CO license fee's

[CptHook]

I can't believe that the habitat stamp we're forced to purchase has doubled in price this year from $5 to $10! I know they boast that the money is doing all these great things for fisherman, but I really don't see any difference, if anything I see fewer and fewer rangers, I know for a fact that non-fisherman are using lands that require the stamp without it. How many other states are robbing the poor? I couldn't purchase fishing line because of this outrageous @#$*. I paid $41 when just a few years ago I was paying $25. Is the DOW just another bureaucracy seeking funds from the people who already supply all the fiscal resources? And in this economy! I'll was sent a DOW insider Email that casually mentioned the effect that it has on wildlife conservation, but they failed to elucidate.
I urge everyone who's effected to give voice, maybe they should target the non-fisherman who use the land just as much without paying a cent...
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[gdn443]

Here in Ct. they doubled our fishing licenses and all other licenses under $100. This was back in 1010. We as citizens and state sportsman associations emailed and lobbied the state reps about making the sportsmen pay for state services that have decreased in the past years. Hopefully your in state organizations will pick up the ball. They gave us a credit this year and lowered the costs of all licenses. Good Luck.
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[CptHook]

They probably figure they'll slowly get us used to paying more every two years or so, like boiling a frog.
It just happens that I kept the last six licenses.

2005 license=$20 Extra rod stamp=$4

2006-2010 license=$25 Extra rod stamp=$5
Wildlife ED surcharge=75 cents search & rescue= 25 cents
Habitat stamp =$5

2011-license=$25 Extra rod stamp=$5
Wildlife ED surcharge=75 cents search & rescue= 25 cents
Habitat stamp =$10

2012 -license=$25 Extra rod stamp=$5
Wildlife ED surcharge= $5 search & rescue= 50 cents
Habitat stamp =$10

2013-license=$25 Extra rod stamp=$5
Wildlife ED surcharge= $5 search & rescue= 50 cents
Habitat stamp =$15

2014-license=$25 Extra rod stamp=$5
Wildlife ED surcharge= $5 search & rescue= 50 cents
Habitat stamp =$25

Its like registering vehicles in Colorado, not only do they increase the fee slowly, but they start a fine of $25 every month your cars unregistered, taking money from the people that can't afford it.


(Dan Aykroyd's smudged signature)
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[davetclown]

on my side of the pond, we have various ways of buying a fishing license, tho I realy dont know why..

you have the option of getting a resident or non resident one day license or a couple day license or a regular license. ya there is a price differance, and I can understand the non resident partial season license for those who will be here for a day or three, it is the resident partial license I dont understand.

what I mean is, It is hard for me to understand a resident who would only go fishing one or two days a year.. [:p]

we have our basic licenses.
Regular License. 14.oo
Trout License. 14.oo
Stergeon License. Buy one get one free.

now here's the trick,

if you want to fish for stergeon, and only stergeon, you have to have a regular license before you can get a stergeon license.

If you want to fish for trout and only trout, you first have to buy a regular license before you can get a trout license.

we used to have years ago, a different license system. We used to have to buy a regular license then go to the post office to buy a trout stamp. lol... and there was no need for a stergeon license cuz it is included.

over the years, we went from a paper license with a stamp to two licenses, and people would buy only the trout license, but fished all waters not just the trout streams. that went on for nearly a decade before the state relized we were loosing license revenues and these guys were fishing for bass and gills and walleyes... So they finaly wised back up and created an all species license. Wich by the way dose not cover all species... lol

our all species license runs 28.oo. but you can get the additional stergeon license for an outragous cost of 0.oo dollars.[:p]

Stergeon in michgan you are limited to one a year, so it is mandated that you show your intentions of targeting a stergeon before you attempt to catch it. Dont go out and accidently catch one and then try to get a license.. thats a big no-no..

after you catch a stergeon you have 24 hours to get it turned in to be measured, weighted, and counted. and your license is the same as a deer license, it must be attached to your stergeon.

all tho licenses go up here, I dont complain after visittin the local fish market. If I had to buy fish once a week, I would go broke.

I remember when I first started buying my licenses, I paid $21.oo. dosnt sound like much of a price change, not untill I tell you what that paid for.

It covered my;
fishing license
small game license
deer license
trapping license
bear license
the best part was, my wife got to fish on my license.

what it did not cover was a migritory state and federal water fowl stamps and trout stamp. those were all extra and had to be picked up at the post office. one other license at the time was an upland game bird license was a lottery. "put and take Phesant" now is included in your small game license.

now I cant buy all those licenses with out getting lucky in a lottery draw. "Bear is now a lottery draw license" in addition there are now two more licenses that did not exist back then. turkey and elk.....

so ya, I have gone from spending 28 dollars a including my trout stamp to close to 400.oo for all those licenses.

true the price has gone up, back when I was buying a loaf a bread for 10 cents, today it is now 2.65 cents for the same loaf.

every thing has gone up +200% since that day when I bought my first license except my income, that only went up by 100%...

I am getting broker by the minute...

I feal for ya bud...

btw, did dan bring you a bottle of his sig vodka?
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[albinotrout]

I got a CO non res license last year and of the looks of things it didn't go up this year. Still will be $61 for me next week when I go in and purchase it.

Now for Utah license resident. We did have a habitat stamp at one time but a few years after starting it the DWR added it into the actual price of the license so no need to puchase second piece of paper. Total amount for utah resident license: $26 for a 365 day license. $15 for a second pole permit. Used to be $10 just a few years ago. Rumor has it that in 2012 fees may go up again for regular license.
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[CptHook]

The special trout stamp is an interesting idea, I'm sure it looked good on the drawing board. I could see it working if there were specially stocked ponds that were free for people with a trout stamp, but people with a normal license would have to pay. But it sounds like they were working off the honor system, I'm sure there were lots of complex arguments in court. What happened if you accidentally caught a trout without the stamp?

I've been fishing and smoking fish a lot lately so I've had lots of time to think of ways to give us fisherman a break. One of my ideas is a cheaper, lets say half price, Catch and Release License. Some bugs would have to be worked out to make it work. Maybe a one time class to train people to properly catch and handle fish to be released healthy, no barbs, wet hands, appropriate nets and lure's. Also if the fish is damaged and would die some sort of system to pay-per fish, or a good way to donate them to homeless shelters. This could lead to more special catch and release water and more trophy size fish. Somehow it must be feasible. I know I've become more harvest oriented as the prices increased, but gas prices, inflation and food prices also contribute to that.

I found an interesting article recently about how they proposed merging the DOW with the parks system, this sounds like it would supply the DOW with some funds outside the sportsman pockets, but really its another way for the government stop supplying the parks. Here's a quote.
[#bf0000]"[/#bf0000][#800000][url "http://blogs.denverpost.com/thespot/2011/03/09/sportsmen-nervous-about-proposed-dow-merger-with-colorado-state-parks/24837/"] If these 2 agencies were combined, it is inevitable for the politicians to eventually place both agencies under the umbrella of the license revenues and to eliminate the funding from the legislature that paid for the state parks[/url]"

[#000000]OK, another thing that occurred to me recently was while its nice to allow children to fish for free, it doesn't make much sense. At my favorite fishing spot I noticed the regulars are mostly below the license age, and they often use two rods and keep they're fish. Most of the people I encounter while fishing are extremely respectful and some of the nicest people I know. Some are loud, intrusive or disrespectful to the fish and property. I don't want to start stereotypes but about 75% of the latter group in my experience have been children. I would also mention that this is the most littered area I fish, but I really mostly blame the younger of the license holders for[#800000] [#000000]this. My solution would be to lower the age requirement to twelve years old and children without licenses must be accompanied by an adult with or without a fishing license. And halve they're limits. This has no negative effect I can see.

This brings me to my favorite idea. Use a portion of the existing funds to fine people breaking laws, mainly littering. I have broken the law before, sometimes intentionally and sometimes not. And once involving a non-existent alligator! I had to go to court for that one..
Its tempting because it seems so easy to get away with it. I've came close to getting ticketed a couple times for very petty reasons. I can't say I'd be happy to get a ticket three times the cost of a license for not having one, but that's why I get a license.
If the money from tickets went to the DOW and directly back to alleviate sportsman by lowering fee's, even if only on state wildlife areas, I'm sure every law abiding hunter and fisherman would agree that officers should pursue all violations, especially litterers, the hardest violators to ticket and the people who impact wildlife the most.
Some petty littering, like an inch of line should even be brought to attention and even a warned, but not ticketed. Lets say you loose your lure and most of your line and a rock on the lake bed or a tree, isn't that littering even if its inevitable, unintentional and very frustrating? That shouldn't be worthy of being ticketed but maybe if you can't remove it you should be able to report the location so could be removed by wildlife personnel if it poses some problem.
Then of course there are the indubitable situations where its obviously a criminal offense, in such cases it would prudent for the individual to be ticketed by whatever maximum fine as well as the loss of their fishing rights for that year as well as community service cleaning state wildlife areas. If that's not already a common punishment.
The point is if it was made clear, and some examples were made, I'm sure there would be less litter. Just make a point to see how much trash is at your favorite spot the next time your fishing, hunting or just enjoying nature.
One final thought on the law issue involves the habitat stamp fiasco. Sure the stamp must be doing some good, hopefully, but the idea of making everyone using the state wildlife area purchase one did not work and its not being pursued in the areas I've been to. I read one account of someone getting warned in Colorado.
Most of the state is open for you people who want to bird watch, walk dogs, ride bikes, hike, jog, smell posies, right poetry about how butterflies make you feel. And also for you other group of people who frequent the SWA's that like do they're illegal activities with nice scenery.
One of my frequented SWA's has very heavy traffic for how out of the way it is. I'd roughly estimate 60% sportsman, 40% other. Biking and dog walking is not allowed and the stamp is required as clearly posted. Lately I've seen every other person with a dog and several bike riders a day, as well as one involved in a very tragic accident which I was fated to discover.
The point I'm slowly reaching is even these seemingly stupid laws are possibly for your own good, or have been made for some reason. If the DOW forces the sportsman to have the stamp they should have less reason to pick on them and more money to pay officers to enforce their own laws.

Sorry for the lengthy babbling, but it needed venting.

Yeah, thats the origin of the akroyd signature. I waited several hours in a huge line at a liquor store to get a bottle of booze signed by "a not ready for primetime player"!
The magic hootch is filtered through genuine fake diamonds and gives one the power slur ones speech and think highly ones self.
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[CptHook]

That just happens to bring me to another point! Why do out-of-stater's get charged so much? When if they were encouraged by lower daily fee's it might bring more people to the state, and more money along with them. Lower the yearly license and the daily license! Colorado, especially, isn't a desired fishing destination as it is, and the places that are attractive to outside fisherman are probably fancy gold medal waters close to expensive city's like aspen. If the daily fee was cheap enough to give visitors an affordable activity while visiting family or driving through it would probably cause hundreds of more purchases and increased business revenue all over.

$15 for the second rod! That's asinine! I'd pay that for a three pole stamp though. Two's just not enough.

Here's a message from gilbert the guppy circa 1976![inline IMG_1248.JPG]

OK, lower prices for non-residents might not help us residents..So why not give active duty member of our armed forces half priced annual licenses and up to four free day passes so they can take their spouse and children fishing when they come to visit colorful Colorado from not so colorful iraq and afghanistan?
It could give general advertisement for fishing licenses and make the wildlife people look good..
OK, were still not getting cheaper licenses, so, why not give discounts to women fisherman? Lets say, 25% off licenses, same priced habitat stamp. Maybe that's not helping, but how many more guys would buy licenses and pick up fishing if the news had a few good shots of an attractive woman fishing..
Lastly, but not the least. The Head water stamp. Colorado, being responsible for supplying almost all of the southwestern states with life giving water just doesn't seem to be getting anything in return..So lets say we start damming all the rivers that start in our Rockies to supply hundreds of miles of useless irrigation canals that circle around pointlessly, or build a few hundred more reservoirs, supplementing the lure of our ridiculously cheap non-resident licenses and shores of girls who know how to clean fish....Lets say 40% cost of all fishing licenses for all south western states, especially Utah Arizona and Nevada..
OK. Now our licenses our much cheaper, in fact in a few years I figure the annual license could be $2.50. After we start actually selling our water we might all be as rich as Saudis..This might take some legislation, and a war or two, but it will be worth it..

Although I've been thinking up all these great ideas, that doesn't mean I've had slow fishing days..In the past six days I've got two of the biggest trout of my life as well as two others almost as big. Not as good of luck on catfish yet, one good one and a small one. Lots of little largemouth, bluegill, perch and a few crappie.
Finally I got the fish I've been pursuing since the middle of the ice season, a near 19 1/2 inch Snake River! 20 inches is the master angler qualification, I probably could have stretched it but I didn't want it bad enough to cheat.

Here is the 19 inch cutbow from today
BEFORE
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AFTER
(next to the 12 incher you can barely see in the top picture)
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Snake River, three or four days ago.
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[kochanut]

active duty military that are CO residents stationed outside of the state never need a fishing liscense if they are home on leave and have their leave orders in hand, valid for 30 days of fishing
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[CptHook]

That's good to know. Maybe I'd have joined up seven years ago If I'd know that, so its a good thing I didn't. : )

[CptHook]

Here in Ct. they doubled our fishing licenses and all other licenses under $100. This was back in 1010. We as citizens and state sportsman associations emailed and lobbied the state reps about making the sportsmen pay for state services that have decreased in the past years. Hopefully your in state organizations will pick up the ball. They gave us a credit this year and lowered the costs of all licenses. Good Luck.

That's a really inspiring story.
I was flipping through some Colorado Outdoors magazines today, published by the dow. In 1981 it seems that they were proposing increases in licenses that certainly would have prompted similar actions. Almost all licenses would have doubled, some quadrupled and the second rod stamp would have gone from three to fifteen dollars, the same price as the new proposed annual fishing license!
It states in a few paragraphs the reasons why the increases were proposed, inflation was mentioned several times, increased population, gas prices and over development of wildlife habitat. It goes on to say that most of their funds are supplied by the non-residents and would have increased those licenses too. This was all dreamed up by their "task force".

Here's a short list.
Resident fishing-from $7.50 to $15
Non-resident fishing from $25 to $40
Resident bear from $10 to $25
Non-resident bear from $50 to $220
Resident trapping from $5 to $15
Non-Resident trapping from $50 to $200

I'm not sure which, if any, of these fee's were approved through the legislature. Do any of you remember what you were paying in 1982?
Anyway, the numbers seem strange and the reasons don't exactly follow logically. If gas was too much for sportsman to come to Colorado and they increased fee's what do you think the outcome would be? They say a larger population is a reason for the increases and go on to contradict themselves by saying that there would be more revenue from more licenses, but that inflation is increasing faster than the number of new sportsman. They also mentioned the fact that they have a healthy reserve of funds, but prospects of inflation would drain the reserve by 1985, and a large reserve is needed in case of emergencies.

The Divisions Of Wildlife are probably extremely far down the list of agencies that need reform and I don't think there's any corruption going. Its just sometimes it feels like it has the potential of becoming a bloated entity that becomes power crazed and starts playing god, claiming the the forests will vanish and birds will fall from the sky without them (is that still going on?).
What WOULD happen without a DOW? Sometimes I think boy scouts do more good.
It seems like animals and tree's took pretty good care of themselves before and don't care about oil prices and inflation. Lets say licenses were issued by the county, cost exactly reflecting the price of management. Outside county licenses would cost the same for everyone, out of state could be just a little more. Law's could still be enforced. Parks would operate the same and those funds can fill voids as well as help from state lotteries. Yeah, probably not as simple as that.
Anyway, just food for thought. I'm pretty happy with the ways things are, I'm just a little cynical, a good school of philosophy.

Here's the habitat stamp homepage
[url "http://wildlife.state.co.us/LandWater/HabitatStamp/"]http://wildlife.state.co.us/LandWater/HabitatStamp/[/url]

It says that development is the problem, but in the quarter of the state I live in, the heaviest developed, no areas are being preserved or "in the process" of preservation.
I think the mountains, where no one is or ever will be is safe enough, and development will force its way into the places it must, regardless of that stamp. But as they say, its less than the "price of a couple latte's", yeah, I don't drink latte's, my coffee is cheap, and so my license should be too.