Fishing Report Upper River

[hank franklin]

Here's something I always wondered about: If you guide on NPS waters, do you need a license? Is there any kind of fee paid to the NPS to conduct what amounts to a business activity in a federal park? Same would go for the canoe outfitters. I gotta believe they have to pay a fee of some kind to do their thing.

I certainly have nothing against guiding, or canoe outfitters, just wondering.

[jdmidwest]

As far as I know, there are no fees or licenses to be a guide in MO, but there are in Ark. In the last few years, Mo. Dept. of Conservation made a rule against guiding for money on MDC lands. Technically, a lawyer could make a case if you access from a MDC rivers access on a paid guided trip I suppose. I do know the NPS requires float camps to register and pay a usage fee per person on the Scenic Riverways and they are required to keep records of it.

Guiding for hire in a put and take area where trout is stocked by the MDC could also be questionable. Basically, the MDC is managing the river.

I am not quite sure why the MDC started posting the guided hunt rule or when it was passed. The first time I saw it was at 10 mile pond while duck hunting. I assumed it had something to do with the reservation system or limited amount of hunting spots and people trying to get them. But I really could not figure out how the system could be manipulated or abused to benefit a guide.

[Gavin]

You need a concessionaires permit to to guide in the ONSR. Guides, Horse Outfitters, and Canoe rentals all pay a % of revenue to the NPS, and there are insurance and reporting requirements.

FWIW, some of my relatives used to count canoes for the NPS. Doctor Conrad passed on to his around 25 years ago, but he taught at Missouri School of Mines and spent his summers on the Current. Intersting fellow, he ran a prison camp for German POW's in Iowa during WWII. Made great peppermint ice cream. The cabin he built is still down there, someone else owns it now, but its river left a bit south of Akers. Cheers.