We have several nice soil conservation lakes we lease for duck hunting, and thought about season leasing from Feb. 1st through August 31st for fishing for a certain number of members. If you were to be allowed access to several private lakes (roughly 20 acres or more) and ponds with crystal clear water to fish anytime throughout the Spring and Summer, would there be any interest? Kids would of course be half price. There would be other members and it would be catch and release only with no barbed hooks allowed! Is there any interest in anything like this? All would be within an hour to hour and a half South and/or East of Dallas, and would be somewhere between $300 - $700 per member per season.

We also have a large, clear water lake near Lake Fork and one near Lake Navarro Mills we are considering making flyfishing only or at least catering towards flyfishermen. This would be day fishing by reservation only, on select weekends. Is there any interest in this as well? We want to see what kind of interest there is before going forward with it.

fowl, you can take any talk of a fishin' lease and go chase a duck with it.

You can have my Right to the water when you pry my rod and reel from my cold dead hand.

Keep your private happy ponds but I'm into it for the Sport, not to "shoot fish in a barrel".

Just my .02

So I am assuming you have never fished a pond?

There must be some interest in leasing to fisherman.. just lookup the great Texas bass club @ http://www.gtbc.com/

I don't have the money these types of places charge to fish but I'm OK with public waters anyway so it doesn't matter to me.

300.00 to 3000.00 per season depending on who you want to fish with

Look Guys, no disrespect meant. I'm not going to get into my fishing resume. I grew up pond fishing. Just saying that the day you start leasing your fishing water is the day you loose yet another God given right here in our Great nation. Texas is the last place I thought I would see it in me or my son's lifetime.

This is my last post on this topic. Good Luck to All.

I have to tend to agree Bass Border to some sense. Your best luck is to contact some local bass clubs. I fish for sport but then again I fish for the table as well. To pay to fish some ponds brings back memories of fishing the pits in Seagoville back in my youth days. But even then you were able to take some fish home for the fryer.

Bassborder,

As a 7th generation Texan, I am not sure I understand your post. If a landowner has good pastures, he can lease them to other ranchers. If a landowner has deer/hogs/birds/whatever, he often leases his land to hunters. All of this is done to make money for him and his family. What is wrong with leasing privately owned bodies of water for the same reason, to make extra money?

I believe the single best way to get children interested in fishing is to take them to easy to fish ponds when they are young. This can also be a great family event. I have many fond memories as a child doing this exact thing.

Thanks,
Ron

Bassborder,

So I guess you wouldn't be interested? I don't get the jest of your post. This is private water dude, not public! It's already leased for duck hunting. It ain't taking away from anybody or anything. It would be a chance to go out and catch some fish anytime they wanted on private water with flyrods, small tackle, or to try out new equipment.

Many places like this charge about $75 per day. Do you have a problem with the catfish places that charge per pound on their private areas? The only reason we would keep it catch and release only with barbless hooks is that landowners don't like to see their fish killed for any reason. Often they paid to stock them and get the fishery where it is. Plus, catch and release would allow others the opportunity to catch the same number of fish as the guy before him/her. Fish are a limited resoource in smaller lakes and ponds, and taking them out constantly hurts the fishery, especially the big fish.

As said above, it is also a great way to get kids involved. And that's why we always charge half price for kids on everything. $3000? WOW! We were looking to do this for anywhere between $250-$750 per person. The main thing is I would like to see what people are willing to pay for access to several lakes like this for Spring and Summer, and the see what kind of interest there might be in it.

Any interest....NO. I'll go to the pond in my neighborhood and fish for free.

Bass Border I am not understanding you. He is not charging to fish a public pond. I bet you pay to fish public lakes, there is usually a boat launch fee. This is no different than people leasing land to hunt on.

Txwaterfowler,

I am considering leasing a pond that is about 30 acres or so for $1000 for one calendar year. This lease is for only my brother and I and our guests. The owner of the pond and his family would be the only other people allowed to fish on the lake per our agreement. Given that you are only talking about half of a year, I would think your prices should be somewhat less than $1000.

It is certainly possible that I am getting a great 'deal', but $1000 guaranteed cash come rain or shine seems like a good deal for the landowner as well. Also, he let me pre-fish on the pond several times before I made a commitment.

You might consider some 'try it for free' days and see if you can build some interest. Also, one major downside of your offer is that you cannot fish in the fall. I assume you are doing this for hunting reasons. Fall fishing, IMHO, is the best time of the year as the water is still warm and the fish are generally actively feeding in preparation for winter.

I hope it works out well for you,
Ron

Thanks for the input Ron. That's the kind of input I am looking for in this thread. I just want to know what people want and what they are willing to pay. Most of our hunting leases run around $2000 to $5000 per year. You are correct that we would not allow fishing in the fall/Winter for the benefit of the duck hunters. The 2 just don't go hand in hand. If you are getting on a 30 acre pond for that price, you got a great deal. What I am talking about would be access to multiple lakes and ponds though. Also, the extra money in the spring would allow us to get more leases and open up more areas for hunters and fishermen.

Also, what people need to understand is that we are a business and need to make a profit on our leases to justify paying for them. Landowners would want more than we are paying now to allow for fishing leases, and we are not going to take a loss on it. That being said, if we did this, we would probably keep the price close to $300 just to get more people in there to enjoy themselves and since it is a half year. We would also probably have a straight family lease price as well.

Now, for those adamently against it because you have your areas. Why the hostility? I don't get it nor do I much appreciate it. If you are not interested or don't have constructive input, can you just say no, or just go to another thread? Or is it you just hate guides period on public and private waters? Remember you can spend $200 to $300 to go with a guide on 1 fishing trip on public lakes. Is what I am asking so far fetched considering that? If you have a public place to go to, that's great! Many however do not or don't have the means, and would like a place like this to go fishing.

Are you talking about a group of small ponds totaling 20 acres of a group of 20 acre ponds? I would think the latter would bring you the kind of money you are talking about, but not the former. Also, it sounds like you are not the landowner. What are your legal obligations in terms of safety and such?

Ron

All of our hunters and fishermen are covered under our insurance while on our leases. The landowners are protected that way. The biggest fear of landowners is getting sued. The insurance protects them and us from this in the even of an accident.

I am talking about the latter. 2 leases we will probably do day fishing on. One is 28 acres and one is slightly larger. Both are perfect for a flyfishing set-up with lots of good Bass, perch, and crappie, and the landowners would like to do this with their property. I am working on getting some more leases, which is why I am posing the question in this thread. I am negotiating with some landowners now and need to know if the interest is there to warrant paying more for the fishing portion. One area is near Cumby and is a 23 acre lake on 400 acres. it is clear water and has a good amount of timber in the water. On this area also are about 5 ponds, the biggest beeing about 1 1/2 acres with the smallest being a stock pond. I am also trying to get a 200 acre lease with a lake around 40 acres in size. Our goal this Spring is to get about 4 more of these lakes and allow anyone on the fishing lease access to all during the lease period. Hopefully that makes it clearer.

It's a shame, but we have a 3000 acre area near Ennis that had great bass and crappie fishing on about 8 ponds and a larger gravel pit with super clear water. All of these areas dried up this year unfortunately, or else we would include this area too. Now the ony fishing on the lease is bowfishing and catfishing on the 3 or 4 miles of Trinity River bordering us.

Fishing leases?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME! WTH, have you seen what leasing has done to hunting in texas, guys up north laugh at us for paying $2000-$3000 a year to hunt deer when they still get to hunt for free on private land. IMO $$$ is ruining hunting for future generation, I know several young kids who will never go deer or turkey hunting because their fathers can't justify the cost these days. Don't spread this disease into fishing as well, hopefully as long as our abundant public lakes stay full we won't have to worry about this.