My brothers and I are starting a new project. We purchased an 828 acre property with 300 acres of water and are turning that place into the Midwests' Premier Fishing, Hunting, Camping, and Family Recreation area....
The existing campground is 240 seasonal lakefront campsites with electric, water, septic...
Then we are adding 160 cabin lakefront sites also leased by the year.. the cabins will be apprx 14x24 on skids... Here is a photo of the future cabins area..
All of that development is taking place on the top 300 acres of land and the bottom 528 acres will be trails and fishing during the summer then hunter education/training, youth pheasant and youth waterfowl in the winter...
Fish Mgmt stuff will be cutting edge with many specialty research ponds with fish like alligator gar, bowfin, brown trout, redbreasted sunfish, paddlefish, sturgeon, etc etc...
I have 40 smaller lakes and ponds for this type of thing. Dont worry there will be plenty of bluegill, bass, rainbows, perch, smallmouth, stripers, catfish, crappie, etc etc etc too...
The big lake is 121 acres with 70' depths, crystal clear water and lake weeds down to 36' deep on the bottom...
So anyhow, this is a dream come true, but a huge undertaking. I know we can pull it off and personally invite any and all of yall to come and help at anytime...there will be neverending fishwork to be done here...
The place is called the giant goose ranch and has 15 existing deluxe waterfowl pits... what is also crazy is it is only 7 miles from our existing property near Canton, IL... I hope to have a website up and running for it by the end of this year.
Can you adopt me?
Unbelievable Nate good luck!!!!!
Nate,
Congratulations. That is huge!!!! Will you be building all 160 lake front cabins or does the customer by the lot and build their own? If you lease a cabin for a year, can you fish or hunt all you want on all the water or do you manage the reservations/pressure?
It takes great guts to do something like this. With great risk often comes great rewards. I have a ton of confidence that you will be greatly rewarded. Guys like you that have built other successful business's will make this a real showplace.
Steve Alexander
That's a dream come true!
Was that a strip mine property of some sort?
Awesome Nate and family...AWESOME!!!
I am young at heart and have a Browning Maxus that hasn't shot enough geese yet this year.
Congrats Nate would love to take a tour of the place sometime.
Steve,
We will be building all the cabins and keeping control of pretty much everything... Fishing is included, but hunting is not.
Wow,what a amazing piece of ground you have there.Congratulations and best of luck to you.
This is simply unbelievable! Good luck guys, wish I lived closer!
I love the cabin idea...we're toying with adding a couple more here, since we really liked the 14' x 20' that my parents had brought in this week.
If anyone can make it work, it's your family. I can't wait to see what kind of awesome things come of your purchase and hard work... I am sure you will keep us posted on the progress on here.
You guys know how to live large. Congrats...
Pretty cool Nate!
I was down toward that direction early last week and was surprised by how many really large ponds there were.
That's a pretty cool cabin spark!
There is an Amish place up here that you can get really nice cabins at a reasonable price. They'll deliver and set them in place for free. You have to prep the area tho. Stupid zoning won't let me put one in unless I have a house on the property. That rule needs to be fixed!
Absolutely COOL! The only problem I can see is that it must be hard to put in a days work with all that water wanting to be fished. Best of luck. CMM
Congrats and a beautiful place. The planning process will be huge and think deeply about all aspects. Going to be a great journey for all of us.
Whoa, amazing! When you're up and running I will pitch this for our next family reunion. There are a lot of us...
Bobby, those were all strip mined lakes... 4 lakes on the property are over 55' deep!!
Spark, its amazing what you can do with a 14x20!!!
Definitely everything we have ever experienced as a family comes into play on this project... It is hard to stay focused with so many distractions...
Bocomo, the first few years the focus is on the seasonal campsites and seasonal cabin leases... Then longterm we have plans for a lodge on the big lake that will sleep 120 and 25 big cabins....that's when your family reunion will be there!! Same with the pond boss conference, etc...
That is Awesome...how do you have the time? Any idea on a VIP type lake , maybe pay extra but limit the fishing pressure and manage extensive. Wish I lived closer but would plan a visit if there's anything like your home lake or otter creek. Best of luck, look forward to checking out the website in the next few months.
Nate, are you thinking long term rentals(annual), weekend campers, or both as far as the campground goes? In the early days our old campground was weekenders, but ended up strictly site lease on an annual basis.
As of right now the plan is all annual leases for cabins and campsites... We would only do weekenders if we have to for awhile...
As of right now the plan is all annual leases for cabins and campsites... We would only do weekenders if we have to for awhile...
My experiences tell me that's a wise decision!
Beast man,
I have given much thought to the fisheries and the specialty/research ponds that we kill out and start over from scratch will not be available for open or unguided fishing... All of the big lakes will have specific mgmt plans that will utilize the anglers as mgmt tools... For example for the 25 acre ski lake the goal is to remove every largemouth bass for 2014, but to release all other fish in the lake... Then 2015 I will stock hybrid striped bass and keep the war against the LMB ongoing but open up harvest on panfish again...
The lakes will all receive heavy fishing pressure but I plan on still having them be world class fishing with lots of harvest opportunities... Basically the mgmt focus is to get the most out of all the lakes as humanly possible and creating evolving mgmt plans to utilize the angling pressure as an assett...
A water theme park with a few wet-n-wild rides would be a nice touch.
Congratulations, Herman Brothers!
I'm like a little kid right now thinking about all the opportunities.
One thing is absolutely certain...This resort will stand out amongst all others in the world. It will take things to a whole new level.
Amazing opportunity - no doubt you will knock it out of the park.
I think it would be an awesome place for PB conventions - and our annual ice fishing tournament, too!
If you need an onsite pond manager, you have my number.
Nate
Curious as to what the plan is for the tillable acres? Going to keep them tillable and work on some food and cover for deer?
Maybe its time for me to retire, need a site manager?
Nate:
Congrats! That's a huge undertaking, but I have faith in that it will be a world class operation. I hope the property wasn't damaged by yesterdays storms.
Wow!!! Amazing!! I knew you guys were purchasing a campground property, but I had no idea the magnitude and potential!! No wonder it is all Justin could think about last time I saw him!! I'm so excited for you guys!!
The tillable will be farmed for this upcoming season, but every year will be slowly converted to development, plots, habitat.. Etc
So thrilled for you guys! And excited as all get out to see what you do with it!
Incredible, Nate! Best of luck to you guys on this awesome endeavor!
Was at the zoning office today and we are pretty much good to go for the cabins and campground expansion. We are about 1 mile outside the city limits of Canton so our zoning stuff should be a breeze...
I hope to have the website up in a month! I will post it here once its up!
oh yeah Sue, not only was he distracted in Nebraska, he has been distracted ever since!! In terms of aeration, we will need to talk...
Our new website is live...
www.giantgooseranch.comOnly the homepage is currently done (not done, but just live).. you can push all the other buttons to your hearts content, but only the home page will appear....
Still need to update some pics, etc...
nate, who does the webpage stuff for ya? Looking good so far!
My friend Tom haas. He does a great job.
Website looks great! Can't wait to have a gathering there!! I'll be happy to layout your aeration ~ are you going to map out the lakes?
Nate you have lots of potential and endless possibilities there. Start a list of things to do and see if it will fit in one notebook. Overwhelming opportunity !
Eric, the list doesnt fit on a computer notebook..... but the good thing is if the good Lords willing and the creek don't rise we will have the rest of our lives to work on the list!
The list will change a thousand times -- and that is how it should be.
Be sure to post a few of the list items for all to ponder !
Congrats Nate! I'm sure it will be very successful!
I just found this thread today. Musta been asleep. Congratulations Nate this sounds like a great opportunity. You guys have earned it.
I got to tour the new property this weekend, and pics can't do it justice. Absolutely gorgeous property, and the potential is mind mending. I've never seen so much untapped potential.
Nate and the crew will turn this in to a destination place for sure.
Well done on the marketing materials. Do I still get to manage the 53rd pond?
Well done Nate...which one gets Hudland SMB?
HighRise Lake gets Hudland SMB! and Esshup spring has sprung here, I am going mushroom hunting and crappie fishing tomorrow.
Dang!
Nate, I went to the rifle range today and that was a wasted trip. The snow was so deep that I couldn't see the yardage markers, and the only targets that I could see over the top of the snow was the 600 and 1,000 yd targets.
Shove some of that warm weather to Mark - his septic is froze.
Nate
If spring was sprung someone needs to tell my pond it is 0 degrees right now and the hole over the shallow water aerator is only 2' in diameter. Most of the winter the area kept open was 40' in diameter. Since last weeks snow storm and the cold since the hole has gotten smaller and smaller. Hoping the coming warming trend makes the hole larger.
I saw the video on FB.
Always pushing the envelope!!! OUTSTANDING!!!
