By Louie Stout
License Increase
You can bet your most expensive glide bait that Michigan fishing and hunting licenses will be going up next year. There’s a bill moving through the state legislature to boost fees although the specifics are up in the air.
But Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer – the same person who didn’t want you fishing during covid – has other plans. She wants to increase all fees, bumping resident fishing licenses from $25 to $30 and non-resident from $75 to $90.
Resident deer tags would go from $20 to $25.
We haven’t heard any specifics of increases to senior licenses, or boating registration fees, but you can bet those will be included too.
Natural Resources Commission Ban?
There’s also a bill in the Indiana Legislature that would abolish the Indiana Natural Resources Commission. The NRC sets hunting fishing seasons and oversees parks. Typically, the NRC is politically appointed but oftentimes includes conservation minded people. This bill sounds like a bad idea.
Wake Boat Legislation
I don’t know an angler who likes fishing around wake boats. Those tsunami wave makers are not only a nuisance, but their wakes are dangerous for small boats.
There’s a bill in the Indiana Legislature that prohibits wake surfing on lakes 300 acres or less after sunset.
They also destroy shorelines and cause problems for docked boats, which is why Kentucky is trying to pass a law to prevent them from operating within 200 feet of shore on some of its lakes.
No idea if either of these will pass into law, but at least it’s an attempt to control the out-of-control wake boarding on lakes. I’d like to see a law that restricts the distance that a wave maker can come to a fishing boat.