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By Mike Barnett
Editor
After reading about a business that offered to manage fishing income opportunities for private landowners in the Aug. 1, 2003 edition of Texas Agriculture, Patti Seeley decided to test the waters.
Working with Derek Stratton, former manager and new owner of the Great American Bass Club (now renamed the American Fish & Game Club), Seeley decided to turn her beautiful farm pond located near Crockett into an income producing asset.
This agricultural entrepreneur hasn't regretted the decision.
"I saw the article two years ago," Seeley says. "I thought that's something I would like to do. So I called Derek up and he came up, fished that day. He signed me up."
Working with the American Fish & Game Club (AFG) is seamless, she says.
"I don't do anything," Seeley admits. "It's delightful. It's a growing source of income. It's easily quadrupled from last year."
Here's how the concept works. AFG leases access to private lakes and ponds throughout Texas, and markets to its 600 members. Club members have a directory listing of all the sites and maps on how to get there. Members will find a site they want to fish, and call the office. They are given a reservation number, the gate code and go to the site to fish. The club gives the landowner a call in advance to let them know who's fishing, collects the money, and at the end of the month a check is cut for the landowners. Most fishing sites run $25 for half a day and $45 for a full day.
Finding the concept worked so well for the landowner and the club, Strat-ton has branched into hunting income opportunities for landowners.
Seeley is eager to try this as well. Realizing the limitations for hunting on her 124 acre place, she's not sure quite what to expect.
"I would like bow hunting or shotgun hunting, close range. We have hogs here, we have deer," she says.
For a small place like Seeley's, Stratton expects to charge a day fee access for feral hogs.
"There's plenty of them here, and they're a nuisance anyway," he says.
A strategy for deer hunting on Seeley's place may be to lease to one person, let him shoot one deer, and "that would be it," Stratton says.
Letting a private entity manage the hunting and fishing on her land has its advantages, Seeley says.
First, it produces income where no income was produced before. Second, the club helps her actively manage her lake to bring it to its best potential. And third, it takes the pressure off her when strangers come up and ask to hunt or fish the property.
"In some ways, it's just made it easier on me as a landowner," Seeley says. I have people who just stop in and want to fish. And it's really hard to say no to them. You just feel like a jerk. But it's so much easier to say the lake's leased, I can't."
"Most of our landowners love that," Stratton adds. "We put signs out by the gate that have their name on it, have our 800 numbers, it says, `Members Only.' That way landowners can point to the sign and say, `I have it leased to the club. You call them if you want to fish.'"
Stratton, who just recently started the hunting option, is eager to further develop it. He says a little less than half of his 600 members actively spend money on hunting, so it was a logical step to offer that service.
"We had the landowners and the members right here," he says.
The club is very flexible on working with the landowners in finding the right way to lease their land. For example, many property owners have their land privately leased for deer hunting. But many of them aren't looking at all of their hunting opportunities. That's where Stratton can help.
"We have a landowner in San Saba that has had his place leased for deer hunting for the last 10 years. But he hasn't really been taking advantage of the dove at all," Stratton says. "He's transitioned with us this next year. It's such beautiful property we're going to be able to keep him full of dove hunters."
Flexibility is the key— "whatever the landowner can benefit most from," he adds. "If we can get someone to lease it for the season, we'll do that. Day hunting, we'll do that. Or it could be a combination of the two."
Hunting fees depend on the game management of the operation. Duck is anywhere from $35 to $150 per day. Deer, anywhere from a $50 to $150 fee and then a kill fee of around $100 per point, average.
"We work with each landowner to set fees, depending on the potential," Stratton says. "It's going to vary from site to site. It's going to vary on the management."
Seeley says she's had nothing but good experiences with AFG members, noting that problems such as leaving gates open or trashing her property don't exist. Stratton attributes that to a great membership.
"Our members pay yearly dues to be part of the club," he explains. "And then they pay an access fee every time they access property. And our fishing is catch and release. You add all of that together and it attracts a high quality person—a sportsman who's out there enjoying the land.
"We started this in 1997 and we've only had one gate left open where cows have got out. That's about eight years of doing business. I think that's just amazing."
For more information on AFG call Stratton at 888-303-4822 or visit their website at www.gtbc.com.
