Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Giant Goose Ranch Update

Well, we have spent the last 15 months working full bore on renovating the Giant Goose Ranch in Canton, IL. Here is an update on whats happening:

We have worked our tails off, but things are really starting to come together! We have already sold over 60 private lakefront cabins and have our first 2 rental cabins ready to go starting next week! The plan is to build 3 cabins per month for clients and hopefully add one rental cabin per month for the next 4 years...

We are in the process of adding a 300' beach, garden, mini farm, 4 miles of new roads and have 200 additional seasonal campsites and cabin lots under construction as well. Altogether when everything is done we will have 481 seasonal cabin and camping sites.

Its a massive undertaking that keeps getting bigger by the day.

Whats crazy is we are selling the lots faster than we can develop them and at this pace we will have 90% of them spoken for by about 4th of July this year!!! Thats without any advertising! Also we have sold 50 annual fishing memberships as well.

How it works is people own their own campers or we custom build them a portable cabin and they lease their lakefront lot by the year. The lease includes membership to the whole 828 acre property and all amenities. Camping leases are $1925-$2550 per year and cabin lot leases are $2500-$4000 per year.

We do all the work and people just simply come out and fish, swim, hike, golf cart ride, grill and campfire. Its alot cheaper and alot less intimidating than owning ones own property.

We have 52 lakes and ponds (the biggest one is 121 acres) and each one is being intensively managing for different species of fish: Largemouth, Smallmouth, Hybrid Stripers, Walleye, Tiger Muskie, Northern Pike, Bluegill, Crappie, Bullheads, Carp, Bowfin, Yellow Perch, Gar, Catfishes, Rainbow Trout, Brook Trout, Brown Trout, and Crappie...

We also are building 40 hatchery ponds this summer and a fish science building and are working with several universities, private corporations and the Illinois DNR on all kinds of lake and pond and fisheries research, experiments, including several endangered and oddball species of fish.

Hands on training, research, and case studies on pretty much every fish species and pond issues you can think of. Will be putting together several Pond Boss field days and who knows maybe a conference some day in the future as well... we are making plans to be able to host all kinds of various large events from family reunions, weddings, corporate events, etc etc down the road.

So anyhow I havent been on the forum much the last 15 months because literally have been working and planning about 100+ hrs a week... my brothers and I have done everything in house from planning, engineering, zoning, designing, permitting, dreaming, scheming, selling, marketing, developing, financing and constructing on top of running our other businesses, filming a full season of our tv show, and raising families.

Cant keep this pace up for much longer though, I am actually not working tomorrow and going ice fishing and looking forward to it! We just recently moved our Herman Brothers office to Goose Ranch and now have about 20 people working full time out there. Our plan was to hopefully be able to be to this point in 3-5 years, but it happened in 3-5 months!!

Our website is up and running www.giantgooseranch.com and our Goose Ranch Facebook Page has lots of recent fishing pics and updates too. And since this will be my first real ice fishing trip of the year I have a hunch there will be quite a few fish photos posted soon... or at least I can hope!!!

Anyhow there is a goose ranch update. Come on up sometime and I'll give you a tour and probably put you to work taking largemouth out of high rise lake or reducing the female bluegill population on spool lake or feeding the stripers on Ski Lake or checking the trout stomach contents on big lake.....

The map is awsom!! Pretty cool glacier lakes!! Have all the lakes had fish populations for a while?

Nice going Nate

The lakes were actually strip mined for coal in the 40's and stocked with fish in the 50's... Many of the lakes are 40-80' deep....

The big lake is 121 acres with an average depth of 46'. It's a lot of water....about 5500 acre feet.... Crystal clear water that grows trout really good!! The theme for big lake is based off of the California fisheries pumping out fat bass- lots of trout stockings and trophy bass mgmt..

The goal is to be the only midwest fishery pumping out double digit bass fairly consistently...

Congrats...looks like a great place.

Maybe a Pond Boss Conference could be held there one day.

ps: enjoyed your speech at the conference

Great plan!! So that's why your putting in so many hatchery pond?

Thanks for taking time to update us. Great job and very creative out of the box thinking!!! I suspected you and your brother were destined for greatness. You are building a fishery Disney vacationland. It will be very successful as long as it is managed well. It will be a great place to hold a PondBoss conference in the upper midwest. You guys are to be highly commended. Hard work and creative thinking does truly pay dividends.
I hope the lease contracts make a legal provision for non renewals of the Jerks and violators.

Yep mn fish we will be raising lots of fish for stocking each year.
Thanks guys and Bill for the kind words, encouragement and advice!

The lease option does allow us to maintain full control which is a lot better situation than dealing with an association or handling domestic affairs and jerks... I have never seen a well ran lake association or sportsmans club yet...

Looking great Nate, let me know a good time to come visit and I will stop by to check it out.

With the wrong lessee's policeing and legal issues may be one of the biggest headaches as the system matures. There are always bad apples with money. Choose wisely.

I had a chance to visit GGR last year before all the renovations started. Extremely impressive piece of property that had/has a huge upside. Herman Brothers saw that upside, and acted on it.

Strong work Nate, congrats.

Truly outstanding. Everything looks amazing.

Yes, OUTSTANDING!!!

That appears to be an understatement!

And it looks amazing! Congratulations, Herman brothers and family!

Only a 3.5h drive from our place! Now if I can just find the time to go… Looks amazing.

Al,
You did indeed see it from ground zero... Can't wait for y'all to visit!

Nate, we have close friends who live in Bloomington, Illinois. How far a drive is it from there? Would it be possible to lease a cabin for a week?

Very impressive work Nate. Your drive and vision combined together is amazing. Living the American dream.

We are about 1.5 hrs from Bloomington.
Cabin Rental is $1050 per week. Pond Boss Members will get 25% off any cabin rentals booked in 2015.

Incredible job Nate !!!!! Nice plan as well.

I am planning a bachelor party (for myself!) and this looks like just the place. I will be contacting you soon, no doubt.

Thanks! Sounds like a great deal.

I have 5 weeks vacation coming. Guess where I hope to spend 1 or 2 or 3 or.... of them!

Are fishing boats available for rent? Are the rental cabins waterfront?

Bill, I am getting a 2015 Lowe Stryker SS decked out and available for rent this spring along with a 16' tracker.... Both with electronics, 9.9's and front trolling motors... Cost is $125 per day or $375 per week to rent one.... The guys will move the boat to a different lake for you each day throughout the day if you'd like as well.

Chef Todd is also available to take folks on 1/2 day guide trips too if desired. His rate is $150 and he will show you the ropes .... Bruce, TJ, Sprkplg, Al, Omaha and others have fished with him in the past!!

I've been there - can't really express my initial reaction except comparing it to how a geologist must feel when they first approach the rim of the Grand Canyon: it's a Pond/Fishery management mecca. It may take a while for Nate to get the fisheries management fine tuned to where he's satisfied [lots of water to get headed in the right direction], but when he's through, I'll wager there's literally nothing comparable to it in the world. Each BOW will feature a different trophy experience - an enormous undertaking, but one I'm sure the Herman boys will master. I would not be surprised if the ranch produces IL state records of several species within the next 10 years - when the boys finally hit 30. The boys have vision and crazy energy to pull off these extreme projects. Very proud, can't wait to see what's next. Well done!