Memories

[FM_Mike]

I have been reading and monitoring post on this board for over 2 years now and have enjoyed reading and learning from this learned group.

I have read the post on the Dead Lake issues and had to finally chime in.

First of all, I am not from the area but feel it is like my second home. I am 45 now but have been coming up to the Battle Lake area for over 34 years. My first memories of this area was as a young child who's dad took the time out to insure his 5 boys and 2 daughter would learn the joys of fishing much as he and his father had done while he was younger. We by no means were a wealthy family and my brothers and I would pick up night crawlers and sell the to get enough money for that first trip. No boat, no motor, just the family on that first vacation. This tradition has endures over many years as we have all gotten older and moved on with our lives. My fisrt vacation with my wife of 26 years was to your area. My Grandfather ( God rest his soul ) also accompanied us on many occasions. This tradition has continued over the past 30 odd years with my brothers and dad to make our pilgrimage to your wonderful area at least twice a year.

My dream has always been to retire in the area.

I to am a concerned about the ways of progress I have seen in the area, will this become another commercialized area or will the area remain a wonder in a young boys eyes as he watches his first bobber being tugged ever so gently under the water. Or the pride in your dads eyes when you hooked you first walleye and not his line . Change will always happen but controlled change will be mark of how this story will unvail. In the movie Field of Dreams, the young boy asked Kevin Costner "Is this Heaven" well, for myself and my family the Ottertail area is most certainly our little piece Heaven.

The decissions you make now will effect the roads you'll take later.

God Bless, Mike

[veximan]

Mike, that is exactly what I was getting at. Growing up, I remember how quiet the lake was and now as these lakes become more populated and developed, you don't go a day without jet skis zipping by and ski boats pulling skiers and tubers up and down sometimes a few yards away from the docks. I'm not blaming anyone specifically especially the folks from the big cities as I've been guilty of renting a jet ski once or twice.

The point is that the fisherman, the people who are carrying on perhaps a family tradition (like you Mike and the many others) who like to enjoy what their parent's taught them and to go out today and remember how it used to be is especially depressing as you sit in your rocking boat from the last jet ski that just went by cussing cause no fish are biting after being spooked.

Obvious the times are changing and I'm not for it either...but it's too bad that others aren't willing to respect the fisherman out on the lake in their little hunny hole that they've been fishing for years and maybe perhaps this same little hunny hole that was shown to them by their father or grandfather even. It's sad.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that everyone wants to enjoy the water in different ways...I'm one more geared for fishing, others tend to enjoy jet skis, tubing and wake boarding. Where do we draw the line? Obvious that we have to come to some certain compromise in sharing the lake. But each has to understand and respect the other's intentions out there.

[McGurk]

I agree with the both of you, That area had been my home and I hope to get back there (here's to sooner than later) with my wife and future family. There are more memories to be made and I would much rather have them continue as I lived them. This situation, one way or the other, will be a sign of things to come.

Smaller environmental lake lots selling for $80,000-100,000 or more seem to be the norm rather than the exception. My parents, who moved up to Ottertail county as newlyweds 30 years ago, finally purchased a lake lot last year. It seemed to be an inflated price, but at the dozens they inquired about it was the only one that seemed to fill the bill at an "acceptable" price. There are going to be more people from the evil metro areas (where I curently reside) coming up to buy lots for fishing and for hunting, thusly driving up the price of lakeshore and filling the pockets of the realtors. I'm sure there are realtors who browse this site and will take offense, but I stand behind my statement.

There can always be another direction to point the finger according to who it is pointed at, but the buyer is the one who loses in the end. I cannot afford to buy lakeshore now, and unless something completely upsets the market, I won't be able to afford any anytime soon. Call it whining, maybe it is, I don't know. Take it how you will.

Will more available-to-buy lakeshore (supply) mean less demand, and dropped prices? Not if Minnesota is attractive to other states and regions. We are cursed with a naturally beautiful state with a lot to offer (thanks to our government and overtaxation). I do not blame people for wanting to spend time up there, as I can't wait to go back myself.

Merry Christmas and wet lines, McGurk

[veximan]

I really hate to sound like I'm blaming the 'rich city people' but it is frustrating to do the stuff I enjoyed as a child these days.

Within the past 10 years or so, I've seen the deer hunting land my father, uncles and I hunted for so many years only to lose that benefit to a rich lawyer out of Fargo who would prefer to take his clients there instead. It started about 8-10 years ago when he bought up a small chunk of land...then over the next few years we saw his "Posted" signs go up and to hear that he bought and leased the majority of it. But enough of that.

My moral to the story is that I'd hate to lose any more of these things that I've gotten to know and enjoyed growing up to the same circumstances.

It would be nice to one day show my own children these same privelages as I did.

'Jealous' of the people who can afford these things? No! Because I don't want to be that those people who come in and be thought of that the way I (and many others) think of them in their loaded Navagators and Escalades pulling their $50/$60k Ski boats and jet skis there only for themselves.

How do I know this? Lets look at ND for example...

This past year was especially difficult to be a non-resident hunter there. First of all, these big city hunters go out and raise a stink about "sharing" the public hunting land so what happens? This year, all NR hunters have to wait a week to hunt unless they had private land they could get on. So what is the result of this? All the local businesses who suffer such as the hotels in these town who thrive for time of the year. Typically the opening weekend of any of the certain games (pheasant/waterfowl) had these places booked solid. After this years big change...these hotels were hardly half full. Even the farmers are discusted by this. After hearing complaints that they would rather see out-of-state hunters hunt their land. Why? Because they respect the farmer enough not to take things such as hunting there for granted, obeying laws, not trespassing and leaving their garbage.

For example, this past pheasant hunt I went on. My brother shot a rooster...it flew into a neighbooring field (which was posted) but by rights, we could go out and retrieve the bird. The owner drives by and is upset seeing us out there. He questions us and we explain to him. He later went on telling us that a few weeks earlier his cattle were in the field and these yahoo's from Fargo thought they could just walk right out and hunt his land regardless of the posted signs AND the cattle grazing right there. The cattle didn't happen to be there that day we were there, but we could tell why his defenses were a little high. So that explains to me by this one instance that these big city hunters are giving every hunter a bad name.

I know I'm venturing way off course here but I thought this would be the best comparison to bring up here in regards to this scenario.