Technically you should pay at the park entrance. But to be honest no one will ever check, but they are good people there so I would go pay then go launch in the back of the lake not to mention we need to keep a good image for tubers! :+ All the water at Pinto is good water and if I were you I would just launch from the ramp and fish my way to the back, your car also has much less of a chance of getting broken into by the ramp instead of the county park...Let me know if you wanna fish sometime I live less than 5 minutes away. }( You could also by a year pass its only $25 for the year or its $5 a pop take your pick. Hope this helps.