Related story from the Mille Lacs Messenger:
http://www.messagemedia.co/millelacs/news/business/article_e86e9cfc-f91d-11e2-bcb9-0019bb30f31a.html
Tough year for lake businesses
Messenger archives from the 1930s estimated there were over 100 resorts on Mille Lacs Lake.
In 1995, the Mille Lacs Area Tourism listed 42 lodging establishments on the big lake. By current Messenger count, there are 33 establishments offering public lodging coupled with Mille Lacs Lake access.
According to some area resort owners, that number is likely to drop more after the 2013 season.
“There’s going to be a bunch of resorts out of business this year,” said Greg Thomas of Gregory’s Resort on the west side. “My business is down 100 percent during the weekdays … not 80, not 90, 100 percent.”
Mille Lacs Lake refused to give up her ice until May 17, nearly a week into the open water season. Historically, opener on Mille Lacs sees thousands of boats plying its waters. In 2013, there were only a handful. The weather stayed cool and wet for much of May and early June.
According to Thomas, the lake was a month behind the norm, and the season is beyond recovery from a business standpoint. “I’m barely making enough to cover my taxes,” he said.
Thomas said a cluster of resorts on the south side of Garrison have begun combining reservations in order to put enough anglers on their launches to make a trip profitable. “I can’t take out two people in a launch,” Thomas explained. “That doesn’t even cover my fuel.”
Tim and Tina Chapman own Chapman’s Resort in Isle. Tina is also the executive director of Mille Lacs Area Tourism.
“Launch service business is definitely down,” Tina said. “People using public accesses and private launch sites are down, too. You can see that by the lack of traffic on the lake.”
According to Tina, there are multiple causes for the lack of activity. “I think in the beginning it was the weather,” she said. “Now it’s more about regulations.”
Bait shops have also been hit hard by the scarcity of anglers, and Bill Lundeen of Lundeen’s Tackle Castle in Onamia agrees with Tina’s assessment.
“The 2-inch walleye slot (18 to 20 inches) and the 2-fish bag limit are completely separate issues,” Lundeen said. “The DNR has crashed the market with this 2 and 2 deal.”
Lundeen acknowledges that the late ice out, the struggling economy, and high gas prices have all played their role in the perfect storm that resorts and local businesses are enduring, but the regulations have hit the hardest.
“It’s hard to ignore the elephant in the room,” Lundeen said. “The experiment has gone bad on them (the DNR) and I guarantee we haven’t seen the bottom of this.”
Lundeen also runs a guide service, and he said it’s hard to make sense of the current regulations. “I’ve had more 28-inchers caught in my boat this year than I have under 18 inches,” Lundeen said. “We’re able to keep about 1 in 13 fish. It’s just stupid.”
On the west side, Thomas said the numbers were worse. “I went out last night with a group and we got 25 walleyes,” Thomas said. “They got to keep one 18-incher. That’s it.”
Thomas said on the average he’s keeping 1 in 20 fish on his launches. He’s losing long-time customers, and he says he knows where they are going.
“I’ve had a crew coming up from Missouri for the past five years, and last week they called to cancel,” Thomas said. “They said they were going to Leech Lake. They said they wanted to eat some fish and they know they can’t do that here. I almost cried.”
Thomas said that one cancellation alone cost his business over $2,500, and it’s just one of many. “I’m already down about $60,000 this year,” he said. “I don’t know how I’m going to make my truck payment this winter.”
Rod Scott of Rod’s Bait and tackle in Isle has also seen a lot of his customer base heading north. “My business is down a lot, maybe 25 percent,” Scott said. “A lot of my customers are headed to Leech or Red because they can’t catch any fish they can keep on Mille Lacs. They say that if they can’t even catch enough walleye to make a meal, they’ll go somewhere they can.”
Scott also places a lion’s share of the blame on the DNR. “You can’t protect all the big fish in the lake for years and expect the small fish to thrive,” he said. “That just doesn’t work.”
George Nitti of Nitti’s Hunters Point Resort on the east side had a particularly rough start this year. The last of the lake ice pushed into his launch area effectively shutting down his business for the first two weekends of the season.
“We couldn’t get out,” Nitti said. “We had a lot of cancellations, and we had to cancel a tournament.”
Nitti said his business has since done OK during the weekends. “Our weekday business has been almost non-existent through June and part of July,” Nitti said. “Weekdays have been horrible.”
Nitti said high gas prices and restricted slot and bag limits have compounded the problem. Ironically, the upturn in the economy has also hurt business, according to Nitti. “A lot of these guys work construction, and now they want to work more than they want to fish,” he said. “They’re finally working, and they don’t want to take the time off.”
Tina Chapman expanded on the point. “The people who are coming up are spending less on extra stuff,” she said. “They still want to go on vacation, but they’re not going out to eat out as much, not shopping as much. They’re saving their money and bringing their stuff with them.”
HOT
. I remember when I could make a day of it for $20 and bring home some fish for dinner..not anymore, forget that..times change and unfortuantely I think if your in the fishin and recreation business up there your on the short end of the stick and unless your a good business person your gonna be history, you can blame the DNR, Natives, politicians, the man on the moon all you want but money talks and you guys are not in the mix right now. I will continue to come up for the day though maybe once or twice a season.
