The fishing guide industry in Wyoming is a free-for-all and unpermitted guides from other states are taking advantage of that, crowding some of the best waters, say backers of a legislative bill that would change that.
“For several years now, fishing guide companies, guides, landowners and others have been worried about over-pressure on Wyoming’s waters,” noted Wyoming outdoorsman Paul Ulrich told Cowboy State Daily.
Bill Could Limit The Number Of Boats
Overcrowding undermines the reason why Wyoming residents love fishing here, as well as the strongest selling point Wyoming guides can offer their clients, said Ulrich, a fishing guide for Two Rivers Fishing Co. of Pinedale.
“If there’s one thing we treasure in this state, it’s our solitude,” he said.
Ulrich supports House Bill 5, which is set to go before the Wyoming Legislature during its 2025 session.
The bill would give the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission the option of setting limits on the number of commercially guided fishing boats on any particular waterway.
It also would give the Game and Fish Commission the option of setting up a licensing and permitting system for fishing guides, similar to what’s already in place for big game hunting outfitters and guides in Wyoming.
Cutting Down On The ‘Riffraff’
There is some regulation of fishing guides at the federal level in Wyoming.
Those who use boat launch and take-out points controlled by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management must have boat registration decals issued by those agencies.
However, fishing guides don’t pay for state-issued permits or undergo testing to be licensed to guide, as big game guides in Wyoming do, Trent Tatum told Cowboy State Daily.
He’s the co-owner of the North Platte Lodge and The Reef Fly Shop Cottages and RV in Alcova. He does both kinds of guiding, for angling and for big game hunting, so he knows firsthand the differences between the two.
The near-complete lack of oversight on the angling side allows some shady actors to take advantage of Wyoming, he said.
“It’s not too hard for a guy or a gal from somewhere else to come in here, guide a trip and then scoot out of town and then go on their merry way,” he said.
The legislation “would cut down on the riffraff, if we had stouter regulations as far as the fishing side of things was concerned,” he added.
Although most companies require their fishing guides to carry liability insurance and have first aid training, it’s not mandated by law, Ulrich said.
That opens the door for unpermitted fishing guides to put themselves and their clients at risk, he said.
Taking Advantage Of Early Season
Blake Jackson, who owns the Ugly Bug Fly Shop in Casper, said he’s noticed a growing number of out-of-staters guiding fishing trips on the North Platte and Bighorn rivers.
“There’s a fair bit of, I would call it, illegal guiding taking place,” he said.
“The majority of nonresident usage, from an illegal standpoint, is from Colorado,” he added. “But we’re seeing more from Utah and Montana, and a couple from Mexico.”
It seems to be the worst early in the fishing season, he said. For instance, because much of the prime fishing on the North Platte River is below a deep-water dam system, the river might start opening up enough to fish as soon as February.
That’s well before fisheries in neighboring states start to open up, so that’s when Wyoming’s rivers can get crowded, he said.
Keep The Dollars In Wyoming
A sore spot for Wyoming guides is that some nonresident guides hop the state line to take clients fishing, Urlich said. But then they take clients back to their own states for food, lodging and fishing gear purchases.
That siphons money away from Wyoming with out-of-staters reaping the benefits of Wyoming’s prize waters, but not paying their fair share, he said.
“The only minor benefit that Wyoming gets is the fishing license fees,” Urich said.
Requiring fishing guide permits and licenses would funnel more dollars back into Wyoming’s economy, he said.
Tatum said Natrona County could also benefit by charging a fee to use the Grey Reef boat ramp on the North Platte River, because the county owns the ramp and adjoining parking lot.
“I think it would be brilliant if the county could, say, charge a $50, or even a $25 fee for an annual boat-launching permit,” he said.
That money could be put back into maintenance and repairs for the boat ramp and parking lot,” Tatum said.
Headed For More Regulation
Regardless of what happens with HB 5, more regulation of the fishing guide industry in Wyoming is probably inevitable, Tatum said.
“I think we need to be moving in that direction. Nobody likes to pay for more permits and more regulations, but it would help,” Tatum said. “If there’s things we could do that wouldn’t be too painful that would kind of clean things up.”
More oversight might help, but working the details out could be complicated, Jackson said.
“It raises the issue of who is going to oversee it and where the money is going to come from,” he said.
Wyoming has only a couple hundred fishing guides, a fraction of some other states such as Montana, he said. That means fewer people would be paying in to support a state regulatory system.
How Many Is A Crowd?
Although some might support the idea of capping the number of boats allowed in certain areas during certain times, deciding what that limit should be is a matter of perspective, Jackson added.
“What is the ‘overcrowded’ number? For people who grew up in Wyoming, they might feel that five other people on the river means its overcrowded,” he said. “And somebody from Colorado will think that’s not busy at all.”
Ulrich said Wyoming’s landowners also should have a say in the matter.
“That’s important to landowners,” he said. “We drift sections of river that go through a lot of private property. It’s important that, as a state, we respect landowners and not over-crowd the floatable waters that go through their properties.”
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
