Anglers oppose fees for Mirror Lake access

SAGLE — A group of Bonner County anglers are seeking clarity on whether use fees can be charged to access Mirror Lake.

The Idaho Department of Fish & Game has had an easement that grants public access to the lake since 1953. In exchange for the easement, Fish & Game keeps the lake stocked with kokanee and rainbow trout.

But anglers are questioning a landowner’s insistence that visitors pay “facilities fees.” Andy Carothers charges $5 per boat and $3 per ice fishermen.

“It’s just something that should have been taken care of,” angler Ed Brisboy said of the fee issue.

Carothers charges the fees to cover the use and upkeep of a privately installed dock and restroom. It also defrays the costs of insurance and property taxes Carothers has to pay.

“We do a pretty good service at no cost to the game department,” said Carothers.

But Brisboy and fellow anglers contend the lease does not enable Carothers to charge fees, prompting the group petitioned Fish & Game to settle the issue.

Fish & Game Director Virgil Moore concurred that access to the lake appears to be free of charge.

“The language of the 1953 easement and amendment is consistent with your findings — anglers are legally allowed to park on the area and have access to the lake to launch boats over the narrow strip of land owned by Carothers family, without have to a pay a fee,” Fish & Game Director Virgil Moore said in a June 11 letter in response to the anglers’ petition.

However, Moore adds in the letter that the issue is being pored over by the department’s legal counsel to verify the interpretation.

Ice fishermen contend they should not be subject to any fees since they do not utilize the dock to access the lake and don’t use the restroom, but Carothers said ice fishermen have been known to use both of the amenities.

Fish & Game records indicate Carothers proposed an easement in 1994 which sought $50,000 in exchange for a third of an acre of land and compensation for an existing building and future loss of income.

The department, however, never acted on the proposal.

Fish & Game’s Panhandle region director, Chip Corsi, said the fee issue is currently being reviewed by a deputy attorney general.