How are sales of fishing permit in Pennsylvania? Why are so many rainbows stored?

With the trout season a few weeks old, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission offered its year 2024 on Wednesday for legislators.

Among the protruding facts of the executive director of the commission, Timothy D. Schaeffer, before the State House Game & Fisheries Committee was:

• Sales of fishing license “do damn well”, despite a drop compared to 2023.
• Federal funding, which represents approximately a quarter of the Commission’s income, does not seem to be a problem, despite changes in Washington, DC
• There are reasons why the rainbow trout includes the vast majority of fish supplied so that fishing fishermen in pursuit fishing.

Consult the Committee’s full annual report in 2024 here. It is also included below to consult certain internet platforms.

The journal Fish and Boat 2024 occurred one day after the Pennsylvania Game Commission appeared before the same committee in Harrisburg. This meeting included an overview of the activities of the game committee, but also focused on the game of play funds in the half-mini-dollar district, despite a lowered drop in gas and petroleum fees.

On Wednesday, Schaeffer of Fish and Boat said that he did not provide for problems with federal and state subsidies which totaled $ 16,729,697 in 2024. This is the third source of financing of the commission in the fish fund and the boat fund which totaled $ 73,516,408 last year.

The federal funding of states related to fishing and marina navigation comes from an excise tax paid by manufacturers of things such as fishing platelets and boats, said Schaeffer. This system has been in place since 1950, under the Dingell-Johnson Sport Fish Restoration Act. The money is then reinvested on behalf of the manufacturers’ customers.

“I had a lot of questions about the status of our federal funding,” said Schaeffer. “And it is about a quarter of our income that comes into play.”

Federal expenses have undergone general changes since President Donald Trump took office. The president empowered the technological billionaire Elon Musk to supervise a new so-called Ministry of Government efficiency which reduces public spending.

“I’m going to tell you simply because I often receive the question these days:” Have we seen a slowdown in these upcoming funds? ” Not yet, ”said Schaeffer. “We don’t see a problem with this funding either.”

The committee carries unrestricted cash reserves of approximately $ 56 million, according to Schaeffer, which is right to keep 70% of the operating budget of almost $ 74 million from the agency. This is separated from around 80 million dollars in restricted reserves necessary for commitments such as the planned reconstruction of dams, replacement of hatching trucks, feeding contracts and improvements in boat ramps.

The legislation obliges the commission to maintain its expenses of fish funds and boats of boats, although Schaeffer has made an argument for a certain flexibility.

“And if we did, we are convinced that we could avoid an increase in fishing permit in the foreseeable future,” he said. “This would allow us to maintain what was the 70% reserve without restriction and to keep the license costs where they are.”

The licenses and costs constituted most of the budget of the fish and the boat in 2024, reports $ 41,328,675.

“I receive questions all the time:” Where are we with licenses? ” And we are doing really well, ”continued Schaeffer.

The exclusion of the point of sales of licenses accompanied by social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic, said Schaeffer, sales of licenses have increased just under 1% since the last year pre-coded 2019.

However, compared to 2023, total licenses sales are down 2.9%.

Schaeffer reduced a drop of 6.4% from one year to trout permits to a rainy start for the trout season in 2024.

“Our trout permits, of course, were a little broken down to last year but were relatively stable,” said Schaeffer.

A clear bright point is launch permits of non -fueled boats that have increased by around 20% since 2019, Schaeffer said: “People do canoeing, kayaking everywhere.”

The fishermen lying on the navigable waterways and the Pennsylvania lakes on March 29 for the youth day and on April 5, the following Saturday, for the start of the trout season. Residents can fish without license on May 25 and July 4 in Pennsylvania.

Responding to a question from the member of the Committee and the representative of the Jim Haddock, D-Luzerne / Lackawanna State, Schaeffer sought to explain why the fish and the stocks of boats are of rainbow trout compared to Brook and Brown.

For 2024, fish and boats stored 2,626,720 rainbows, or 56% of the 4,699,507 trout stored by the Commission. (This excludes 15,382 golden rainbow trout, as well as 367,878 rush trout and 1,689,527 brown trout.)

Haddock said he hears voters that the rainbows “seem to disappear … and go out in deeper waters, especially in our lakes and our streams”.

Schaeffer explained that the numbers of stream trout, in particular, are limited to reduce the risk of introducing diseases of the indigenous populations.

“If you have a rainbow trout that is in the rivers, we do not see any impact on other native species that are just in the places we store,” said Schaeffer, adding that “these rainbows are developing very well in our hatching system”.

The meeting of the Game & Fisheries committee on Wednesday lasted a little less than an hour and is available for visualization on YouTube.