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Anglers like convenience of Warren County fishing club

Waterscape has 3 lakes, a campground and a hiking trail on 100 acres in Carlisle.

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By Jim Morris, Staff Writer Updated 8:33 AM Thursday, April 30, 2009

CARLISLE — In 1991, Al Horstman was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Doctors gave him six months to live.

Now, about 18 years later, the 75-year-old Horstman is feeling fine and is busier than ever developing and operating the Waterscape Sport Fishing Club in Warren County.

“I really wasn’t a fisherman,” Horstman said. “I was into real-estate development. I designed a golf course in Michigan and built some indoor-outdoor tennis facilities in Toledo, so I guess that’s what’s behind developing this property here.”

Waterscape, which is inside the Carlisle city limits, covers about 100 acres with 80 percent of it water. There are three lakes, stream-fed former gravel pits. The depths vary, but one is at least 70 feet deep.

The private fishing club has 80 members, and Horstman said he’d like to grow that to 100 members and establish a waiting list. Members can bring their own boats or use pontoons Horstman built. Only electric motors are allowed.

While Horstman, a Kettering resident, was fighting cancer, he was designing and building the fishing club on the former gravel pit land he purchased in 1991. It was pretty much all dirt and sand, but he planted numerous trees, and now the lakes are lined with trees and shrubs. The club opened in 1993.

He also started stocking fish and continues to do so annually. Bass fishing — for largemouth and smallmouth — is especially good, but there are also plenty of crappie, bluegill, walleye, saugeye, stripers, channel cats and even some muskies, all stocked from private hatcheries in Cincinnati and Pennsylvania. About $4,000 per year is spent on stocking.

“I have fished Caesars Creek, Indian Lake and some others, and I often get skunked, but I always catch fish here,” said Alan Pittman of Dayton, a Waterscape member. “I can leave work at 5 to 5:30 and be on the water in less than 30 minutes.”

The club also has a primitive campground for members who want to spend a few days. And since it is located inside a city, there are plenty of amenities only a few minutes away. Even though the club is located on Ohio 123, no traffic noise can be heard around the lakes, at the shelter house, campground or on the hiking trail.

Horstman stresses that Waterscape is not a pay lake. It is gated and fenced, and has 24-hour security. It does not accept daily fishermen like a pay lake.

Memberships include initiation fees, annual dues, dock rental and a one-time club watercraft-use fee. Prices vary, depending on what time of the year a person joins. Members are allowed to bring guests.

Horstman, who grew up in Dayton and graduated from Chaminade and the University of Dayton, served as a Marine Corps pilot from the end of the Korean War into the early stages of the Vietnam War.

“I guess some of that Marine mentality hasn’t worn off, because I still put in a lot of time here. There have been a lot of 15- to 18-hour days,” he said. “But I am proud of what we have accomplished.”

For more information about Waterscape, call (937) 271-3735.

Contact this reporter at  (937) 225-2409 or jmorris @DaytonDailyNews.com.

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