near the lake and it is estimated to help reduce sediment and runoff delivery to by upwards of 20%.

Before the project began the lake measured just six feet at its deepest point, and through the utilization of a tier effect plan during dredging, the lake now measures 22 feet at its optimal depth. The tier system has greatly amplified the overall volume of the lake, providing waters that measure 22, 18, 12, and 8 feet respectively depending on location.

The estimated $3 million dollar dredging project got underway in the fall of 2006 and was aimed at removing over 1.1 million cubic yards of sediment. A major goal of the project was to restore the lake to more natural depths in support of recreation and to provide a better environment for aquatic life. The dredging was completed in 2007, which effectively removed Crystal Lake from the impaired waters list, however other problems still remained.

During the flood of 1993, an invasion of carp began which led to water clarity issues among other problems. The lake had seen a similar carp overtaking during the early 1980’s, and the fish population was renovated to promote a healthier environment for aquatic life and more appealing sport fishing. Following the dredging, plans were made to once again renovate the fish population.

During the dredging process, the lake was dropped 18 – 24 inches, providing a seal from the West Fork of the Iowa River which headwaters in Crystal Lake.

This seal helped bar a chemical agent from entering the river that was released into the lake during the fall of 2008 in order to kill off the entire fish population.

Over the two decades since the last fish renovation high levels of nutrients and resultant algae had led to periodic low levels of oxygen at the bottom of the lake. This led to the aquatic community of the lake being dominated by species tolerant of low oxygen conditions, like bullhead and carp.

Other more desirable game fish, like bass and catfish, suffer from impaired spawning and reproduction in low oxygen conditions and populations started to decline in the lake.

Also of concern for county and DNR officials were the effects the carp were having on water quality.  The DNR started a stocking regiment earlier this year and has introduced several species of fish back into the waters.

Throughout the spring officials have released northern fry, catfish, bluegill and bass. All the fish were released at a rate of 100 fish per acre, or 269,000 fish per species.

Plans are being considered to stock the lake with crappie as well.

Now all that is left for Crystal Lake is to wait for the fall when the fish will reach a reasonable size to catch, with ideal fishing conditions being established by next summer as fish reach their optimal size.

Later this year the DNR will conduct fishing surveys to check the progress of the aquatic population through utilizing electric shock techniques to stun the fish, capture, and then weigh them.

“We hope people enjoy the lake and take the necessary precautions to help keep it clean,” said Kurt Meek, a fisheries technician for the DNR. “Users should take special attention to cleaning boats and propellers, along with abstaining from introducing other varieties of fish, those kind of efforts would help substantially.”

The lake is prepared to stay at a reasonable level of cleanliness, and a small outlet structure has been renovated to prevent undesirable fish, like carp, from re-entering the lake population ever again.

The local community has the potential to benefit from the lake once again returning to its place among North Iowa’s great fishing locations, and projections estimate that over $400,000 in fishing related revenues could be added to the local economy.

The lake rests beside a 130-acre DNR owned campground, beach, park, and disk golf course that is maintained by the Hancock County Conservation Board and hosts approximately 14,000 visitors annually.