News & Updates

PWF will be hosting three fish fry, fish harvests this spring.  We invite you to join us as we begin harvesting and improving some of our current properties.  This will be a great way for our staff to meet you and also help create new fishing partners within the club.  It never hurts to have another fishing buddy! 

Contact the office to reserve your spot asap because this activity will be limited to only 20 members per outing.  A fried fish lunch will be provided as well as raffle prizes and contest prizes (most fish, smallest fish, farthest traveled).  Details are listed below.

Sites and Dates:

Sulpher Bluff Deer Trail (Timber Lake will be available to fish after 3:00 p.m.) April 17th, 2010

Cleburne Six O Ranch, May 1st, 2010

Requirements:

20 members maximum per outing

$30.00 per participant (includes all day fishing, lunch and raffle ticket)

**Member boats needed.  We will need 10 boats per outing, 2 participants per boat. **

Schedule:

9:00 a.m. - Members will meet at site

12:00 p.m. – Drop off 1^st round of fish

1:45 p.m. – Bring in 2^nd round of fish

2:00 - Lunch served

2:30 – Announcements raffles and prizes.

3:00 – Wrap up outing (participants will be allowed to fish until dark)

Things are currently looking much better in the Houston area than in recent years.  The area has received a decent amount of rainfall this winter and our tanks are benefitting from it.

Here are just a few updates to help direct you when making reservations.

Damon Live Oak Fish Farm:

Has reduced day rates to $75 per day!  The water is still a little low at this site but, there’s plenty of area to fish.  The landowner plans to add some tilapia this spring as well as fertilize the lake.  Both of these actions will improve the fishery through the summer.  They have also offered the cabin on the lake for our members to use.  We are not allowed to stay overnight but, members can use the bathroom and also take in some air conditioning while on a break from fishing the lake.

Ellington Tree Farm:

Water levels are very good at this site.  Reports lead us to believe that the bass population is currently healthy.

Humble Buckhorn Ranch:

You’ll need a boat to effectively fish this site.  Vegetation can be a problem as the weather warms up.  Get out there early this spring as conditions are currently good.

Normangee Fuehs Lake:

Just north of Houston, this site may be the sleeper of the Houston area this year.  Recent reports have been good but, this site does not get fished much.

PWF

Waco Creek is now offering our members a partial day of fishing before or after your full day reservation.  For $75.00 per person you can fish from 3:00 p.m. to dark on the day before your full day reservation or dawn to 11:00 a.m. on the day after.

Note: You must have a full day scheduled to receive the partial day offer.

If you already have reservation on the books and would like to add a partial day, please contact the club office.

PWF

We are proud to launch the release of Phase 1 of our Web-site. We hope you will enjoy the new look, feel, and functionality of our web-site. Let us first mention that this is a “work in progress” and there will be multiple tweaks and changes.  We believe that our web-site can be the best tool for us to communicate with you on a consistent basis and plan to update regularly, but we also believe in superior customer service and realize many of you still like to speak to a human. Please feel free to contact us by phone, whenever you wish. (By the way, we understand that many property descriptions are outdated, and they will be updated)
 
Please find a list of features our site offers or will be offering

• Lots and Lots of fish pictures (coming soon)
• Up to 5 property pictures per location (coming soon)
• Search properties by various criteria
• Feature property section
• On-line reservation process (coming in summer of 2010)
• Find locations by GPS coordinates (coming soon)
• Exact directions to each property from your location (coming soon)
• Interactive Location map (coming soon)

Please note if you need directions to any of our sites, please continue to use the American Fish and Game Club site at www.gtbc.com for approx another 2 weeks. In two weeks you will be able to access driving directions to all properties using both GPS coordinates and or our inner active map. We will continue to employ the static on-site property map. These maps are great and the best way to get to the lake once you arrive to the property.

Harvest, Harvest, Harvest. This will be the mantra of the upcoming year for Private Water Fishing. We'll touch on that later in this update. Let us first welcome you to Private Water Fishing's opening letter and our new look web-site. We are very excited to have you as members. We are committed to improving our current lakes, adding new sites and improving our communication with you and our landowners. Please know that we recognize we have much work to do and we are prepared to work hard at improving your experience with your club.

As of February 5th, almost half of our members have responded to the survey! I can tell you that every company in the U.S. would be thrilled to have such a response rate. We thank you for taking the time to fill out the survey and for helping us improve the club. Moreover, the surveys revealed some much needed information. We plan to be transparent with the results and will be sharing them with you over the next few months. However, we will share with you now that the overwhelming majority of members want more quality lakes. We have met with several new landowners in the last 30 days who have such lakes and we are in the "waiting period" of signing up some or all of these NEW lakes. We have also met with many of our current landowners both in person and on the phone to gauge their satisfaction. Overall, they are happy with you as members, as well as the respect you show them and their property. For that, we thank you.

There are so many new things that we will be implementing this year and the years to come, that I could write for hours. But for now, now that there are hundres of new things going on behind the scenes and you will see positive changes. I ask for your patience, as nothing happens as fast as any of us would like. My wife Keri, and Brian Hughes will be working in the office and taking reservations. They will have the privilege and responsibility of serving you and our landowners. Please feel free to contact any of us if you have any questions. I will be "on the road" visiting new and existing properties and plan to visit every existing site by the end of the year. The club will be top grading our properties over the years and again, you will see improvements. However, I also believe that we have some incredible current properties and several others that, with just a bit of management, time and money, can become premier fisheries.

Now, back to the mantra of Harvest, Harvest, Harvest. Let's define harvest for the purpose of this letter. Harvest is the removal of unwanted fish from our lakes. Simple right? It is simple but we MUST have your help. For some of you, it may feel that harvesting is not important or that it isn't your responsibility. I respectively ask that you re-consider. The removal of smaller bass from our lakes is paramount to greatly and rapidly improving our fisheries. In many cases this will be necessary but, not at all lakes. We will notify you of the sites in which we wish to implement the harvest program. DO NOT HARVEST UNLESS INSTRUCTED. Moreover, the reality is that the club cannot effectively manage the harvest of all of our 50 plus lakes instantaneously. Therefore, we are formulating our plans regarding which lakes to harvest first and how we will account for the removal of the fish. In later updates and communication, we will share with you our fish management strategies and begin proving the reulst of these strategies on certain lakes. Please help us manage our lakes and we assure you, you will see the improvement.

In the meantime, we thank you for you business and hope that you are sharing the experience of the outdoors with someone who could use and appreciate the awesome experience of fishing on private lakes.

Harvest, Harvest, Harvest!