A new opportunity for anglers emerged last week on Lake Helena.

As part of a partnership between local, state and federal government agencies, along with corporate partner PPL Montana, the $243,000 Lake Helena Fishing Access Site was constructed to allow for safer boat launching at the popular 2,100-acre fishing hole northeast of the city.

The five-acre boat launch site, accessed off Lincoln Road, also includes a parking area for 15 trucks with trailers, fencing around an existing irrigation ditch, a boat ramp and a pit toilet.

"There was really no good public boat ramp into Lake Helena before this site," said Craig Marr, a parks manager for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Previously, people who wanted to launch boats larger than a kayak or canoe had to do so from a nar-row area with a dirt ramp near the Causeway, which forced them to back across Lake Helena Drive. Both the state and Lewis and Clark County officials had received complaints about the danger of the practice, and that area now is cordoned off.

"We left the launch on the Causeway open until the new one was put in place, and now that launch is closed," said Eric Griffin, Lewis and Clark County public works director. "It's been reseeded, and there's a sign in the area directing people to use the new launch on Lincoln Road."

Marr said the new site hasn't had much use just yet, but added that he expects the number of launches to pick up next summer.

He noted that because of the shallowness of the lake - it doesn't get much deeper than 10 feet - only smaller boats can access the water via the boat ramp. Boaters are advised to use caution when backing down the ramp because there is a maximum water depth of about 21 inches at the end of the ramp.

"Even if we went quite a bit farther into the lake, it stays at that depth for a long way," Marr said.

Motorized boats are allowed on Lake Helena, but they must be operated at no wake speeds throughout most of the year.

Lake Helena is a popular site for anglers seeking trout, walleye, perch and kokanee salmon. People flock there in the spring, when the lake waters, which are connected to the Missouri River, warm up earlier than the river water, prompting game fish to migrate into Lake Helena for spawning.

Marr said they hadn't installed a boat ramp previously because most of the land around Lake Helena is private property. FWP does own a large Wildlife Management Area on the lake, but the water around that section is too shallow for boat launching.

So FWP reached an agreement with the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which owns the land on which the fishing site sits along with an adjacent irrigation ditch. FWP contributed $80,000 toward the project, with PPL Montana adding $81,500 as part of its recreational funding requirement, and the Madison-Missouri River Trust Fund matching that $81,500.

Use of the fishing access site is free.

Marr said he knows that some of the people who live nearby are worried that the new site will draw additional traffic and noise, but he doesn't believe it will get a lot of use, especially year round.

"There may be times when it's busy, but I don't think that will happen often," Marr said. "I think it will be fairly quiet down there usually."