would like to know if this is legal? frustrating that a resort would do this to force people to pay access fee on a public lake! I have spent many days on the water and drilled hunderds of holes and know where the main cracks are as well montering any new ones that pop up. I trust my life on what i know not some toothless wonder @ the resort i wont name
I don't think its illegal. It isn't right for a resort to do that, but I can also see their frustration when someone drives out of the public access and jumps onto a road that they plowed. I know I have the right to do that, but I choose to pay them for their service or take my snowmobile and go wherever I want.
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Humana Insurance Representative-Brainerd and Mille Lacs Area
I perfer to pay the resorts for their hard work in keeping the roads open and safe for their customers. They spend a lot of time and energy maintainiing their road systems. In addition, they provide help for vehicles who get stuck or have other issues. It seems a small price to pay for services rendered.
If you decide not to pay for the service don't use the roads.
hey guys thanks for your replies. Its not that i dont pay and use the roads. BUT with the no snow conditions and the economy saving a couple a bucks helps out alot. im not saying that its for everybody but plowing the access closed to force you to go thru the resort is bullship and im not using there road the only thing its doing for me creatlng a bank for me to cross and hopfully not get stuck in !!
Is the access plowed shut or somewhere in front of it on the lake. Last I checked, the DNR does not plow roads from public access' but rather just the access parking gets cleared. I always revert back to what I have read so many times, about how the resort doesn't own the lake , so I can drive on their plowed roads, if I can get to them well... as far as I am concerned, that can go both ways then.
yes the malmo public acess is plowed closed, it is obvious that a truck with chains and v- plow pushed the snow up aginst the acess preventing anyone from entering the lake
Basically, you can drive anywhere out on the lake you want to fish with the following exceptions; where there was rough ice, the snow has drifted in pretty bad, where the plows have made a berm, where there is unmarked cracks and/or thin ice and where there was a banked house that has moved.
Make sure you have a shovel, a cell phone in a waterproof case, and drive slow and get ready to bail out if the vehicle starts to go down.
We live in Malmo Bay south of the public access and in past years the county plows have plowed the access ramp shut....
Perhaps they were trying to keep folks off the ramp and unsafe ice earlier this season. I doubt that resorts has time to 'go looking for more snow to plow'.
The nearest resort is Steve at Castaways ( our neighbor) and he does not have time to do that....
I got stuck at the Malmo public access a couple of weeks ago. I look at it as it is what it is. I've been out of work for over a year. I have paid the first few times I went out. I'm not bitter, but it does suck. I understand the resorts are hurtin with the year we are having, and I try to support what I can afford. I just cant afford it everytime out.
The little bit I get up there in the winter, I have no problem paying the resort (Red Door) a small fee to use their roads. They put alot of time and money into keeping them safe and in tip top shape. If you do it a lot, I can see that adding up.
I would hope and dream that the State plows every "public" access up (un-usable) come April if we have the snow...
Wow, my sincere apology Todd. That does sound like a resort plow job.I did not know that the snow was plowed shut from the lake or ramp side.
Wierd.
I remember from a previous ice fishing season, that someone had plowed and piled up snow from the 'park' access road side -- right at the mouth of public ramp. We had believed it was the county snow plow working Hwy 18 or Hwy 47.
I just had to log in on this one. After 40 years on the lake I have a lot of respect for the resort owners that maintain the road systems. I know "they don't own the lake" but they do spend hundreds of dollars plowing & maintaining the road systems. For anyone to be so cheap to enter on an access & then use the roads the rest of us pay for is just crap. If you enter on an access stay off the roads. I'm not talking about snowmobiles or ATV's, they don't need the roads. For the luxury of driving my truck I am more than willing to pay for it. The resorts will also be there for you if you get in trouble & need help. If you didn't pay don't ask for help. This whole subject shouldn't even be up for discussion. The proper answer is obvious.
The question wasn’t weather on not people were entering on the public access and then using the roads.The problem was that someone plowed the access closed from the lake side.I agree that you shouldn’t use the roads if you don’t pay, no question asked.But if someone is caught plowing the PUBLIC access closed they should receive a HUGE fine.And if that person is working for a resort at the time the resort should also receive an equal fine.As well everyone should know which resort that is.I would never patronize that business again.This should be illegal, they have no right to do anything to the public access.Period end of dissicion.
I'd like to mention I gladly paid for a road pass twice while using my four wheeler. Like I said I try to support the resorts the best I can. I don't want to see them lose their business to the other side!
I grew up on Mille Lacs in Malmo Bay. We have been there since 1954! YET, I am still surprised that some one plowed an access (Malmo rasmp) shut?!
That is the part that is hard to understand -- Especially since there are no resorts that are really near to that public luanch/access. Barnacles and Castaways are both a long way off.
I always pay for my road pass at Castaway's (our neighbor Steve) or at Fishers's Resort (Greg and now Dean). Lately, I have been fishing out of Hunter's Point - so George Niotti gets my road pass money most days and at the perch Extravaganza. Plus a great place to hang out!
I am glad to pay for my lake / road access as I know how much work goes into scouting and maintain those ice roads in every season.
Who would plow Malmo shut is a mystery to me! It sucks.
