I think I figured once that, at $20, it came to about 3 cents an hour. So now it’ll be 4-1/2 cents, unless I fish more hours.
Best bargain in the world, IMO. What else can you do for 4 cents an hour?
Up in BC last summer it cost me $200CA for 9 days. Still a bargain.
Idlerick
I just bought my new 2006 Colorado license today. The total cost of the base fishing license has gone from $20.50 to $31.00!!!
There was a $5.00 increase in the base license fee. That’s 25%!!! Plus they added on a Habitat stamp for $5.00 and a Wildlife Education Fund surcharge of $0.75.
I like the fact that Hunters and Fishers pay thier own way, but I feel this is a bit much for a one year increase.
How do you folks feel? Is it to much or am I overreacting (it’s been known to happen… a lot).
Ken
“The memory of a fisherman is more like fiction than journalism, that is, it doesn’t ignore the facts, but it is not entirely bound by them, either.”
John Gierach
Didn’t bother me a bit. It is still a bargain when you consider all the fun you get from it.
Hi Ken,
As long as the fees are reasonable and
are going to support my fishery, I’m all for
it. While 50 percent seems a bit much for
inflation, Colorado claims they have not had
a fee increase in 14 years. You can read
more at: [url=http://wildlife.state.co.us/hunt/:27b10]http://wildlife.state.co.us/hunt/[/url:27b10]
Warm regards, Jim
kphume;
An all species license in Michigan is 26 bucks!! At 65 it drops to $11.60!!
Your lucky kphume. If I get all the extra stamps I need:
$34.90 basic fishing license
3.95 Ocean Enhancement Stamp
5.50 Bay-Delta Stamp
1.60 Salmon Punch Card
5.50 Steelhead Report Card
$51.45 total
Joe
It still cheaper than WV. I paid 36 dollars here for 2006.
California resident sport fishing, $34.90
California steelhead report card, $5.50 (I will need at least three, possibly four)
So, if I fish as many days fishing here as I did in '05, I am spending under fifty cents per day on licenses. Compare that with the $60 I dropped at the fly shop today, the $2500 I spend on gas every year for fishing, the 8wt outfit I got a few months ago, the trip to MT this spring and another this fall…
why whine about $30? Especially for $30 that pays for biologists and wardens to help keep your fisheries functional?
I consider it a steal.
Compared to “access” fees for other sports - golf, skiing, even entering your town’s local charity running race, it’s a bargain.
Dang! I wish we who sometimes fish in Tennessee had it so good!
How about an $81.00 for an annual fishing license for non residents?
With that fee you get the honor of a high probabilty of getting your gear stolen if you fish near the North Carolina border as several of my friends have experienced in 2005!
That state has to hold the title as grabbiest in the country!
It’s Tennessee for goodness sake and the area code ain’t 90210!
Dear Ken,
While that’s a pretty substantial increase in one year’s time I still think that $ 30.00 for a fishing license is a bargain.
In my case the cost of a fishing license works out to pennies an hour when I divide the hours spent fishing into the cost. I can’t think of anything else that is so inexpensive.
My only “pet peeve” about fishing and hunting licenses is that in most cases the state fish and game departments are self-supporting. There are a lot of free-loaders who take advantage of access provided by those hunting and fishing dollars, hikers, birdwatchers, canoeists and kayakers come to mind. While I certainly don’t mind sharing, I’d like to see an “outdoors sportman” license for those folks. I’m certain there are many
people who have a fishing/hunting license that hike or canoe, but there are many more who do not.
Fair is fair, if you use it you should have to pay for it.
Regards,
Tim Murphy
Wow!!! Wyo. ends up $29.50 with conservation stamp!!
This is sweet! from what I am hearing.
Wyo-blizzard aka Bloody Tom Bonney
When some of my buddies started grousing about a minimal increase in our license fees I asked them how much was it they spent on the six packs and/or cigarettes they consumed during a trip etc. License fees are the only support for our Fish & Game folks as the state guv’mint doesn’t give them squat for funding. Lost so many part time workers last year that the stocking took a beating and fish got dumped in just a few stream locations cause it was one person to a truck. Our local TU chapter volunteered to help on a couple of streams so the fish would get spread out much more.
A game of Golf last 4 - 5 hours and costs many times more than a seasonal fishing permit. I don’t begrudge a reasonable increase and special assessment as long as it’s going into a particular part of the budget (fish inhancement, trophy lakes etc) and not into general revenue where it gets mixed up with the bureaucrat bungling money.
Wild trout in wild places.
cheapest I’ve seen for any resident licence is New York at 19.00 and no “stamps”
but I’m back in PA now…So I’ll be shelling out alot more…I had the miss fortune last year of needing a non res PA licence…
$70.00 last year for both states…
Come to think of it…I can’t follow through on my plans for tomorrow…as I need a new Fishing Licence… 
cheapest I’ve seen for any resident licence is New York at 19.00 and no “stamps”
Here in GA, resident license is $9 plus $5 for the trout stamp for a grand total of $14.
Fine with me! Still a bargain, and look at what Wyoming charges out of staters – $76. Here in Colo. it’s only $56 for out of staters, with the new stamp.
Call your insurance agent and ask how much a year’s insurance for search and rescue would cost. In Colorado, if the sheriff’s SAR team has to come find you, you get billed for your rescue – unless you have a hunting, fishing, ATV or boat license, then your rescue is free. I bet those recently rescued snowboarders in Colo. wish they were fishermen – the sheriff is going to bill them.
DANBOB
I have never minded increases in license costs. “But” I do mind when our fish and game and the state is making the fishermen and hunters pay for rescue of mountain climber’s and people that get into trouble in the “Great out of Doors” and are not hunting or fishing. I believe that these people using our forests and rivers should be made in some way to pay for what they do.
Why should I pay because some jerk get’s them selves caught on a clif face and it costs 40 grand to get them down. That is “BS” in my book, charge them for it. If they can’t pay then garnish there wadges until it is paid. You do that a few times and people MAY (notice I said May here) Use that thing on there shoulders called a head. Same with the rest of them. Heck kayakers are using some of our rivers more than anyone else and if they get into trouble we are going to have to pay to save there butt’s. Maybe it is time they had to have there own license to use those rivers. We have to in the form of a fishing license. Why not a Kayak license for those running white water? If they get into trouble then they should be made to pay for it. I would expect to if I did so. If you do not want to pay your way then stay home. Easy as that. This type of thing makes me sore. Ron
One ticket to a basketball game cost me as much as 4 years worth of fishing licences, and the game only lasted one hour. With a paid fishing license you get to fish 8760 hours. Thats a fraction of a penny an hour… FB.
Once you hit the ripe old age of 65 in New York State your combination fishing and small game/big game hunting license is five bucks!