Fishing License, Even If You Don't Use It

Do you remember when you were young and you fished when and where you wanted to?  I do.  Me and my friends just grabbed our poles and went to the river.  Never even thought about a license.  Never got busted either.  Now when we go camping and we are on the boat, we see at least one water cop a day.  Most of the are very nice but really, watching out for bad guys trafficking in stolen fish?  It's getting a bit ridiculous.  These guys once tried to ticket me when I wasn't fishing.  I was with a group of people but I left my pole and brought a book instead.  They wouldn't believe it until the counted the poles.  They said, " I guess I will let you off this time".  I shot back, "what I know need a fishing license to go on the lake?"  I understand they have a job but please.  This article just reminded me that I am not the only one getting fed up with them.

If you don’t think getting the proper fishing license is important, you should think about what happened to my husband  few years back. We lived in the lower part of New York and my dad lives in Pennsylvania. They love to go fishing together, but they didn’t know where to go. Each state has their own rules about fishing and you must have a license for each state. This was the problem that my husband had. He wanted to fish in PA with my dad, but he didn’t want to pay the huge, inflated ‘out of state’ fee to do so.

What happened was he was busted with his fishing license in the state of PA, and he had to pay some very hefty fines. The amounts of them took me by surprise. Now I know that he should have had a license, and that he did deserve the fines, but the amounts were out of control. He once got a fine of 250 for parking in the wrong place when we lived in Pittsburgh, PA, but these fines made that one look like pocket change. Speeding ticket in a construction zone? Forget it, this fine for being without a fishing license was more, way more.

I understand that you should have a fishing license, and I understand that this money helps care for fish and waterways, but I don’t think my husband should have had to pay almost a weeks salary for this fine. It’s not reasonable, though he most certainly won’t ever do that again. However, it was not like anyone’s life was in danger because he didn’t have a fishing license. He was not speeding down a highway near construction workers or speeding through a school zone. He was fishing, and very peacefully and safely I might add.

Whatever the case, it is always a good idea to make sure you have the right fishing license when you go fishing. My husband wasn’t trying to be an outlaw. He did heave a license in New York. He just didn’t think he needed two, but he was wrong. He knows better now, though he does not have the time to go fishing like he use to. My dad learned a lot too. He has always been good about fishing licenses and such, but now he knows that if he were to come up here, he had better buy the out of state NY license lest he be face with bankruptcy as well.