Fewer fish tourney permits required; prices rising

[Hamilton Reef]

Fewer fish tourney permits required; prices rising

http://www.mlive.com/outdoors/grpress/i ... xml&coll=6

12/15/06 By Howard Meyerson The Grand Rapids Press hmeyerson@grpress.com

Consider for a moment that there are about 800 permitted fishing tournaments around the state. That is, 800 tournaments held at lakes with Department of Natural Resources launches.

Some of them are big, with big payouts to match. Others are small, informal, weekly events. Still others are just occasional meets.

All of them, however, are required to buy a special permit from the DNR and pay a fee. That's a lot of paperwork when you think about it.

The permit is for staging the event from the state launch site. The permit system lets the DNR keep tabs on the number of tournaments being run on these lakes, which is all well and good.

But the revenue does not cover the cost of issuing the permits.

"We've been losing money," Jason Flemming, with the DNR state parks division, said. "It has cost us more to process the permit than we get from it."

Agency wrestling with deficit

Not a good thing for an agency facing a huge budget deficit. It can hardly afford to lose money on an administrative permitting program.

And then there are those who question whether every little fishing tournament needs to be handled by the state, whether that is an efficient use of its already-strapped staff resources.

Well, it turns out the state also is asking those same questions. They, too, recognize that losing money is a losing proposition.

Which is why the first of three public meetings on the tournament-permit requirements was held this week in Chelsea. A second is scheduled for 6-8 p.m. Monday at the Wolf Lake Fish Hatchery Visitor Center in Mattawan. A third will be held from 6-8 p.m. Wednesday at Gander Mountain in Novi.

"Right now we have 828 boating sites around the state where you need a permit to hold a tournament," Flemming said. "We are looking at reducing that to 40 to 50."

That's a huge change by any accounting standard. Flemming said permit costs will go up at those 40 to 50 sites -- the lakes where 65 percent of the tournaments take place.

The permit fee for a closed tournament -- essentially a club event -- has been $10 for from 1 to 15 boats and $25 for 16 to 30 boats. Beginning next spring, it would be $25 for all. Flemming said 75 to 80 percent of these tournaments are smaller ones.

Permits for open tournaments, meaning those open to any contender, cost $50 for up to 50 boats. The price jumps $25 for every additional 25 boats. Figure $150 for 150 boats.

Those will now cost $100 minimum. The figure could go up if the tournament seeks to use much of the green space or other facilities.

Tournament contestants also will continue to pay for a daily or seasonal motor vehicle permit separate from the tournament permit.

Rollie Johnson, the southwest Michigan district manager for state parks, said the proposed changes will have a big effect in his district.

"We are loosening the regulations so that we will require a permit only on those waters that will have significant tournament pressure," he said.

"In the Plainwell district, where we get the lion's share of the tournaments, we're going to require permits on five or six lakes rather than 120 lakes.

"Those are lakes that get tremendous fishing pressure."

Those are lakes such as Klinger, Palmer and Portage in St. Joseph County, Barton Lake in Kalamazoo County and Diamond Lake in Cass County where the state already has limited the number of tournaments that can be held on them to 30 a year.

"We've had as many as 50 on them in the past," Flemming said.

That's 50 days a season where parking lots may have been filled and others might have had a hard time getting in; 50 days when riparians had to contend with crowds and other fallout; 50 days when the fishery was being expertly plowed.

"The big riparian concerns are noise and congestion and a fear that tournaments are having an adverse impact on the fishery, " Flemming said.

DNR fish division staff will be collecting data on the lakes where most of the tournaments are held. They will monitor the impact on the fishery. State park staff also will be more closely monitoring the tournaments.

Flemming said the changes should eliminate a lot of the paperwork. It will result in having a better handle on those that are permitted and those that are not. It also will lead to the development of an on-line reservation system for tournaments in the near future.

All in all, he said, the program should break even, something Flemming and other DNR staff should make sure proves true.

Fishing tournaments can boost local economies to be sure, but in order for the fishery to be sustained and for an acceptable social balance to be found, the DNR will have to put extra effort into monitoring those waters. The final permit prices should realistically reflect those costs.