Fishing? It was good for our group. 3 of us had 24 eyes and a pile of tulies on Saturday. We had sleds so we were a long ways from anything and when the fog was thickest, we couldn’t see shore or another fish house.
Keep in mind lotws ice season is a fair amount longer than mille lacs. 2 months longer? And not a chance you can go off what they brought in and say they make money. Resort expenses must be huge. and go on and on if people show up or not. Im sure mille lacs resorts are loving it right now as the main season is closed and they are still running full boar doing clean up.
If there was no money in them plowing roads and charging fees for said roads, they would just use bombers and haul folks out to the resort owned houses.
Not everyone only pays a $10 road pass I know places that charge 600 bucks for winter service to skids with one move, that covers maintenance….
The $600 also typically pays for the off-ice summer storage as well. I was talking with Kevin McQuoid owner of Mac’s Twin Bay a couple years ago and he explained this was the most profitable portion of their business followed by rentals. Also, the price for private house services varies depending on the size of the house.
Historically, the money was made providing private fish house services as well as the sleeper house rentals. With the somewhat recent shift to more wheelhouses, the $10 road pass is becoming less profitable as the resorts need to plow more and more roads to accommodate them all. A lot more fuel and upkeep to expand well past their old traditional roads leading to their sleeper rentals.
For some resorts, the $10 road pass might be only break even…or a net loss.
For other’s, like Chapmans…it’s a big profit driver because he only plows a limited road in Isle bay and he’s able to get out earlier in the season than all the other resorts.
It appears that the wheelhouse phenomenon really exploded this year out on Mille Lacs. 
It has been reported that Adrians on LOW made over $1MM on road fees last year. I am sure they are making money…
Adrians also has one of the biggest ice-road systems in North America and multiple resorts use it.
The ML resorts aren’t making anywhere close to that. I’d be curious what Rocky Reef makes. I think they get a huge portion of the Cities wheelhouse crowd because it’s just a nice straight shot up 169.
I bought a $60 pass from Garrison Sports and used it about 20 times this season. That’s a tremendous value. I used portables, didn’t litter, drove slow, never got stuck or needed any favors, and bought a lot of minnows, but $60 is peanuts given all the hard work and wear and tear they had to put in.
Terry is charging $15 for day passes now. I think now that the precedent is set, more will do this. I wish places would offer cheaper annual passes. $225-250 is the norm, it seems. That’s a lot for people using portables rather than wheelhouses.
Barnacles summer rate is 500 electric no a/c, 550 with, winter wheel house full service 450, that gives you a driveway when you come up. Not to mention 1500 bucks a year for rvs/ park models + electric….. They were full and people on waiting list the last two seasons. Plus they have boat slips for the season don’t remember what that costs, not cheap. They make money just count how many rv/park models at a big resort.
Season pass access summer and winter 100
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