Private Lake Pay to Fish

I saw a few vids of a place near me stocked with trophy fish. Looks awesome! I start making plans for a day of trophy fishing. Get to web page to book, no prices for entry. Hmmmmm.... Search and search on the web. Finally call the owner. Said it's $1500 a day for two people.

Hoping to find something a little more in my price range with decent fishing that is not located in Mexico. Anyone have any recommendations? I am getting old with major health issues and need to clear a few things on my bucket list this year.

That's a tough one...

Although obviously nothing is guaranteed if I absolutely had to catch a DD, I would go to Falcon and fish with one of the guides down there. Fish for two days maybe if you can afford it.

Deep diving crankbaits in summer have accounted for a lot of double digit fish. Looking at recent reports a couple of those guys really have them dialed in and I've seen a lot of fish right at or very close to 10 lbs being caught lately.

Check out these guys-

https://www.privatewaterfishing.com/

They have access to hundreds of small private ponds/lakes all over Texas that specialize in trophy fishing. $1500 a day sounds like Camelot Bell!

Live shiner trip in Florida maybe?

I lived in south Florida for 20 years, so I'm familiar with waters in central to South.
I haven't checked on the recovery progress of Stick Marsh (a hurricane years ago blew it up in a bad way), but wild shiner fishing there was once an experience of a lifetime.
For sure, I'd go for West Toho, shiner fishing with a guide, and last but not least Lake Kissimmee. (Grape Hammock is THE place to stay at Kissimmee.)
There are guides that will split up time, part of it shiner fishing, and part with artificial baits, all depending on what your goal is.
The best time? January through March will be prespawn/spawn there. You just need to hope you can not line up with the cold fronts. With no bad cold front, the weather then is mild to warm at times.

All 3 of those are near Orlando. I'm not sure about Stick Marsh right now, but absolutely the other two are top notch places for big fish. Do not bother with Okeechobee when you have options such as Toho and Kissimmee. The potential fish size is actually lower as you go South, so Lake O will not have bigger fish.

With all that said, it (Florida) would not be cheap either. I agree with the other post about Falcon being hot for big fish right now, and the guides are dialed in on them. Even for myself, looking at "what dollars would it cost me?" I'd say a Falcon trip fishing with guides would still be a good bit less on logistics and $$$ than a Florida expedition.

One other side note about Falcon, it is also the home of trophy sized crappie. Several of those guides will also take you crappie fishing. I'm sure they'd be happy to split the day between doing both if that was your thing.

Not everybody is into catching trophy crappie but if that'd be something you would be into you could definitely catch a crappie of a lifetime down there as well.

+1 on Private Water Fishing. Great Folks!

CB is most likely the best place in the country right now for your chances at catching a true DD but it is expensive.

Private Waters Fishing

I agree that 1500 is expensive but you will spend way more than that going to Florida. Also if you go the Falcon route, after you pay for a guide for 2 days , tip and travel expenses you are probably pretty close to 1500. Catching big bass isn't cheap or guaranteed .

If it is a true bucket list trip and I am are worried my days are numbered, then I would defiantly spend the $1500for a day on Camelot Bell. If I could not afford it, I may "hint" to my family and friends of my wishes. Just say'n

The website says 70 private lakes in Texas and Oklahoma, not hundreds. I have no idea how much the yearly membership fee is. The daily fees for the lakes I looked at range from $85 to $150. I do not know if that is per person or just an access fee. No, these are not the fees that Camelot Bell is charging but it could add up to an expensive day of fishing. A typical fishing trip for me ranges from $50 to $75. Of course, that is not fishing a private lake and is within a 150 mile radius.

I was also interested in those answers and this is what I found for anyone interested:

They have a trial fishing day for any lake you choose In your area

A number of us on here know Steve Alexander (TFF handle is salex) who runs Private Water Fishing and he runs a top notch operation

I’ve met a number of PWF members and they all really like it

Thank you. We love what we do. Appreciate the kind words and recommendations from the TFF.

Accessing private land is not inexpensive and we certainly understand it is not in the budget for many. However, it is an option for those who can afford it and enjoy having a lake all to themselves.

Camelot Bell is awesome, but just to be clear it is no guarantee of a DD fish. Plenty of great sticks have come up empty many times on the lake.

I follow Camelot Bell pretty closely. I have no actual data to back this up, but my best guess is that in a great year where the lake is really on fire, 1 DD is produced every two man days fished. So basically a 50/50 chance of 1 DD with two guys fishing a single day. On a bad year it could be as low as 1/5 or 1 DD for every 10 man days fished. Obviously time of year matters as well. Obviously some guys have days were DD's are practically jumping in the boat and multiple DD's are caught. I'm just talking averages here. Anyway, I think right now CB is somewhere in between these two extremes.

Bottom line is CB is no guarantee. You can do everything right, but it's not like high fence hunting. A deer can't choose whether or not to eat a bullet. A fish absolutely can choose not to bite. Love CB and highly recommend it to folks, but don't want anyone to have unrealistic expectations.

There’s some wisdom right there. You can put yourself in “a position to have an opportunity” for a big fish but to plan on catching one on a particular day? It is still fishing and things have to line up right.

Yea but catching a double digit out of somewhere like that really is not that big of an accomplishment compared to a public lake. I've done both and the private can be a lot of fun, but it certainly is a lot easier.

Your odds are certainly vastly better at CB than on public water. In my second book Lunker Lore I calculated the lifetime odds of catching a true DD in public Texas water at about 19%. That assumes 16 outings per year (average for bass anglers) and 60 years of fishing. If you fish more or better water, then your odds go up.

Big fish are ultra rare in public water. Sure you'll see a whole bunch of fish on social media that guides "call" DD fish, but we all know how social media works. The reality is unless you are spending an enormous amount of time on really great water, or you just get lucky, it is no walk in the park to catch a DD.

to everyone who's got one! Rare and ultra cool animals to get to see up close and personal.

You have to log the hours and then there is an element of luck with a trophy fish. Logging the hours gives you the opportunity.

Whether going to Falcon and paying a guide tell you where to throw and what to throw or paying to go to CB to catch a big fish is really not an accomplishment representing your angling ability or rewarding efforts towards the goal.

Regardless of my two cents on that - go to Falcon and hire Matt Reed to take you fishing.

There used to be some guides that fished live bait on Fork. Them and their clients have caught some monster fish. I’ve never live bait fished, so I don’t know any details about it.

Search on here for the lake falcon guide that's always posting pics. I would definitely go that route if you didnt want to come off of 1500 for a trip to the bell. We went to the bell once. Caught an 11 and a butt load of other fish, mostly small ones that went into the pen but some good 6s and 7s mixed in. We also hit it on a cold front day with the wind howling

Private Water Fishing is a great concept. I enjoy my membership and would recommend it if you like fishing out of kayaks or small john boats. The lakes are very good and produce. Being on the lake by yourself is nice. The biggest problem I have is that if you invite a friend, they pay the same daily rate as you. So if the lake costs $125 and you invite a friend, it's $250. Your rate is not cut in half, which is kind of ridiculous. I think that is the biggest problem I have with it. Also, a lot of the well known, good lakes that produce, are booked up well in advance.

My biggest problem with this is, from what I understand, you have to use one of their small boats or a kayak. I am 6'-5", 255 pounds and I like fishing standing up out of my boat. As long as I could put it in the water, I wouldn't care if it was TM only.

I think a lot of those guys are super worried about invasive species- salvania, zebra mussels, etc. and the amount of $$ it would take to get rid of any of them from their lakes.

I've been to one place several times and while their boats are decent sized aluminum boats there aren't any graphs or Talons/Poles.

I hear you. I'm 6'5" too and the small boats are a problem. I fished out of my own kayak and stood up after I launched. Overall, I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't trade it for fishing a public lake in my own boat.

Lots of great info posted. It’s time to get going on that bucket list.

I’ll add another vote for PWF. In my experience you can spend as much or as little money as you want fishing. You can bank fish a public lake or book a day at Camelot Bell, La Perla, etc. and there’s everywhere in between. All of it costs money but still costs less than a “big boat.”

The PWF lakes offer tremendous variety. You can splurge on one of the premier properties or fish the lesser expensive lakes. All of them are being managed to various degrees for trophy fish.

Last weekend was an example of when I would typically fish one of the better lakes. I had a buddy coming into town and we had one of the best days on the water that I can remember. We caught 92 bass by 2pm mostly on top water baits and our largest bass was 7.5 lbs. Our average fish was between 3 and 3.5 lbs. which was atypical. For my buddy who bass fishes two or three times a year, he was in Heaven.

It was also my first attempt using a GoPro that I got as a gift and it was more of a learning experience. I learned that my boat really doesn’t have a place to mount the darn thing and that the battery didn’t last more than 90 minutes. It was an interesting experiment if nothing else.

Great first video on your Go Pro. Awesome hook sets.

I wanna be like Jackson when I grow up! Great video bro!!

Nice video Jackson!!

I've also heard PWF stocks Fish and Bait to produce the best opportunity of catching a PB if your last name isn't Addington.
From what research I've done they seem to really care about what they do, offer lifetime experiences.

This is awesome, thanks for sharing.

What's the best lake to fish for big fish around North Dallas?

In Private Water Fishing? Or public water?

Either at this miserable point... CV reference.

Ray rob

East Texas trophy adventures
214 729 5761

Check out private water fishing

Quite a few of their properties have concrete boat ramps. Some of the premier properties I have been to don’t allow outside boats but have aluminum bass boats not just Jon boats.

Awesome, I'll look into joining and seeing what lake are near me in North Dallas. Sounds like a stand up organization.

It's a great club to be in. I still fish big lakes mostly but love my trips to PWF properties. I took 3 guys out today to a 55 acre lake in our club on Six O Ranch. Two of the three guys are going to be joining PWF after a couple of trips with me. I can tell you the fun that can be had on these private lakes is hard to repeat on the big lakes.

Great decision you won't regret it. On their website there is a fishing reports section to help you figure out what the hot lakes are

Once you finally catch a DD then You gotta land the darn thing. I have had my heart broke many times AT THE BOAT! so frustrating but keeps me go8ng after them

I think you mean "once you finally hook a DD"? If you catch it, it's in the boat by every definition I've ever seen for "catch".

Flippin-Out, another great job in pointing out someones honest mistake in the post. Without it we would have never figured out that he was actually referring to hooking the fish.

LOL, I've lost my fair share of Dad's within reach!
Looking forward to posting my first PWFDD... The new standard
Maybe that's a Tee Shirt or Member Award ? PWF-DDC.

Denny

Words matter. Slack enough on inaccuracy and language becomes unintelligible. Example: post where someone said their engine would not crank, when actually it cranked, but would not fire. Confusion ensued. Goodbye.

There’s some great words of advice on this post. If you can part with $1500 and understand there’s no guarantee on a DD, then I say go for it. I’ve spent a lot more flying to Mexico or Brazil trying to catch a giant And the weather or water levels didn’t line up. At least with CB you can have a better chance of lining up the weather and fishing conditions. It will be a great time and regardless if you catch a DD, it will be a memory you’ll have forever

Just click on the username and hit the "ignore user" button!! This site is Great and you can enjoy it so much easier without "certain" people's input! :-)

Just click on the username and hit the "ignore user" button!! This site is Great and you can enjoy it so much easier without "certain" people's input! :-)

Thanks for sharing. Nice to know this function!

Yes, it works great. Some wet their pull-up so easily....