(Arnolds Park)– Anglers are chomping at the bit to get the fishing season under way again in the Iowa Great Lakes Area. It happens this weekend with the “Great Walleye Weekend”…the traditional opening to the Walleye season in the Iowa Great Lakes.
The event also serves as a major fundraiser each year for the Easter Seals Society of Iowa, of which Charlie Skarlet is a spokesman. He tells KUOO news about 1,500 people participate each year in the Great Walleye Weekend, with entry fees going to help defray the cost of services Easter Seals provides. Skarlet says the agency benefitted more than eight thousand people last year at a cost of roughly six million dollars.
Last year’s Great Walleye Weekend took in about 20-thousand dollars for the Easter Seals Society of Iowa. Skarlet is confident they’ll be able to surpass that this year.
Anglers will be vying to catch one of six specially tagged walleye in East and West Lakes Okoboji and Big Spirit Lake that’s worth 10-thousand dollars if caught by a registered participant during contest hours. 18 other specially tagged fish with cash or merchandise awards assigned to them have been released as well.
The contest starts at midnight Friday and concludes Sunday afternoon with a lunch and awards ceremony at the Dickinson County Expo Building in Spirit Lake.
