Access Fees

[grasshopper]

you don't want to know who it was, because they'll kick me off the site.

oh, and they laughed as they went by.

[Boar]

Man I love this conversation, hear it so often and all I do is laugh, so what we have most times, and Im not directing this towards the originals poster. but Im a wheeel house man, did my time over the last 30 years. I like comfort. so i will make this aboout me. Ive got 17,000 dollar house, 25,000 truck, 500 $ auger 1000$ in sonar, lets say another 500-1000 bucks in rods, jigs cameras ect ect. and the list gose on. and quite frankly id say a large percentage of ice hounds are the same. money no object for equipment, want it, buy it. need it, buy it. every weekend, I spend a couple hundred bucks in fuel, food, booze,  bait, in the red lake community, yes i am fourtunate to be able to spend money in a great feild of interest. so are alot of people. but dang it anyway, I certainly dont whine about something as small as an access fee that puts me on the lake. I mean I dont get it. I spend all this money, and im gonna be concerned with 25 bucks. good lord. its part of the game. 

[SwivelDigger]

Totally agree Boar. Them guys bust their humps most of the time to put guys on fish. If you don't think they are, find a new place to go. I would say that most of they guys doing it are good guys. There might be a couple that aren't, but word gets out and usually they don't last.

[Teebones1977]

Boar has a good point. People shouldn't complain about an access fee! If you can not afford it... say home... Yet I don't think you need all the things listed to crush eyes on Red! My best trip.. was over 130 eyes... Renting a house from Cookie... for base camp... a 500 dollar sled... and fishing outside... with one spoon... The gold and red weasel:) Don't get me wrong... I own lots of that stuff... but at the end of the day.. it doesn't put fish in the bucket:) And GrassHopper move one! I have had that happen...and yes it ticks me off... and I let it get to me.... for days on end... Words of advice.. get away from people!  Boys happy fishing... and finish strong...

[Paradice]

2 hours ago, grasshopper said:

you don't want to know who it was, because they'll kick me off the site.

oh, and they laughed as they went by.

I say go for it.  The moderators aren't in the tank for any one outfit are they? I'd rather hear the truth. 

[Reverend]

Boar, you are right on with that statement. I agree there may be some bad egg's out there but as SwivelDigger said word gets around. I have made URL my main winter destination and have loved it each year. $5, $10 or $25 what does that really matter? The people on the great lake keep the roads as clean and clear as they can and some people just do not understand the costs that go along with it. I believe most true sportsmen do get it and they appreciate what these guys do. That being said, sadly there are a few out there who for whatever reason do dumb things like Grasshopper said. I do believe what comes around goes around or should I say gets around and the other guides, resorts and access owners do their best to put a stop to it because people tend to blame everybody for the actions of one or very few.

I better stop here as I think I am getting close to a Cookie length post.

See you all Monday I will be up there with Bear Paw Guides.

Rev

[kelly-p]

13 hours ago, Paradice said:

I say go for it.  The moderators aren't in the tank for any one outfit are they? I'd rather hear the truth

In case nobody has noticed other then Cookie all the business have left this Forum.  There is always a fisherman  with an axe to grind or rocks to throw and the business's felt it wasn't worth dealing with it all anymore so they all quit posting here.  Who knows it could be about me. I remember once during the crappie boom I plowed right between two houses about 50 feet apart. It  was a deep snow year and fishermen needed a road plowed to get anywhere.  At the end of a road there were two trails that fishermen were using to get further out on the lake. These 2 houses set up blocking both trails the people were using to get further out on the lake. When my wife tried to get by them they screamed extremely nasty obscenities at her. After what they screamed at my wife I thought I was very kind to only plow between them but one of them came on this forum to complain about me.

  I believe it was one of the first years walleyes could be harvested on URL again and the limit was 2 walleyes. A poster came on here very upset because a CO had ticketed him for an  "unmeasurable/protected slot" walleye. According to the poster the CO had ticketed him just because he had set a walleye out side his portable in the snow where it froze. That topic ended up being about 5 pages long of fishermen waving pitchforks about the evil CO.  I talked to the CO that had wrote the ticket about what had happened.  Here is the other side of the story that never came out on the forum. The CO checked a portable with  2 fishermen in it. They had 2 lines down in the portable and 2 lines out side the portable.  They had 2 legal walleyes inside the portable in a bucket unfrozen and in a measurable condition. They had one obviously illegal walleye outside the portable frozen in a curl to make it unmeasurable and to try shrink it when it froze. One of the fishermen had no fishing license and there was no license on the portable.  So the CO was looking at 5 tickets, no shelter license, no fishing license, seeing as one person had no license too many fishing lines AND an over limit of walleyes and the illegal/unmeasurable protected slot walleye. The CO gave the fishermen a deal, I will only write you up for only one of the tickets and you pick which one you get written up for. The fishermen picked the "unmeasurable" ticket. So the fishermen got one ticket instead of 5 and then went on a forum to complain about the evil CO.

There are 3 sides to every story. Yours, mine, and the cold hard truth. So complain about business's if you want, except for Cookie they have all left this forum. Complain about me if you want. What are you going to do? Take my Birthday away?

[Reverend]

Well Happy Birthday Kelly-P (even if it's not your birthday). You are so right and have more self control than me. By the sounds of it you could have (and maybe should have) made that road wider at that spot not just longer. I do not mean that, I am not a violent person but Kelly points out a great fact. The services and businesses do not post on here and that is a sad thing. I hear so many great post of "stayed in one of Cookies houses and we had a great time" and so on and so on. They may not post on here but I do hope they read some of the good things posted and take the rest with a grain of salt.

Rev

[Bigfatbert]

I believe it was "grasshopper" who had the plow driver drive between himself and someone else very close by. I am very curious , were you set up near a outfitters houses , or were there outfitters houses somewhat close by , or were you all by your lonesome , in your own area of the lake ? The reason I ask is because from my own experience on lake of the woods , back a few years ,while renting a outfitters house . This outfitter had a long string of their houses set up, and while we were in our rental house fishing , two portable houses came and set up about 50 yards or so from the house we were in. No problem for me ,as I am very open to have anybody else set up fairly close to my house and give it a try. I surely don't own the lake , and I'm sure their licence said state of Minnesota also. Well getting back to the story here , when the outfitters bomber driver was periodically checking in on us , we pointed out to him that some portables set up fairly close to us , and he said yes I see that . He then says I'll show them that they should keep them portables away from our houses , they ain't welcome by us. So for the rest of the day he was driving that bomber as close as he could by their portables, he was zipping by them , back and forth all the rest of the day. Well this surely isn't something that I would condone by any means , and I actually quit using that outfitter cause of that bombers rude behavior to some fellow fisherman, it just wasn't right. When some outfitters set out there groups of houses ,they would wish to think that that's their personal spots on the lake , which is so far from the way it is. Just sayin , maybe there was this was the reason the plow driver was buzzing you , maybe not.

 

[Hoey]

3 hours ago, Bigfatbert said:

So for the rest of the day he was driving that bomber as close as he could by their portables, he was zipping by them , back and forth all the rest of the day.

Three or four years ago this happened to us up near the south shore of the angle.  Really odd, we were over 200 yards off their houses but near their path/trail.  The bomber past so close to our portables that it rolled an auger over that was laying on the ice.  I did write that resort a letter informing them of the odd behavior of their drivers.  And too wondered what their customers thought of this....

[Boar]

i hope i dont ever hear someone bashing cookie.he's  great friend, and works harder during ice season than most of us do all year long. and he truly loves what he dose.totaly understand why resorts quit posting. its to bad, some people arnt happy unless they make others miserable, its how they forget about thier own miserable state. blame it on everyone else. the more psitive u are the more positive results u get back.

[401TE]

On ‎2‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 9:54 PM, Paradice said:

I say go for it.  The moderators aren't in the tank for any one outfit are they? I'd rather hear the truth. 

Once upon a time I posted something about an irate older guy in a white chevy S10 or for ranger who chewed me and a few buddies out for setting up 75 yards away from a rental house of his.  (the house was on the tip of an obvious point in a breakline I had found on my GPS prior to driving on the lake, I was pleasantly surprised to find a spur road that went right to it.)  Shortly thereafter, I was booted from this site for a while.  It happens and both the former moderator who booted me and the person I believe was driving the white truck still post here. 

Do I blame most of the outfitters for leaving this site, nope.  However, they aren't all saints despite how they may portray themselves here. 

And no, Boar, I am not talking about Cookie.  Cookie is, and always has been, a great guy to deal with. 

Edited February 16, 2016 by 401TE

[Boar]

i knew yu wernt talking about cookie, cause cookie wouldnt do that. cookie views everyone out ther as potential.customrrs or freinds.

[Cmax]

I have no problem with the fees being raised but with those raised prices I believe they should be willing to help you. We got stuck one year out of beacons and Johnny rolled up asked if we had a road pass and when we showed it to him he plowed us out and plowed us a nice little spot off of his GPS that we caught a pile of walleyes from. He's a class act. At another resort we got stuck about 50 yard off the main road and shoveled most of our way back when a plow came rolling up and asked if we wanted him to plow the rest of the way so we said sure and after getting us on the road demanded $50. We were less than impressed