By Steve Weisman

As Joe Henry, fishing clinician for last Saturday’s Okoboji Blue Water Festival (OBWF) walked to the Big Tent around 8 a.m., to make sure that everything was ready for his 9:30 a.m., seminar, there was concern with rain starting to come down and heavy rain to the southeast as near as Emmetsburg (2.5”). As we worked beneath the Big Tent, the rain picked up, and I worried what’s going to happen? Will anybody show up?

The answer: oh, my yes! By 9:30 nearly 150 people were in the audience, young and old alike, and Henry had them dialed in! As I looked around, the green space, the Chalkstock artists were hard at work, people were beginning to mingle along Exhibitors’ Row, families were heading to the Kids’ Activities! Things were good, and it only got better highlighted by an enthusiastic crowd at the “Clean Water Panel.”

OBWF co-chair Greg Drees reflected on the day. “Most certainly, Julie (co-chair) and I were concerned with the weather conditions early. However, we watched the radar, and there was the chance most of the rain would go south of us. Thankfully it did, and all we can say is thanks to vendors, workers, volunteers and speakers for hanging in there. It turned out to be a great, great day.“

Co-chairs Julie Peterson & Greg Drees

Exhibitors’ Row 

Walking exhibitors’ row

More than 30 clean water exhibitors, a mix of lake protective associations, conservation organizations, non-profit organizations shared their clean water message or natural resource message with all of the festival visitors. John Smeltzer, president of the Spirit Lake Protective Association, shared his thoughts. “We had a short rain delay at the start of the morning but quickly came to realize that most good Iowa rain was ‘Blue Water’, too, and jumped back into the game as the lightning moved out. The crowd was sparse at 9 and in the rain, but by 10 it was two and three deep along the entire length of the Promenade and virtually everyone had literature, food or a drink in hand. We noted and chatted with several folks who were long time residents who had moved away from the IGL’s but came back this weekend for the Blue Water Festival and all of the attendant events.”

Meanwhile, at the Okoboji Protective Association’s booth, President John Fieselmann, noted that out-of-town visitors to the festival wanted to learn about OPA’s goals concerning water quality, wetlands and invasive species, while locals asked what OPA perceived as its most pressing issues.  “They were effusive in their praise of our efforts to share water quality data on phosphorus and nitrate levels, E. coli, algae, and water clarity.  They were appreciative of the efforts of the many volunteers, collaborations with the other lakes’ associations and conservancies, the DNR, and the Lakeside Laboratory.”

OPA mission & goals

For the Iowa Great Lakes Fishing Club (IGLFC), it was a day for organizing a kids’ casting contest while sharing the club’s mission and goals. According to Terry Thomson, club president, “We enjoyed visiting with both current members and signing up new members, while at the same time, it was fun for us to work with the youngsters during the casting contest. Most importantly, they had fun, and all came away with a prize! It was also great to have Joe Henry here and for us to sponsor Joe for his fishing clinic! It was great to have Joe spend much of the day with anglers as they stopped by the booth.”

Fishing Seminar 

Crowd at Fishing Seminar

Joe Henry, Executive Director of Lake of the Woods Tourism, spoke with an angler’s enthusiasm sharing the secrets of his topic: “Master’s Level: Spinners for Walleyes.” Henry noted, “The nice thing about using a crawler harness is that you can fish them almost anywhere, shallow or deep, open water or weeds, rocks and reefs, clear or stained water and in lakes or rivers.”

Henry included everything from hooks and line and nuances to fish a nightcrawler and bottom bouncer trolling at 1.0-1.5 mph and keeping the line at a 45-degree angle. Henry said, “Length of the harness depends on water clarity. The clearer the water, the longer the snell.”

His closing message was sharing the mission: KEEP IT CLEAN, a clean water initiative started on the Lake of the Woods in 2012. Over 60 organizations and over 1200 lakes now support the initiative with a new Keep It Clean Law now on the books in the state of Minnesota. Henry hopes that Iowans will consider joining this effort and making it KEEP IT CLEAN in Iowa to go along with the mission of the Okoboji Blue Water Festival!

Clean Water Panel

Clean Water Panel

This year’s four clean water panelists included Pete Hildreth, division administrator for Conservation & Recreation for Iowa DNR; Susan Kozak, director of Soil Conservation and Water Quality for IDALS; Joe McGovern, president of the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation; Larry Stone, photographer, naturalist, explorer and writer, along with moderator, John Lundell, retired mayor of the city of Coralville.

Each panelist began with a brief background of their clean water background and then responded to. Lundell as he asked a series questions. Topics included issues of flooding, phosphorus and sediment runoff, the lack of public land in Iowa, whether IWILL will ever be funded, the positives happening in areas of the state on protecting the land and the water, but that there were so many challenges ahead of Iowa.

A common theme was this: “Success in clean water will only come through collaboration and partnerships. We must work together; we can’t do this as one agency or group.”

Barbara Mendenhall, past president and current secretary of the Okoboji Protective Association has a strong passion for clean water and protecting our natural resources. These are her thoughts on the Clean Water Panel, “The Okoboji Blue Water Festival gives everyone a chance to pause and think about how important clean water is to all living things. This year the Clean Water Panel brought many current issues to the forefront with the opinions from government, non-profit conservation and a conservation journalist. Discussion included examples of what has been accomplished to date but also included their concerns for the future.  It is their hope to continue to partner to enhance conservation in the Iowa Great Lakes and beyond. My husband, Walt and I both felt it was time well spent learning about the partnerships that exist between government and the non-profit sectors to promote conservation in Iowa.”

Getting ready for the finale

As things wound down by the early afternoon, people began to think about the evening of celebration  with the Nadas and the Wallflowers with Jakob Dylan.

Early crowd – photo by Prairie Ridge Photography

The Nadas – photo by Prairie Ridge Photography

Wallflowers – photo by Prairie Ridge Photography

One of the early concert couples was John and Stephanie Walz. Stephanie says they thoroughly enjoyed the evening. “The concert featuring the Wallflowers was a perfect evening of entertainment. The weather was beautiful, the band sang continuously without a break (their own famous songs as well as songs from Tom Petty) and the evening was capped off with fireworks. It doesn’t get much better than that in the Iowa Great Lakes.”

Finally, as the clock moved toward 10 p.m., it was time to turn to the sky and watch the incredible firework celebration, a fitting finale to a full day celebrating all that is good about clean water efforts, while at the same time looking at the challenges that lie ahead. As the clean water panelists reflected as a group, “Success in clean water will only come through collaboration and partnerships. We must work together; we can’t do this as one agency or group.” That is truly our challenge!