Thread: saltwater fishing license...

From the pages of our great "North Carolina Sportsman" magazine this month. The DL on saltwater license is as follows;

As of January 1, 2007 anyone 16 and older wishing to fish in saltwater to include; ocean(up to 3 miles out), sound, inlets and joint fishing waters(any tributary with brackish water that is affected by tide and fresh and salt water fish can be caught), needs to purchase a salt water fishing license. The only exception is in brackish water, you do not have to a saltwater license if you have a freshwater license and vica versa.

License will available for purchase December 1, 2006. They can be purchased at your regular licensing stores for $15.

Exemptions are those who have purchased lifetime, anglers 70 and older, comperhensive lifetime license holders, disabled, blind, and adult-care residents.

There is no natural bait county resident exemption.

A license is available for out of state fisherman. It appears there is a misprint it says a 10 day resident license is $5, but I am assuming that is supposed to say "nonresident".

Fisherman who charter a boat will be covered under an umbrella license purchased by the captain of the charter.

Anyone desiring to fish from an ocean peir will be fishing under an umbrella license purchased by the peir.

These monies, after administrative cost, will go to the WRC and the DMF. The WRC will receives money because they have a computer system already set up to handle the point of sale. The legislature determined that the DMF will get 31% of the money to go towards its "staff projects".

So much for free fishing and check your regs on the new salt water fishing laws... somebody is going to making some bucks after these citations are written.
Charter boats are going to take a big hit in the next two years and appears as though some may lose their business.

Hope this helped some of you... Happy Fish'n