More cost to fish

Talk about it

Minnesota Sen. Satveer Chaudhary, DFL-Fridley, will introduce a bill calling for a $4 increase in Minnesota fishing licenses in 2011 and another $4 increase in 2015.

Chaudhary wants to tie the increases to three purposes: additional fish stocking, allowing youths 16 and 17 to fish for free (they’re now required to have licenses), and increasing the amount license vendors receive from $1 to $2 per license sold. He also might earmark part of the increase to combating invasive species, he said.

In the past, fishing fee increases have not been tied to specific initiatives.

“I think there’s growing support for knowing where the government spends people’s money,” Chaudhary said.

Dirk Peterson, chief of fisheries for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, said a fee increase would be beneficial to the department.

“We’ll be able to maintain our current services further into the future,” Peterson said.

He was less enthusiastic about having the increases tied to specific programs, especially stocking.

“We have finalized our walleye stocking guidelines based on input from our Walleye Advisory Group,” Peterson said. “We think we’ve applied our best science as to how we spend our walleye stocking dollars.”

Tags: two harbors, outdoors, fishing