A Family Farm Turned Fan Favorite!

How Matt Graham Started Offering Fishing On LandTrust.com

As summer begins, fishing on LandTrust.com is heating up. I recently sat down with a long-time LandTrust landowner to discuss how he began offering sportsmen access to fish on his property in Eagleville, Missouri.

Matt Graham was thrilled to tell me about Graham Farms. “It has been in my family since 1886. My great-great-grandfather started the farm, and my great-great-great-grandfather is buried here in the family plot.” Immediately, I could tell the interview was going to be about more than pond fishing. It was going to be about a piece of land that was special to his family, one that he is very proud to share with sportsmen now.

The Graham Farm is, and always has been, a family affair. Matt jubilantly spoke of all the “after school and weekend work” he had performed on the farm alongside his father growing up. “That's what we did on the weekends, we drove down to the farm and worked.” Matt has come full circle, from growing up near the farm and putting in childhood sweat equity, to living throughout the US for work, before returning to Graham Farms where he resides now.

Graham Farms is still a family operation. Matt leases the home place from his father and raises Angus, Shorthorn, and Wagyu crosses to market as meat. Matt and his sons enjoy actively managing the nine ponds on their farm and watching the species and fish size progress.

            Matt's Son

Matt stumbled upon LandTrust through an investor group and immediately thought that LandTrust’s goals aligned with his family's goals for the property. The deer hunting rights were already leased out, but Matt dipped his toe in the proverbial LandTrust pond with turkey hunting. Turkeys were prevalent and an early booking highlight, but Graham Farms shined brighter when Matt listed pond fishing for bass. Here are just a few of the many successful outings at the farm!

Nine ponds of varying sizes are scattered throughout the 850 acres of Graham Farms, making it the perfect place to chase fish all day without fighting a crowd at the lake. Matt and his boys enjoy wetting a line themselves and have actively managed the ponds over the years. Matt said a basic approach of “being diligent with not letting the ponds become overstocked, and allowing fish to grow to size” has yielded great results.

Matt keeps tabs on what folks are catching in which locations to provide a better experience for guests. “I try to keep a list of what size and species are being caught.” Matt also spoke of more lines in the water being a welcome tool to find out what has been growing beneath the depths over the years. “We have had guests pull some big fish out of ponds I didn't know existed.”

As special as Graham Farms is to Matt and his family, it is quickly becoming a fan favorite and destination for LandTrust members.

Matt allows camping, which extends the time guests can spend on the land. The camping has turned into guests buying beef straight off the farm to grill. More recently, the desire to stay at Graham Farms has led to the ongoing construction of a cabin. The cabin will be family-friendly, potentially increasing bookings and getting more people into fishing. Matt's property is a progression we have seen before at LandTrust; folks start with a single package, and it gains momentum from there. Matt's advice to anyone considering LandTrust was, “It's super easy to try and there is no risk.”

Matt and I spoke for a while like old friends. I constantly forgot I was supposed to be interviewing, and not just chatting like two LandTrust landowners bouncing ideas off each other. Matt left me with an interesting thought, “Landowners might be hesitant to offer fishing because they feel they have to manage the resource. But this could be a great place to partner with someone, maybe a youth, who is interested in fisheries management and both make some money. Come to think of it, I should start managing and leasing some more ponds around the area.”

You can check out Matt's property below!

Written by Taylor Moyer - LandTrust's Landowner Community Manager