Why doesn't the IGL have sleeper shacks & Ice Roads?

[Agronomist_at_IA]

Why is it that at the Iowa Great Lakes their isn't an outfit that rents sleeper shacks?

With the amount of people that fish the Iowa Great Lakes, and the lack of decent size bodies of water in Iowa It seems to me that there is a demand for one of these bait shops or a Guide to put out a couple of sleeper shacks out. Anyone have any opinions on why nobody does it? Would it be due to the ice thickness varability due to snow and temperatures keeping the window for sleepers to small?

Just some simple figures....Sleeper shack at $6000 charge $300 a night 20days it is paid for the rest would be profit. The first year if things were good a person could make around $7000 a shack. The next year when the shack is paid for you could make $14,000 a shack. I would think that with a very limited supply of a sleeper shack being avalible one could charge $300 a night ($75 a person if $ go) & people would more then likely fill up the week days due to avalible times. Heck 2 maybe 3 shacks would be about perfect. If it worked well, a guy could make $42,000 just messing with three Ice Shacks after the first year.  

Has far as the roads go, if you needed to plow roads to the sleeper shacks you put out, charge for a trail pass at the bait shop. If people pay fine if they don't o well.  At least you could get a little revenue from the trail that you needed to plow to help out with fuel cost to get to the sleeper shack.

[CrappieBuster]

If your running a business like that you basically need to be on call 24/7.  And if you dont own land on the lake how are you gonna have a private road?  Empty lots on spirit even run 3-400,000.  Throw in about 6 ice castles and ur looking at a 1/2 a million startup cost.  Good plow truck with a fabbed red lake style vee plow thats another 20 grand.  100s of dollars of diesel a day.  Whew I needa win the lottery.

Whatd be an even better idea is opening a bar on the ice with brass poles and the whole shabang.  Buy 5 beers get a free scoop of minnows.
Rent out some women from the local clubs and youd have yourself an ice fishermans paradise!

[bassrat]

Whatd be an even better idea is opening a bar on the ice with brass poles and the whole shabang.  Buy 5 beers get a free scoop of minnows.
Rent out some women from the local clubs and youd have yourself an ice fishermans paradise!

YOU SIR ARE A GENIUS!!! and I for one am PROUD to call you an IOWAN!!!   

[Agronomist_at_IA]

If your running a business like that you basically need to be on call 24/7.  And if you dont own land on the lake how are you gonna have a private road?  Empty lots on spirit even run 3-400,000.  Throw in about 6 ice castles and ur looking at a 1/2 a million startup cost.  Good plow truck with a fabbed red lake style vee plow thats another 20 grand.  100s of dollars of diesel a day.  Whew I needa win the lottery.

Whatd be an even better idea is opening a bar on the ice with brass poles and the whole shabang.  Buy 5 beers get a free scoop of minnows.
Rent out some women from the local clubs and youd have yourself an ice fishermans paradise!

I'm not saying you'd have to have a private road. Just plow from the public ramp to the shack if needed. If people donate or buy a pass great if they don't o well. I would think a guy could find around 2-3 decent sleeper shacks for around $7,000 each. So I would think for around $20,000-25,000 a guy could get around 3 good shacks. Now, I'm not talking going to the extent of something like at Upper Red where they basicly have roads & streets that they maintain. Just something more like sportsmans cove does outta Waubay. http://thesportsmanscove.net/Fishing/tabid/2097/Default.aspx they don't have extensive roads just a path plowed to the sleeper. I've rented a sleeper at Waubay, and would love to do something like this at the IGL. I'm really suprise that one of the bait shops at the IGL doesn't run one or two sleepers like sportsmans cove. Heck When we rented the sleeper from sportsmans cove the guy never even was at the lake or sleeper. Just gave us his number and told us if there was a problem to call him.

[IAEYE]

I have one sleeper on Clear Lake for rent and If I could service Boji I would maybe some day I'll move over and I'll put a couple out there.   

[Perkeyone]

Heated brass poles 

[blufloyd]

Won't the little thermometers deflate if around heat?

There are times I don't think about fishing.

[esox_magnum]

Lots of other expenses other than just buying the house, propane, another employee to either run the shacks or the store, having the time to be on the fish means fishing. Or I could put a couple out randomly and charge you $300 a weekend or whatever and then get complaints theres no fish then after a couple seasons I'm stuck with 2-3 shacks nobody wants to rent. Oh yea plus I would have to buy a truck with a plow and find storage for them in the summer, insurance premiums on the houses, truck and occupants, upkeep on the houses ect.... all adds up pretty fast.  Most places that do it up north are resort ran an maintained and I'll bet without the road fee's wouldn't make it on house rental alone.  Guessing any biat shops in the IGL area dont have the time or money to invest to do this and none of the resorts cater to the fishermen as their main sourse of income. Just basic guide insurance in Iowa last I checke was $800 a year, guessing it's alot higher for an outfitting gig.

  I'm sure if someone had the time and money to burn you could make a go of it here but I'd bet you wouldn't see a profit for several years at least, by then it's time to replace houses.

[MidnightRambler]

On top of all the expenses other people have noted, the IGLs are the "Iowa" Great Lakes. They are in the coldest corner of Iowa, but in a warm winter all that investment--houses, plow, insurance, property taxes--will go to waste if you can't put the houses on the lake for only three or four weeks.

Exceptionally warm winters put a hurt on resorts in northern Minnesota. A 2006-7 type of winter would be that much worse for an investor on the IGLs, where the ice season is always going to be a few weeks shorter, and therefore less profitable.

[esox_magnum]

Good point be Jan at the earliest to even get them out and be off late Feb so you have 5 weeks or so is all.

[IAEYE]

So what are we catching on IGL's?

[CrappieBuster]

Heated brass poles

[esox_magnum]

So what are we catching on IGL's?

 Fish

[IAEYE]

Thanks!

[codewordcs1]

I think the heated poles would be the deal maker. I'm in 

[MelroseHawkins]

I'm going to venture to say that insurance premiums would kill someone thinking of putting a couple out. The resorts in Minny can absorb that because they already have insurance for the resort & they can include the shacks in the resort policy.

It's getting more difficult every year to even rent a boat.  They are getting killed by premiums. I was looking at a marina on Lake Pepin & came across a page on the site. I brought the boat rental page up & what came up in flashing capital red letters was something like "We can no longer offer boat rental due to the outrageous insurance premiums we are being charged ...."  The message was even more bitter than that & you could just hear the animosity in the owners voice.  He than had a message that said due to this they are going to sell their fleet of rental boats & gave a link to click on to see the boats/slips etc. for sale.  This was last spring.

[Chickenfarmer]

Having just moved to Clear Lake from the IGL region, I personally dont think the fishing there is that great. My wife and I fished Big Spirit hundreds of times and I thought this past year was terrible. 2 years ago everyone just slaughtered the Perch. This year they were hard to find, with no size. The majority of the Walleye are slot fish. With 3 being the limit, and the small Perch, I am not so sure someone could sustain a profit there. And oh yes, that land around the lake, VERY EXPENSIVE.  The wind blows non-stop daily in that part of the state, they would be re-opening ice roads constantly.