Anglers welcome opening day of Sand Lake with trout fishing derby

IOWA CITY - Close to two dozen people were on hand Saturday to mark the beginning of fishing season at Sand Lake at the Terry Trueblood Recreation Area.

Officials have been working for a little more than five years to turn the former sand and gravel quarry into a center of recreation.

“We've been doing a lot on river resources so this is a new entity,” said Mike Moran, director of the Iowa City Parks and Recreation Department. “This connects with all the other recreation activities we have in the community.”

Officials from the state Department of Natural Resources were on hand Saturday to stock the lake with nearly 2,000 trout. The DNR uses the revenue it collects from selling trout tags and fishing licenses to fund such stockings.

Darren Schuesslar was among the anglers taking advantage of the newly-stocked lake Saturday for a “trout fishing derby.” He brought his daughter Bella along, saying it's important for kids to get in touch with nature.

“Working all the time I don't get to spend a lot of time with my kids, so it's good to get out here and do this kind of thing,” he said.

Work at Sand Lake isn't quite complete. Next year, Iowa City parks officials want to construct a park lodge there.

“This whole facility we've seen bikers, we've seen walkers and now we've seen fishermen, and pretty soon when the park lodge is here we'll see picnickers and everything else,” Moran said of the Trueblood area, a parcel that the city acquired from S&J Materials in 2006. Another 49 acres have been added to the area since the original 158-acre purchase.