Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Giant Goose Ranch Fishing and Camping!

My brothers and I are super excited about operating and renovating the Giant Goose Ranch in Canton, Illinois! We purchased the 828 acre property this fall and have been brainstorming/planning like crazy for managing the campground, fishing lakes, and hunting club for 2014! (and beyond)...


There are 52 lakes and ponds on the property with the biggest being 121 acres and over 80' deep! We already have specific and very intensive management plans for each and every lake and pond on the property! My goal is to turn these lakes into the best multi-species fishing lakes in the Nation! The lakes and ponds are super diverse with some really deep extra clear water lakes, shallow fertile ponds, and everything in between to have a place for pretty much every species of freshwater fish in the US!! Im talkin big fish of over 10 different species.

We have awesome fish here already, but are also creating specialty lakes for the "other" species like smallmouth bass, tiger muskie, brown trout, brook trout, rainbow trout, hybrid striped bass, blue catfish, northern pike, walleye, bowfin, alligator gar, longear sunfish, redbreasted sunfish, pumkinseeds, rock bass, and several other out of the ordinary species of fish....

Here are a couple pics from ice fishing at the ranch this winter. We have been ice fishing at the ranch alot!



This sounds crazy, but owning a campground is actually dream come true!! We have been working for many campgrounds and fishing clubs across the midwest and taking bits and pieces from every single one of them!! Now we have been working around the clock, every spare moment getting this massive project rockin and rollin!

Here is a little aerial video tour of the property:


The existing campground has 240 campsites with water, septic, and electric. These campsites lease out by the year. Most of the sites are already full, but we have a handful of the original sites still available! Make sure to pick out your families spot before they are all gone.

Here are some pics of the campground portion of the property.. Most of the campsites are lakefront:


Photo: Most of you know Kathy and I have a camper and cabin at the Giant Goose Ranch. You may not know I am the administrator of the camp group page on FB. If any of you would like to join the group and check it out, just let me know or go to Giant Goose Ranch Canton.Il. and ask to join. We have over 300 members now and I'm very proud of it. All are welcome...


We are also planning on adding a cabin area along spool lake...only cabins will be allowed in this zone, so if camping isnt for you, let us build you a sweet camping cabin! Here is a pick of the cabin area and also a couple sample pics of what the cabins would look like:




Also we are adding a new entrance off of route 9 (just 3 directly miles west of Canton) and creating a motor home only zone along the north side of ski lake! Ski lake is over 1.25 miles long and is crystal clear with 62' deep water!! We are planning on putting in a huge beach on the west end of ski lake!

These motor home sites will be awesome! We have them all mapped out and ready for the motor home gurus to start picking them out and offering feedback for how they would want them to be.
Here is the motor home zone. The sites will be developed along the lake and an orchard is going in the field.


This property has about 250 acres of water, 450 acres of timber, and 130 acres of tillable land. The lakes vary in size from 1/2 acre pot holes, numerous 5-10 acre ponds, several 10-30 acre lakes and one giant 121 acre lake that is 2.5 miles long! Many of the lakes are over 60' deep and the big lake is 80' deep.... thats alot of water... Here are some pics of some of the lakes:






So anyhow this is kinda a career changing endeavour for me and my brothers. We still plan on working on lakes and ponds and food plots and building houses, etc. but this goose ranch project is a culmination of everything we have learned and experienced to date. We are beyond excited!

Our mission is to glorify God and our vision is for this property to become an avenue for central Illinois families to spend time together outdoors fishing, swimming, hiking, hunting, shooting, exploring, camping, and cookin smores relaxing by the fire... You can find out more about the property at www.giantgooseranch.com and definitely get in touch with us to go for a tour! Our family is very excited to share this amazing property with you and your family!


2 comments:

  1. WOW! What a place! Very exciting!
    Are you considering short-term (aka "tent") camping areas, where maybe buddies or families can come in, camp and fish for a day, weekend, week, whatever?

    Bowfin & Alligator Gar? How cool is that?? Sign me up! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. We are a group of volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community. Your blog provided us valuable information to work on. You have done a marvelous job!
    camping and fishing

    ReplyDelete