By Steve Weisman

For the nearly 50 years that I have lived in the Iowa Great Lakes area, I have always been in awe of the ice heaves that appear on Big Spirit Lake. From the time the lake becomes ice-locked, the ice seems to be always moving. Temperature fluctuations cause the lake to contract during cold temperatures and then expand during warm spells. Nothing is crazier than to be on the ice when the ice is popping and cracking, and suddenly a crack begins far away and comes all the way across the lake and goes right under you!

So, yes, the ice is always moving, contracting and expanding, eventually causing ice heaves along the shoreline. This becomes pretty problematic at access areas: Mini-Wakan, Marble Beach, Crandell’s Beach (the swimming beach) Buffalo Run and the south end.

These accesses can change by the hour with a flat, passable access one hour and an hour later a heave appears that stops access both on and off. I experienced this late last winter on Mini-Wakan. It was a pretty easy access going out but began to “grow” as the temperatures rose. I got off when the heave was only a foot or so, but an hour later the heave had grown to nearly three feet.

If this happens, the only option is to go to another access, but this can be an issue depending on how far away you have to travel. It can be compounded if there is heavy fog like we have had over the past week or so.

A helping hand

This winter, Midwest Companies has been a “knight in shining armor” for anglers accessing Big Spirit Lake to chase perch and walleyes. Every time a heave has occurred, Midwest Companies has been there with their heavy equipment to cut down the heave.

Nick Klatt, owner of Kabele’s Trading Post, says, “For us, it has been a huge help. We have anglers coming from all over the Midwest, and to know that the accesses are going to be kept clear has been huge. We are very grateful for Dustin Reynolds and his crew from Midwest Companies helping keep our accesses clear. Plus, they are doing this voluntarily and helping with no pay for the work.”

Doing so is not a simple task and often takes hours to make the access usable again. Plus, most likely, the heaves will occur multiple times during a winter.

The access process

Reynolds says, “As a company, we want to reach out to the community and help others, and we felt this was a good way to do this. We are working in partnership with Nick at Kabele’s. They are always checking the accesses, and when they see an access that has heaved and needs to be opened up and cleaned out, that becomes our job. Big Spirit ice is always moving and shifting, so we have been cleaning accesses once a week or so. Our plan is keep doing it all winter, whatever Kabele’s needs us to do.”

So far this winter, Cory McKevict has done all of the access work. A mini excavator is used with a grapple to knock the ice heave down and then pull the waste ice off to the side.

Access maintenance necessary       

Big Spirit has been one busy lake with the perch and walleye bites being exceptional. Just check out the parking lots, and you will see vehicles from all over the Midwest. It has been pretty much an overflow parking situation at each access. With the ice always shifting and creating heaves, the access maintenance is definitely a necessity. Otherwise, ATV and eventually vehicle traffic would be non-existent.

So, from all anglers using the Big Spirit Lake accesses this winter, a “tip of the hat” to the partnership between Kabele’s and Midwest Companies for keeping the accesses open and the fishing activity going non-stop!

Mini-excavator tackles a heave at Marble Beach boat ramp.

Midwest Companies has been keeping accesses around Big Spirit Lake Clean.