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Wheelhouse Hospitality


128prairie

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I am heading north to the pond with my wheelhouse in a week. Are there some resorts that are better then others to deal with when it comes to using their access and roads to pull your own house out with an ATV? Whether it be costs, friendliness, or willing to provide info. Thanks.

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That gives me a business idea. Resort that has no rentals and just caters to those with portables and wheel houses. Want a pizza we will deliver it to you. Propane plawed roads banking etc. etc. we will do it all. No rental issues to distract us. Would this business survive??? I think so

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Not saying anything about anything, but it's funny seeing the posts like this asking which resort, Good for you.

typically you see posts saying which public access and I'll go where I wanna go posts.

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I've been calling around the past few weeks for the same thing. Appeldorns and Hunter Winfields are two that I liked talking to the most. But, most resorts will have no problem working with you.

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Actually the snow has nothing to do with it. I don't find a lot of time to go north, but when I do, I rely on the expertise of the resort for a good, safe road to get on the lake. I don't mind paying for it, but don't want to be treated like a second class customer either. Just looking for good value for my dollar spent.

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Quote:

That gives me a business idea. Resort that has no rentals and just caters to those with portables and wheel houses. Want a pizza we will deliver it to you. Propane plawed roads banking etc. etc. we will do it all. No rental issues to distract us. Would this business survive??? I think so


I don't think you would get rich doing it, that's for sure. Factor in your gas, lake crew wages, and repairs on your plow trucks and you are gonna have to charge 20 bucks a time to go out on your road. Plus the initial cost of getting some land to run it out of.

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I have no experience with Hunter Winfields but I spoke to Jim McCrank at Appledorns regarding the rental of a launch a few times last Summer. I have also posted back and forth with Paul Waldowski,through the forum a few years back, regarding fishing areas and techniques on Lake of the Woods. Add that to the helpful posts I see from Paul and about Paul and Appledorns in this forum and I would say that, in my opinion, Jim and Paul are re-defining what "Customer Service" means as it relates to the resort business on Mille Lacs. We fishermen (and women) are realizing that we can choose to spend our money with those resorts that act like they appreciate our business.

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I had a problem a couple years ago with my wheelhouse. Pretty much not welcome, we don't need your money. most of the resorts have changed their tune as more and more wheelhouses have hit the ice. The Reddoor was great at the north end, and George at Hunters is good about wheelhouses too.

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I have been pulling a wheel house around Mille Lacs for over 10 years now and have never had a bad experience with any of the resorts I have used Lybaks,Eddy's,Garrison Sport,Red Door,Fisher's,Hunter's,Dickies, They all have been good. This past week I spent time fishing out of Appledoorn's partly because they had the closest roads to the area I wanted to fish and partly to see if all the positive things that are posted on this site are true of them. Well I am happy to report they are. I showed up on Thursday morning and chatted with Paul and bought my roadpass this guy is like talking to an old friend he was honest about the bite and told me what depth's had been working and what area's were producing best. I unloaded the wheeler and hooked up the house and headed out I encountered my first problem once I left the road the snow prohibited easy travel. after struggling a bit to get unstuck one of Paul's plow truck's comes by and offers to plow me to an area I can set up in. Now mind you I had only bought a road pass and the resorts only obligation to me was lake access. So now I get the house set and I had forgotten shoring blocks to contend with the flooding back into Paul I go to see if he has any block's and again he set's me up out I go. This morning I woke up to a blizzard so I started to pack it in and who do you suppose shows up to see if I need any help getting off it's Paul. So to answer your question they are all good but Appledoorn's is a cut above in my book's and I will definitely be back.

Mike

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WW,

Thanks for the kind words.

It was a brutal day on the pond. We made the decision to pull everyone off this a.m. for there own safety. Visibility was down to 15 feet by this afternoon. Things are suppose to die down in a couple of hours and we will be out plowing in earnest to re-open the roads.

No fishing reports to update. As soon as we get some folks out fishing we will give an updated report.

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From Hunter Winfield's in Isle Bay - we welcome wheel houses - we have people using our road daily - we have a $10.00 road fee and if you need a spot plowed, we'll take care of that for a $20.00 fee.

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we have welcomed wheel houses since they started showing up.we store wheel houses and service them,we put the sign out front 2 yrs ago to let everyone know we are friendly and do like wheel houses because of other resorts negative response against them.(so welcome and lets look forward to some great fishing,be safe and check the ice!)

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