Private Ponds

[Fish Omaha]

I am a college student finishing up my degree and I am doing a report on "Paying to Fish at Private Ponds" 

Would the anglers out there pay to fish the private ponds in their region? Why or why not? 

Would the private pond owners allow anglers to fish at their ponds for pay? Why or Why not? 

Thank you! 

[Moon Lake Refuge]

I wouldn't pay in MN.  Way to many public areas to fish.  May change depending on your region.  Depending on the size of the pond if it was on my private land I likely wouldn't allow paid fishers on it either as that would inevitably lead to waste and cleanup needed. my .02

[bobbymalone]

I agree with MLR.  

I have some family members that are part of a little association that grants them access to a really nice private pond - good size and filled with monster gills and small mouth. But that's in Iowa and it's a good hour drive to the closest craptastic lake.

[leech~~]

1 hour ago, Fish Omaha said:

I am a college student finishing up my degree and I am doing a report on "Paying to Fish at Private Ponds" 

Would the anglers out there pay to fish the private ponds in their region? Why or why not? 

Would the private pond owners allow anglers to fish at their ponds for pay? Why or Why not? 

Thank you! 

 

For the most part you will see small private Trout Ponds but not much more in this state anyway.

[SkunkedAgain]

I pay to fish every year when I buy a license. There's no reason to pay to fish on a private pond when we're living in the land of 10,000+ lakes. As others have said, I bet folks like my brother would pay to fish a good pond in Phoenix.

[Cheers]

I would definitely pay to fish in a private pond if you where offering something different or better.  The price I would be willing to pay would be commensurate with the experience .It would have to be better than what is available for free. 

[ozzie]

Many variables in your questions.  Now living in the land of 10,000 lakes it would be hard to pay to fish a private pond but I know of a few private ponds I would pay $$ to fish as I know the fish in these ponds are exceptionally bigger than the average fish I can find in public waters.  I am talking about consistent crappies that range in the 14-16 range that have been measured as much as 18"+!!  there is another pond that I use to fish and the person had great walleye and crappie fishing but the size wasn't huge but a lot of action and a fun time since it was small and you could work the whole pond in an hour.  As in anything if the quality is there you would always find people willing to spend money to catch big fish.  You will always have the guys that would not want to spend extra cash on something they can do for "free" but I promise you they wouldn't catch the same quality fish as you can in a pond that is tightly regulated.  Good Luck on the paper! 

[th64]

I think in Mn it is against the law to charge to have someone fish 'your' lake, many ways around that. So if you know of a lake or live on a private lake I would pay or even mow your lawn! So yes

[ozzie]

you don't pay to fish the lake you pay to access the lake just like going ice fishing...you pay the road operator to cross their land to get on the lake.

[BTL]

Down here in VA I would absolutely pay to fish in some private ponds. Our public lakes are mostly small and very heavily pressured, to the point where I won't even fish them in Summer. But there are private ponds around every corner and most of them never get touched. Some of them are full of stunted fish, but I have been to a couple that were simply unreal, where you could catch 3-6lb bass like bluegill.

[Tom7227]

Fish Omaha

As you have realized we folks in Minnesota don't see  a need to do this.  Someone said it that he thought it was illegal to charge to fish in Minnesota.  I am a retired lawyer and a bit familiar with the criminal law here and I have to say that I don't think I know where that law is.  In Minnesota it is the law that all lakes, rivers and streams are held in trust for the public and there are some pretty strict laws what you can/can't do.  A very common issue is whether a landowner who owns a narrow strip of land that is between a public road and a lake can prevent people from cross the land to get access to the water.  The simple answer is yes - but ..... 

It is somewhat common to have a landowner charge money to allow someone to cross the land to get access to a lake.  Most common is when the landowner does this during ice fishing season and the landowner has plowed roads on the ice.

Where you live the issue has to do mainly with farm ponds and borrow quarries.  Obviously a farmer has a right to control access to his pond.  A friend spent a lot of time and money stocking fish and feeding them on his farm pond in Iowa.  I don't know if it is legal to restrict access to a quarry or borrow area as you often see at highway interchanges.

In my experience if folks think they're going to catch fish they will do a lot to get access to them.  They may spend thousands of dollars to fly to Canada or pay a few bucks to let their kid give it a try and a trout tank at a sports show.

[Getanet]

Another from MN chiming in. I wouldn't pay to fish a private pond here in the land of 10K lakes. But, when I was growing up there was a place about 20 minutes from downtown Minneapolis called Trout Air where you could pay to catch trout. It went out of business for a long time, so that may give you an indication of how well the market here in MN would support such a thing.  However, out of curiosity I did a search on it and an local racetrack plans to bring Trout Air back to life, so we'll see how it's received now.

[delcecchi]

1 hour ago, Getanet said:

Another from MN chiming in. I wouldn't pay to fish a private pond here in the land of 10K lakes. But, when I was growing up there was a place about 20 minutes from downtown Minneapolis called Trout Air where you could pay to catch trout. It went out of business for a long time, so that may give you an indication of how well the market here in MN would support such a thing.  However, out of curiosity I did a search on it and an local racetrack plans to bring Trout Air back to life, so we'll see how it's received now.

It is out at Forest Lake, and became a dog track.  It was on the north and west side of the Highway 8 (now 35w) and Highway 61 (now 35E) intersection as I recall.  

Here in Rochester are several lakes that are former quarry/gravel pits and they in general are private,  and I don't think it is just due to access issues. 

[busse3775]

Living in Minnesota it sounds crazy to actually pay to fish a private pond but I have caught some of my biggest fish in private lakes and ponds. Pulled a 16 1/2" crappie out of a private pond ice fishing and last Sunday our boat caught and released 12 eyes over 26" on a private lake. To add, I didn't have to pay to fish either one of these locations.

[rundrave]

There's a fine line to walk here. We are running into some pretty heated discussions in NE SD because of some landowners closing or blocking off ROW to prevent access to certain bodies of water. In some cases court orders have been issued that prohibits the public from entering or using certain bodies of water.

I can see both sides of the argument. You have some property that over time has flooded or now has water that was never in contact or adjacent to a ROW. It used to be private but now that it touches a road its fair game for anyone to fish.

 I don't know that I would ever pay to fish any body of water. Its a slippery slope but I would hope that there never comes a day that our fishing license dollars were used to manage or stock a lake, only to then have it be closed to the public.

[DTro]

First of all there is a difference between a “private accessed” body of water and a manmade lake made for the sole purpose of profiting.   Most places in the South call the latter “Paylakes”.   On the surface I don’t have an issue with them, especially for people who cannot access traditional public lakes (small children, elderly, and handicapped.  Fish is a good source of food and we all should be able to catch our own and eat them.   However….. a lot of Paylakes are evolving from catch and take establishments to trophy and tournament “jar” fishing (winner gets the money in the jar).   What this has created is a massive black market for trophy fish that are being caught and sold to Paylake owners by any means possible (legal and illegal).   Large catfish are bringing hundreds of dollars each and these people are raping the public resource.   The good thing is that it’s not legal to do this in MN, but it wouldn’t surprise me one bit of fish have been taken from this state and sold to places where it’s legal.  Can you imagine people going out and catching trophy Muskies, Bass, and Walleye by the truckload and selling them to these ponds?   That’s exactly what is going on right now in other states.    I say the more public water the better. 

[ozzie]

nice to see you checking in on the ol forums DTRO!  Miss all the information that use to pour into this page...still informational but have to check more places and not the same as it was...

[DrJuice1980]

I pay enough on bait, tackle, gas, snacks, etc.  Pay lake?  

[th64]

Some would say its like payiing for you know what-others would say you pay no matter what. I used to pay to park by a lake that was close to my house that was full of nice crappies-I could drive farther to get to a lake almost as good but I would pay more.