CT Legislature at work...Lobster

[SHELLFISH]

Just got this today. What more could you expect from a buch of money grubbing politicians!
This was posted on the CTFisherman.com forum.


Has anyone seen the following Bill in the Connecticut Legistlature? HB 6371

It basically authorizes a doubling of all fees charged by the DEP. It was talked about in the hunting section a bit and I just got around to actually reading it. While I wasn't amused that my hunting license was doubling, I am sick about the effect it has on recreational lobstermen. My annual bill for my lobster license and gillnet license is going from $110 to $220!

What was expensive (forget about gas, gear, and wear and tear on my boat) is now too much in my opinion. Not sure if I will renew if the fees go up this high. Please call your local state legislators and tell them this is robbery.


Sec. 70. Subsection (c) of section 26-142a of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 2009):

(2) for a license to take lobsters for personal use, but not for sale, (A) by the use of not more than ten lobster pots, traps or similar devices provided finfish may be taken incidentally during such use if taken in accordance with recreational fishery creel limits adopted under section 26-159a and if taken for personal use and not for sale, or (B) by skin diving, scuba diving or by hand, one hundred twenty dollars;

(14) for a license to take menhaden from marine waters for personal use, but not for sale, by the use of a single gill net not more than sixty feet in length, one hundred dollars;


I'm in Florida right now and I would just as soon stay here!
Each Lobster I caught last year cost me $18.00. It's disheartening when you go by your local grocer and see them for sale at $5.00 per pound! I'm taking next year off!
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[captaincrab55]

Sounds like more of the  "Robin Hood Economics"  @ it's best...

[jack1747]

You got out of town at the right time weather wise..

"Each Lobster I caught last year cost me $18.00. It's disheartening....."  Yeah, but look at the fun in it too.  Where I am, I can buy Blue Crab for 40 bucks a bushel but I crab.  Don't even want to try and figure out how much each crab cost me. 

 

[jefskil]

also to add insult to injury, CT now requires a saltwater fishing liscense, as well as a freshwater one.

What a joke...I spent 20 out of 25 years of my life in CT and I also spent all of my summers and the last 5 years living time in Mass.

I've always felt MA (gun laws aside) had better fishing by far, the trout are larger and more are stocked, and better hunting grounds better maintained as well. The liscenses are cheaper and seasons longer. A rec lobster permit in MA cost me 40 bucks, in CT it would be 60 for an in-stater, now it'd be 120 with the price bump. For a state with a much smaller coastline it seems like a real ripoff to me.

I can no longer afford an out of state liscense in CT to go fishing and hunting. I seriously wonder what this is going to do to their pittman-roberts funding and how much, if at all, liscense purchases will drop.

And for what its worth...I've never once seen a game warden aside from opening day and I've spent my fair share of time outdoors...

[Aar684]

"And for what its worth...I've never once seen a game warden aside from opening day and I've spent my fair share of time outdoors..."


Agreed.

[masspi]

Jim

I feel you pain brother......if we continue to vote to keep all the professional office holders in year after year they will tax us and fee us to death. 

http://www.kickthemallout.com/

We are still waiting to see what Marine Fisheries will do on the saltwater fishing license in Massachusetts and so far the fee for a recreational lobster permit has remained the same.