THE ULTIMATE FISHING EXPERIENCE ? Neil Travis - August 3, 2009

[Uncle Jesse]

I don't do so regularly but Callaway Garden has several venues where you can fish for a fee. There is a large lake (90 acres approx) where you can rent a boat for <$75 per day. Two guys can rent a 14 ft. jon boat with padded seats, trolling motor and battery and fish half a day for about $60. The attraction is the average bream I have personally caught are about a pound. Pound bream on a 3wt are a lot of fun. There is also the possibility of very large bass and probably catfish in the lake. Several year back I dropped a bream killer on a dropper by a log and just got freight trained. It happened so quick that 4 lbs. leader material broke without the fish being aware it was there.

I lost about half of my income stream early this year so I won't be going back for a little while. But I do look forward to the next time.

[51BC]

Years ago , when I was in the Army in Germany, virtually all fishing rights were privately held and if you wanted to fish , you bought a day card or joined the club that owned the rights where you wanted to fish. I didn't like the system all that much, but I adjusted while I was there and was glad to get back to the good old USA when my time was done.

[dudley]

I use to run the pay-to-fish ponds at the state trout hatchery
Plenty of oversized fish and except for the first few days of the season, they weren't pushovers either. 2 bucks for 3 hours
We had a lot of regulars including some seniors who would have had trouble fishing in a more traditional setting
Never my cuppa tea though.
I've fished other private waters and never cared for that either ... it just doesn't seem right.
I can't be too critical. When I was little, 6 or 7, my father and grandfather belonged to an 'angling club'. I caught my first trout on a private stream

[Normand]

i have payed to fish armstrongs spring creek in montana and would pay to fish it again. i wouldnt pay to fish every day but i would if it was a vacation situation as it was when i fished it years ago.

there is something about fishing a few miles of spring creek with only 6-8 other people fishing it.

[Normand]

I tried looking at DePuy's Spring Creek site for rates but couldn't find it, but I'm sure it isn't cheap.

you didnt find this?

http://www.depuyspringcreek.com/calendar2003.html

[Cold]

Something else to think on...how is a "pay-to-play" fishery any different from a scaled down version of "buy your license to fish in this state"? I mean, it SEEMS different, because the license is just a given, but in reality, you're paying to be a member of a special "club" of citizens (legal, licensed anglers), who alone have permission to fish on the streams of a central entity (the state) because they paid a membership/licensing fee.

Just another thought to help muddy the waters and increase perspective.

For the record: I have no problems with paying the price I do for my license, and feel it's well worth it...and I still dont like the idea of pay-to-play. Contradictory? Probably. But thats my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Honestly, though, I think its just when the central "entity" is only in pursuit of the almighty dollar that it uncenters my chi.

[brhoff]

Not so sure I would pay to fish though in times it might be the way to go.

While researching FF in Colorado for a trip a couple years back, I realized that a guide might be best as it seemed that well known places would be swamped and I only occasionally fish for trout anyhow.

Then on arrival spoke to a couple guides only to be further lead down the pay more to fish path....2-3 of the shops HIGHLY reccomended booking time on the private ranches around...adding another 100 or so bucks per fisherman to the equation.

That said, yes, I wish in that case I could have afforded booking a trip but a 300-400 trip is not in my budget at this time, may never be but I can imagine it to be a good thing...far from home and on a time constraint while wanting to catch the finest fish the area offers.

[MTSkibum]

you didnt find this?

http://www.depuyspringcreek.com/calendar2003.html

This is my last year living in bozeman, i graduate this next spring!


I am thinking hard about buying a winter pass at depuy's.

[DG]

I paid Milesnick's the $5 once or twice when I fished, to help them with weeds and roads and such. Not once they turned it into a real pay-to-play. And there used to be a river access in WA where you had to put a dollar in the box to get to the river.

Beyond that, I am a firm believer in public waters and public fish. I would not spend another $100 or $400 just to have a chance to catch someone's home grown pig.

To me, bragging about how good the fishing is on a piece of water you paid to get into is sort of like bragging about your prowess with women when you hired a lady of negotiable affection for the evening. If you can succeed where anyone else also has a shot at it, now that is more my idea of skill.

On the other hand, the more people pay to fish the high dollar water, the more fish there are for me on the rest of it.

[WarrenP]

I will try and be as nice as I can be in stating my opinions on this subject..

I respect private property and will ask the land owner for permission to gain access to a stream to fish. Being a land owner gives you the right to restrict others from trespassing on your property, but, when a group of either fishermen or hunters go to that land owner and offer him/her a sizeable sum of money per year to lease their property so they can have it for themselves and keep other people off is wrong. Not sure that people understand that if I injure myself while on their property that they gave me permission to use, I am on my own and it is my "tuff luck", but, if I had to pay them to use their property, they could possibly become libel for any injury to myself or damage to my vehicle. I am sorry but to pay someone to fish a part of a river that the previous owner use to allow others to fish does not sit well with me but that is just my opinion and nothing more. It just seems that everyday we keep losing more freedoms to our government and more and more property becomes "No Trespassing" when "big money" has decided to purchase it for a tax write off.

Paying another person for a priviledge that use to be free just does not sit well with me. I pay for a fishing lic. here in Tennessee and I should be able to fish all of the public rivers in Tennessee. I do not think it is right for some to pool their money and lease up property so they can keep it for themselves. It just does not seem right, but, for us "middle class and lower people", it is something that I guess we may as well get use to.It boils down to, "Money talks and bulls**t walks" and I do a lot of walking.

Please understand that the above is just my opinions and none of it was meant to upset anyone...