New fee for fishing license

[parivercat]

On the pa fish & boat commission website and under news the fishing license for jan. 01, 2005 will be $21.00 & the boat registrations are also going up! so can we buy the license in december to beat the price increase?
happy fishin!
Lady Di

[Ray4852]

This increase is way out of line. NY, Ohio and Canada charge less for a non-resident Fishing license.

[Shellback]

A NY non resident license is $40.00, but there's no extra trout stamp to buy if you fish for trout. I buy the NY license each year and believe it's a good value for me. I think PA is trying to come up with another additional fee to fish Erie also. As far as boating fees, I registered my 22 footer in NY, $18.00 for 3 years. My 16 footer here in PA was over $30.00 for 2 years. I'm a PA resident, but live only 15 miles from the NY border and 85% of my fishing and boating is in NY. I know I'll be registering my 16 foot boat in NY next time, and if I don't feel I'm getting my monies worth out of the PA license after this next year, I'll drop it too. Unfortunately, PA just doesn't have any decent boat fishing to offer in my area. The Susquehanna river is about all, and the launches are really aren't suitable for nice deep Vee's. I can be at the Susky in NY in about 10 minutes more and have better launches and water. If the river in NY has open water, they keep the launches plowed and have salt there for your needs. I believe the trout stocking programs are a big expensive to the Comm. They need to make it pay for itself by charging enough for the trout stamp, not pass that expense on to other anglers.

[Shellback]

Trying a copy and paste here. Fishing Licenses
License Category Price
Resident $ 21.00
Nonresident 51.00
Resident Senior (annual) 10.00
Resident Senior Lifetime 50.00
7-day tourist 33.00
3-day tourist 25.00
1-day resident (after May 1 only) 10.00
Trout Stamp 8.00
Lake Erie Stamp 8.00
Combo Lake Erie Stamp 14.00
Boat Registrations
Category Price (2 years)
Unpowered $ 18.00
Less than 16' 26.00
16' to 20' 39.00
20'+ 52.00
Looks like if you want to fish Erie for trout it's gonna cost you $35.00 not counting issueing agents fees! A 7 day tourist is $33.00? My VA and GA 7 day license is only $6.00. Looks to me like any benefit the increase in fees would have, will be lost due to casual fishermen just giving it up due to the higher fees. Hunting licenses took a drop after the raise in fees a few years back.

[Ray4852]

Shellback, pa has put a lot of money in their lake Erie water development the boat launches are first class. You don’t have to pay to launch a boat. The lake Erie stamp is going to help finance the new state park they plan to build on the shore of lake Erie. The trout stamp is mainly for the lake Erie steelhead program. I been getting a pa license for the last 10 yrs. it’s been a bargain for me. With the free boat launching on lake Erie. It helped pay for itself. I don’t like this new increase but I probably will renew it. I wish I could say a good thing about the ny side of lake Erie. Ohio and pa has done an excellent job developing their waterfront. Ny has not done a thing.

[Shellback]

I guess sometimes a person doesn't look at the whole picture or is aware of other goings on. I never knew much about the Erie side as it's along way off for me. Your other point on boat launching fees are true also, never gave them much thought, but when you subtract them from your license fees, the license is a real bargain. Unfortunately though, PA doesn't have alot of the fishing I enjoy close to home. Pretty much the only PA fishing I've done this year is the Army Corps lakes in Tioga county, PA, and they're 2 hours away. Lots of great trout streams or unpowered or electric only lakes, but not many places to run my 16 footer with a 50 HP near me. I guess I need to pick up and move! LOL!