The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission unanimously greenlit new rules for commercially guided fishing boats at a meeting in Lander this week. The industry’s been largely unregulated for decades, and guides haven’t had to pay permitting fees or register to operate in most parts of the state.
But that changed when Gov. Mark Gordon signed a bill into law at the end of this year’s legislative session, giving the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) the authority to develop a registration system for money-making anglers and potentially regulate activity on different stretches of water in the future.
As Deputy Chief of Fisheries David Zaftt explained at the Lander meeting, a big goal of the project is figuring out how many guided boats are out on the water.
“ This is really the beginning of a program. It’s really a data-gathering phase,” he said. “We don't know how many guides and outfitters are out there, and we don't know where they're operating.”
The subject was a big topic of discussion in Cheyenne this year and successfully made its way through the legislative process, after several failed attempts over the last few decades.
The law that passed also created an advisory board for the topic, and mandated that two of the board’s seven seats be filled by drift boat guide business owners in Wyoming. That group helped workshop the new rules this summer.
The agency held eight public meetings throughout the state this summer to hear input. According to Zafft, nearly 100 people showed up at those meetings to give their input and 40 more wrote in.
He said the most common piece of feedback across the board was about cost. The earlier draft regulation set the annual registration fee at $600 for the first boat and $100 for the next four.
“ Six hundred bucks for the owner of a boat, especially if it was a small business operator, was too much,” said Zafft. “They thought that was too high and really didn't like the idea that we based it on an outfitter fee.”
The annual fee is now set to $325 per boat, but Zafft said it was a challenge to balance affordability with the need to implement the program, which has already cost $60,000.
“ We have no idea how many of these guides have three or four boats and how many stickers they'll be purchasing,” he said. “The revenue part was really the most difficult for us, but we ended up looking at our projections of both expenditures and income and recommending $325 per sticker.”
The rules apply to residents and non-residents alike.
Guides will get a sticker to show they’ve registered, which will look similar to the current aquatic invasive species decals but will go on the back of the boat rather than the front.
One change that came out of the public input process is that the boat registration sticker will be transferrable. Zafft said that means guides and outfitters will only need to purchase the number of stickers necessary for the boats that they have on the water at one time, rather than for every single boat they own.
“This structure would allow them to purchase one sticker and move it around depending on the conditions on the water and the boat they choose to use,” he said. “If a boater trailer is borrowed temporarily, the sticker could be moved to that boat without purchasing another.”
Originally, guides were set to also receive a corresponding registration sticker for their boat trailer. But after hearing concerns about those stickers being obscured or stolen, the agency opted instead for a dashboard slip that will go inside of anglers’ cars.
“ That would be very much like our vehicle permission slip for a hunter management area that you could just print off our website,” said Zafft.
Another adjustment from the draft regulation is that anyone can purchase registration for a boat, not just the owner of the boat.
The changes are expected to go into effect by the start of the new year.
