New non resident trout stamp

[Phil Lilley]

$40!!!  This is crazy!  Talk about driving away out of staters from fishing our lake!  

https://mdc.mo.gov/permits/proposed-permit-price-adjustments-2026

There's a lot of people who only fish here once a year, in some cases once!  They hire a guide and only fish once.  $12 is feasible...  $40 will be a big deterrent to many.

Yeah, this is one I need to fight, not just for my guides and our business but for the people who really would enjoy fishing here that won't in the future.

[fishinwrench]

In all honesty, if 40.00 stops them then they weren't very committed to begin with.  

Whatever they decide to do instead....is likely gonna cost 3 times that. 

[Phil Lilley]

I'm not sure "committed" is the right view.  It's a matter of budget.  I know surrounding states are hiking their non resident fees and MO is probably just adjusting, but bottom line this WILL decrease the number of people who fish Taneycomo, it will not enhance the sport.  I believe they're hiking the fees because of state park hatcheries and the trouble they're having.  I know none of the monies are going directly to state park BUT MDC is having to flip the bill in the form of rainbow trout to make up for the lack of ability to produce trout at the state park hatcheries.

I'd like to see WHY they need the additional monies for Taneycomo.  The visitor center should have already been paid for and there's no new projects there that I know of.

[Quillback]

$40 is pretty stiff.  Especially for a day.  Arkansas charges $20 for a NR trout stamp.  Both AR and MO get the majority of their fish and game funding through the sales tax surcharge.  Looks like that revenue stream ain't enough, so we're seeing fee increases.  Give them more money, they'll spend it.  

[dpitt]

1 hour ago, Phil Lilley said:

$40!!!  This is crazy!  Talk about driving away out of staters from fishing our lake!  

https://mdc.mo.gov/permits/proposed-permit-price-adjustments-2026

There's a lot of people who only fish here once a year, in some cases once!  They hire a guide and only fish once.  $12 is feasible...  $40 will be a big deterrent to many.

Yeah, this is one I need to fight, not just for my guides and our business but for the people who really would enjoy fishing here that won't in the future.

So, WY has a conservation stamp you have to buy once a year only for resident and NR resident annual licenses, when you buy a daily license they make it clear it does not apply, guessing so they don't hurt tourism. 

[snagged in outlet 3]

As many people as I see not abiding by the rules I wonder if license sales aren’t hurting.   We were at outlet 2 this morning waiting for the farmers market to open and divide walks up with a plastic worm on his rod and fires it right in the outlet.   Somebody said something to him but he didn’t care.  

[tjm]

2 hours ago, Phil Lilley said:

I'd like to see WHY they need the additional monies for Taneycomo.  The visitor center should have already been paid for and there's no new projects there that I know of.

The permit is not specifically for Tanecomo, is it? It's state wide and annual if I read it correctly, lets those out-of-staters/foreigners  fish Crane for example. What might work better would be to boost the price of the NR daily permit to $20 and include trout with  that.  

IIRC,  OK NR is $81 (trout included)  and AR NR with trout is $80 (have been for years and I think both charged me a processing fee on top of that) and neither state has the kind of trout fishing found in our several small streams.  So this would pass them on an annual basis by $17, but I'd expect the other states to also raise their NR tags in the near future, so probably not too out of line. I just looked up CO. permits and it looks like it'd cost me $132.47 there  so the three local states are still cheap. 

I doubt that the price of a good meal or a tank of gas (1/2 tank?) will adversely affect the number of NR anglers that show up on Taneycomo. 

Personally I think the trout permit should be eliminated statewide and it be combined with the fishing permit, of course that would raise the cost of the fishing permit for those that don't fish trout (and lower it for those that do),  but it would lower the MDC costs of keeping records of multiple permits and simplify things.  As it stands the only place I need a trout permit really is for C&R in the Parks, can fish for them in all the streams without it as long as I don't keep them. 

3 hours ago, Phil Lilley said:

I believe they're hiking the fees because of state park hatcheries and the trouble they're having.  I know none of the monies are going directly to state park BUT MDC is having to flip the bill in the form of rainbow trout to make up for the lack of ability to produce trout at the state park hatcheries.

Those hatcheries provide fish for lots more than the parks, all the trout areas in the state (except Taneycomo? isn't that on the Feds as restitution?) and all the urban winter trout fishing come out of those few MDC hatcheries. The Parks belong to DNR and as such have no hatcheries, they just get stocked by the MDC hatcheries located there (or by other MDC sources, as I think they purchased trout when R.R. was shut down)   

[Phil Lilley]

Our stocking overall is down 60% this year because Bennett, Montauk and Meremac aren't able to provide trout as usual.  Shepherd is picking up the slack, this year.

I'd like to see how many out of state lisc/trout tags are bought that fish Taneycomo vs all other Missouri trout streams.  Of course, that's not possible, but I'd think most are fishing Taneycomo only.  But I may be bias.

[Quillback]

I know of an Arkansan or two that fish the RR catch and release season.  I believe you need the annual trout stamp to fish it.  I doubt a $40 fee will stop them.  Probably will cause some grumbling however.  😀

[tjm]

Quote

165,000 nonresidents fish in Missouri annually.

Not all of those buy trout tags or stamps, but I'd guess that most of them are fishing the trout parks. I think the NR have paid the same as Residents for the annual Trout Permit in the past so that increase is only $28. Of the 165,000 how many do you guess fish Taneycomo? 

The few times that I fished RR C&R most of the people that I talked to were from OK, AR,  & KS.  I don't know if that is typical or not and I've talked to probably a dozen or so that were fishing Hickory Creek from OK & KS over a few years, and that's not much of a trout stream. By the same token I don't know of anyone that fishes Tanecomo, resident or non resident. 

And all those thousands that come from out of state to fish the trout parks in the summer months  have to buy a NR fishing permit before they can buy a daily tag. If the increase hurts any of the fishing use it might hurt the KS & TX folks that crowd the parks during the summer, given that they have invested in a trip for that purpose, I doubt that the increase will deter them.  Think about AK fishing, if the cost of the trip there went up a $100 would it stop you going again? 

1 hour ago, Quillback said:

I know of an Arkansan or two that fish the RR catch and release season.  I believe you need the annual trout stamp to fish it.  I doubt a $40 fee will stop them.  Probably will cause some grumbling however.  😀

Yep need the annual trout stamp, and they also need the fishing permit, so for a single day $49 or several days, or with intent to fish the summer months as well, the whole $97 an increase of $43.50  and this C&R  is where MDC might lose revenue on day trippers from OK and KS that are too far away for frequent visits. Most of the Arkies I've met at RR  were local enough that several visits would be normal.  

But I'll agree with wrench in that anyone who balks at the increase wasn't very committed to fishing anyway.  If the total trip cost went up by $100 or $500 for combined costs or travel, rooms, meals and  permits, and of course guides and tips, anyone really wanting to fish at  any destination would still make the trip.