Lura Lake Fair gets kids hooked on fishing

Tim Krohn
The Free Press

MAPLETON May 20, 2007 01:04 am

— Eleven-year-old Joji Bonnett and 9-year-old Eli Bonnett know exactly what they like best about fishing.
“Catching fish,” they answer in unison.
They were having some luck Saturday at Lura Lake near Mapleton, having pulled in a nice bluegill.
“I put it back in the lake,” Joji said. “I don’t like eating them.”
They were among 300 kids, and many adults, taking advantage of the 13th annual Lura Lake Fair at Daly Park.
Jim Putnam, vice president of the Lura Lake Association, said nearly 1,000 school kids visited the park since Thursday to try their hand at fishing.
“Probably 75 percent of them never held a rod in their hand before,” Putnam said.
Hugh Valient, with the Department of Natural Resources Fisheries office in Waterville, said there is concern about youngsters not getting involved in hunting and fishing.
“There’s all the competition from video games and stuff and kids aren’t getting into the outdoors as much.
“This event is great. They’ve had 10,000 kids out here over the past 13 years. That’s pretty amazing,” Valient said.
Bob Brush, president of the Lura Lake Association, and Putnam get most of the credit for not only the event but for the resurrection of what was a dead lake.
The 1,200-acre lake is mostly shallow, with deep areas of about 12 feet. “I used to duck hunt out here and it was a great duck lake until they left. We used to have some big fish, then they were gone,” Brush said.
In the 1970s, Blue Earth County established the park on the lake, and Brush, Putnam and others began encouraging farmers who owned land around the lake to put in rip-rap, do other shoreline restoration and reduce phosphorus from getting into the water.
“Farmers were watching two rows of their corn field fall into the lake every year,” Valient said. “Now there’s six miles of shoreline restored.”
Estimates for the shoreline work were $1.3 million. But through donated labor and donated stones from farmers, the project was done for $130,000.
In 1994, the lake was treated to kill the rough fish. It was restocked and two aeration systems were installed to prevent winter fish kills.
Today, Valient said, the lake has a healthy fish population of walleye, northern, crappies, sunfish and bullheads.
“It’s a real success story,” Valient said. “It’s amazing how much conservation work can be done by a rural community when they put their mind to it.”
The annual Lura Lake Fair is a chance for parents to bring their kids fishing, take free pontoon rides and participate in other activities. It’s also a major fundraiser for the association, which holds raffles and gets donations from businesses.
The group has purchased 293 acres of farmland along the Blue Earth River near Winnebago and is purchasing an adjacent 72 acres of virgin ground that has never been plowed.
The land is loaded with wildlife and native vegetation, Brush said. Plans are to create a canoe launch and trail through the area.
Looking out over the full campground and kids and adults fishing from the shoreline, Putnam admits the success has been more than any of them expected.
“To be honest, I never thought it’d get this big. But it gets bigger and bigger each year.”

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