Every year I grumble about the $19.00 fishing liscense fee here in Missouri. $12.00 for general fishing and $7.00 if I want to “legally” keep trout. For what it provides me and the rest of the Missouri anglers it’s nothing really. Missouri isn’t really known as a trout fishing state but that being said, there is a lot of trout in MO! There are six trout hatcheries here and one of them is the National Trout Hatchery and that doesn’t count several privately owned hatcheries. That being said I have never been skunked because there just weren’t any fish and for that I can thank only the fishermen of MO and visitors for paying for their fishong liscenses. Thank you!
By the way. Please forget that I mentioned anything about trout being in MO. It’s just a rumor.
$19.00 ?!?! Cary and I fished at Bennett Spring all last week. We paid out of state and trout for $100.00, smack on the nose! (That would be together not each!) That’s expensive, but to be in the Ozarks, standing in cold water for however-many-times a year we want to go, fishing for trouts, we feel it’s priceless!
JC,
Here in PA., the Pa. Fish & Boat Comm. already does that in a way! … :roll:
They have nearly doubled the price of a license/stamp in the last five years, and they create “BS” regulations like the ‘DHALO’ fishing sections. After a trout is caught once on a #8 treble hook( mouth ripped off),and returned to the water, one could say its a ‘goner’. So, the PFBC has already compensated for this by their price increase!
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So. Those of you who fish, and more specifically, fly fish, and even more to the point, fling 'em back (practice catch-and-release), pay attention here. You have been causing the termination of the life of some of the little critters and you know darn well you have. Well meaning, as I know you are, it does happen; and we’re all to some degree guilty of it.
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I think most ‘flyfishermen/women’ who practice ‘C&R’ do I pretty good job…
Most of the problems occur with ‘anglers’ using large treble hooks catching small trout or fishing in ‘special regulations areas’.
Try the crooks in Calif. I pay $36 for a plain fishing license.
The good part is my fishing license will be free in Colorado when I get there because of my age.
Right on Betty!
I may gripe about the price of gas or free love but local or nonresident game/fishing fees seems to me money well spent!
Extravagant Canadian fees are another matter!
Last wednesday it was 70* and I got out on the water for the first time this year. The water was already very high (snow melt), but I always feel better when I'm on the water!
Friday we got a foot of snow, which bodes 'BAD" for early season fishing, because of most streams will be near flood level. I have no idea when the streams will be safe to fish!
Best wishes....
It’s supposed to gradually warm up all this week so this snow should melt off nicely. It’s melting from the ground up this time around because those 70 degree days warmed the earth up so that everything won’t just run off, instead it will enter the water table.
I had ten inches of snow here in Harrisburg on Friday and there is only about half that left and I haven’t seen a puddle of water or run-off anywhere. This late snow will be a Godsend.
Compared to golf which I gave up 2000 years ago to become a fisherman; I think my “fishing fees”; (AKA license) are a bargain. It typically represents the lowest single annual expenditure by category, (license, fly tying, rod/reel, misc tackle items, etc.), of anything in my quest for fun and relaxation. Considering I fish well over 150 times a year; my license costs me less that two bits a trip!
I think it is a real bargain when you look past the “how many trout did I catch/eat” issue.
Despite the price increase in PA recently I look at it this way. First of all I almost never fish stocked streams and I don’t harvest so I guess I could take exception to the money spent there but I also bass fish and boat and my license also pays for boat launches, lake maintenance and management, enforcement, land acquisition for access, fisheries management (which provides me with invaluable information, (stream lists) that would cost me 1000 times the cost of my license to compile myself); not to mention the maps, brochures, articles and other information the PA Fish & Boat Commission offers.
While I have no idea how true this statement may or not be; I think PA does one of the better jobs of publishing information on available fishing opportunities.
When you compare a fishing license to other sports it really is a bargain. In PA it is $ 31.00 for a resident license and trout stamp that is good for an entire year.
Try playing 2 rounds of golf for only $ 31.00. Most places today charge $ 25.00 or more for greens fees and many require you to rent a cart for another $ 10.00 or $ 15.00! Heck, 4 games of bowling and shoe rental will set you back $ 7.00 to $ 10.00 depending on when you go.
Pennsylvania also does offer a tremendous amount of publications for anglers, canoeists, boaters, etc most of which are available for free, all you need to do is stop in a Regional Office or send a stamped self-addressed manilla envelope to the Fish Commission to receive them.
I really wish some of the people who complain about the cost of a fishing license would just quit fishing. :lol:
I always use the analagy of one movie outing for a family of four compared to the average out of state fishing license. It can easily cost 40 to 50 dollars when you throw in the cost of a movie, soda, candy and popcorn for 3 hours of entertainment.
Yet, I’ve heard guys at sportman’s club meetings raise all kinds of hell when the subject of the state raising license fees come up. I just tell em to “get real.”
An annual fishing license is good entertainment over and over again for a whole year. So I never could understand why some sportsmen bitch and bitch when license fees go up a couple bucks every few years.
I think it’s the most reasonable cost per outing for just about any entertainment you can find.
