We all know that fishing pressure is at its most acute level now. Particularly on the new hot lakes, everybody wants a chance to wet a line! But we also know that too much fishing pressure really hurts the bite, as fish rapidly become educated when they see artificial lures day after day. Balancing the desire of club members to fish before summer while keeping pressure reasonable on small waters is a tough task.
I bring this up because of a recent misunderstanding I had about reservations on a new lake. I reserved two days on Dogwood West and everything looked great. A few days later, disaster: now the two days prior to my reservation were also reserved for fishing! I knew this because those days were darkened on the calendar, just like my reserved days.
What happened? Why would the club do this? Sure, I understand the need to make a reasonable return on all the investment of time and money, but it hardly seemed right that a 12 acre pond get pounded four days in a row. Heck, it was even reserved two days after our reservation, making for six consecutive fishing days!
This just didn't seem right, so I wrote PWF to protest. If people fished the two days just prior to my reservation, I'd have to cancel and reschedule when pressure was lighter. Very disappointing, to say the least.
Here's the good part: Both Seth and Steve responded quickly & immediately laid my fears to rest. Yes, the two days before and after my reservations were darkened, but that was done to protect my trip from pressure. The lake was blocked from reservations during that time so that club members wouldn't come in right after the lake was fished by someone else.
Now PWF is more than just a business, but it does have to make a profit. If it were run by folks just interested in making as much short term profit as possible, regardless of how it affected club members & pond owners, they'd let 'er rip and schedule trip after trip on top of each other during the seasonal peak of demand. PWF could make serious extra bucks, maybe six figures, by doing so.
But they haven't. Steve, Seth, and the good people at PWF have too much integrity to simply exploit club members.
Considering how much time & effort PWF puts into finding exceptional fisheries, enhancing them with modern management techniques such as selective harvest, feeding, and structure, and keeping strict limits on pressure, I am very impressed with their dedication and integrity. We really don't realize how much work it takes to keep the operation going sometimes.
Thanks again to Seth and Steve for your response to my misguided complaint. As a ten year PWF member, I can say the club is better now than it has been at any time since I joined. Keep up the good work!
PS Thanks to Dale Pybus, I will try fishing with another club member on a two-person minimum lake. This is a good way of making such lakes more affordable, plus I hope to learn a lot from his expertise!
Apr 14 2015
Frank James
Fingerling
Member Since :
2005
Number of Posts :
86
We all know that fishing pressure is at its most acute level now. Particularly on the new hot lakes, everybody wants a chance to wet a line! But we also know that too much fishing pressure really hurts the bite, as fish rapidly become educated when they see artificial lures day after day. Balancing the desire of club members to fish before summer while keeping pressure reasonable on small waters is a tough task.
I bring this up because of a recent misunderstanding I had about reservations on a new lake. I reserved two days on Dogwood West and everything looked great. A few days later, disaster: now the two days prior to my reservation were also reserved for fishing! I knew this because those days were darkened on the calendar, just like my reserved days.
What happened? Why would the club do this? Sure, I understand the need to make a reasonable return on all the investment of time and money, but it hardly seemed right that a 12 acre pond get pounded four days in a row. Heck, it was even reserved two days after our reservation, making for six consecutive fishing days!
This just didn't seem right, so I wrote PWF to protest. If people fished the two days just prior to my reservation, I'd have to cancel and reschedule when pressure was lighter. Very disappointing, to say the least.
Here's the good part: Both Seth and Steve responded quickly & immediately laid my fears to rest. Yes, the two days before and after my reservations were darkened, but that was done to protect my trip from pressure. The lake was blocked from reservations during that time so that club members wouldn't come in right after the lake was fished by someone else.
Now PWF is more than just a business, but it does have to make a profit. If it were run by folks just interested in making as much short term profit as possible, regardless of how it affected club members & pond owners, they'd let 'er rip and schedule trip after trip on top of each other during the seasonal peak of demand. PWF could make serious extra bucks, maybe six figures, by doing so.
But they haven't. Steve, Seth, and the good people at PWF have too much integrity to simply exploit club members.
Considering how much time & effort PWF puts into finding exceptional fisheries, enhancing them with modern management techniques such as selective harvest, feeding, and structure, and keeping strict limits on pressure, I am very impressed with their dedication and integrity. We really don't realize how much work it takes to keep the operation going sometimes.
Thanks again to Seth and Steve for your response to my misguided complaint. As a ten year PWF member, I can say the club is better now than it has been at any time since I joined. Keep up the good work!
PS Thanks to Dale Pybus, I will try fishing with another club member on a two-person minimum lake. This is a good way of making such lakes more affordable, plus I hope to learn a lot from his expertise!