Having recently returned home from a fabulous New York City vacation, I found several phone messages from friends urgently trying to reach me. When I did call them right back, the question was basically the same.
“Have you heard the news … what can you tell us about it?”
Geez, I thought, if it wasn’t news in New York, I can’t imagine what major story they might be talking about.
“You didn’t hear?” they chided. “They raised the hunting and fishing permits! What’s the deal?”
My gosh, I thought, this couldn’t be as big as the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street, where I had just come from, could it?
“Are you serious? Did they (the Conservation Commission) raise the fees so high that it’s going to put our hunting and fishing trips in peril? How much, pray tell, did they raise them?” I asked, almost as fearful of the news of the collapse of Wall Street that I had been hearing while on vacation.
“Well, deer tags are going up from $17 to $20 … and the combo is also going up three bucks.”
I must admit, I don’t relish paying even a quarter more for something that I’ve been buying all my life, but … really … was sort of speechless as to what to tell my hunting buddies. Maybe it was because I had just shelled out several hundred to see a Broadway musical … but I just sort of paused, thinking they were going to drop some other fee increase shoe. Fact is, I told ’em to give me some time and I would ferret out the details…get back to them, and, in the meantime, to relax.
Sure enough, while I was away buying $7 coffee and $100 dinners in the Big Apple, the fees were increased. And again, not to disregard the troubled times we now live in, it just didn’t seem to be all that surprising that the fees were increased.
First, they don’t seem to have gone up all that much in the big picture of things. From my perspective, hunting in Missouri seems like one of all time biggest bargains. I realize one can spend a small fortune on equipment, but one can also choose not to spend much to take part in this glorious recreational pursuit. Plus, if you’re a meat hunter, you get to put a year’s worth of food in the freezer … so that offsets much of the expense.
And, frankly, by comparison to other recreational endeavors, hunting and fishing seems exceptionally reasonable. For a mere $23 you can spend months on end bow hunting for deer.
Compare that with being a Chiefs or Royals’ season ticket holder. By the time you buy tickets, parking and all the things that go along with being a fan, you’re going to cough up more than $1,000 per season. Okay, if you’re a devoted golfer then you probably routinely pop for $40 greens fees every time you go out.
And if you happen to really like going to New York, you really don’t want to know how much one of those trips will run you. Frankly, the only reason my wife and I can go is that our son lives in Manhattan so we can crash at his place. Otherwise it’s going to cost you several hundred bucks a night just to sleep.
So $23 for a Missouri buck during bow season? A bargain.
OK, for the record here’s the new fee schedule:
n Hunting and fishing combo, from $19 to $22.
n Archery deer and turkey from $19 to $23. Anterless from $7 to $10.
n Fishing from $12 to $14.
n Firearm deer tags from $17 to $20. Anterless now $10.
n Spring turkey $17 to $20. Fall tags are going from $13 to $15.
n Small game from $10 to $12.
n Trout tags from $7 to $10.
n Daily fishing permits from $7 to $7.50.
n Daily small game from $11 to $20.
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Having recently returned home from a fabulous New York City vacation, I found several phone messages from friends urgently trying to reach me. When I did call them right back, the question was basically the same.
“Have you heard the news … what can you tell us about it?”
Geez, I thought, if it wasn’t news in New York, I can’t imagine what major story they might be talking about.
“You didn’t hear?” they chided. “They raised the hunting and fishing permits! What’s the deal?”
My gosh, I thought, this couldn’t be as big as the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street, where I had just come from, could it?
“Are you serious? Did they (the Conservation Commission) raise the fees so high that it’s going to put our hunting and fishing trips in peril? How much, pray tell, did they raise them?” I asked, almost as fearful of the news of the collapse of Wall Street that I had been hearing while on vacation.
“Well, deer tags are going up from $17 to $20 … and the combo is also going up three bucks.”
I must admit, I don’t relish paying even a quarter more for something that I’ve been buying all my life, but … really … was sort of speechless as to what to tell my hunting buddies. Maybe it was because I had just shelled out several hundred to see a Broadway musical … but I just sort of paused, thinking they were going to drop some other fee increase shoe. Fact is, I told ’em to give me some time and I would ferret out the details…get back to them, and, in the meantime, to relax.
Sure enough, while I was away buying $7 coffee and $100 dinners in the Big Apple, the fees were increased. And again, not to disregard the troubled times we now live in, it just didn’t seem to be all that surprising that the fees were increased.
First, they don’t seem to have gone up all that much in the big picture of things. From my perspective, hunting in Missouri seems like one of all time biggest bargains. I realize one can spend a small fortune on equipment, but one can also choose not to spend much to take part in this glorious recreational pursuit. Plus, if you’re a meat hunter, you get to put a year’s worth of food in the freezer … so that offsets much of the expense.
And, frankly, by comparison to other recreational endeavors, hunting and fishing seems exceptionally reasonable. For a mere $23 you can spend months on end bow hunting for deer.
Compare that with being a Chiefs or Royals’ season ticket holder. By the time you buy tickets, parking and all the things that go along with being a fan, you’re going to cough up more than $1,000 per season. Okay, if you’re a devoted golfer then you probably routinely pop for $40 greens fees every time you go out.
And if you happen to really like going to New York, you really don’t want to know how much one of those trips will run you. Frankly, the only reason my wife and I can go is that our son lives in Manhattan so we can crash at his place. Otherwise it’s going to cost you several hundred bucks a night just to sleep.
So $23 for a Missouri buck during bow season? A bargain.
OK, for the record here’s the new fee schedule:
n Hunting and fishing combo, from $19 to $22.
n Archery deer and turkey from $19 to $23. Anterless from $7 to $10.
n Fishing from $12 to $14.
n Firearm deer tags from $17 to $20. Anterless now $10.
n Spring turkey $17 to $20. Fall tags are going from $13 to $15.
n Small game from $10 to $12.
n Trout tags from $7 to $10.
n Daily fishing permits from $7 to $7.50.
n Daily small game from $11 to $20.
