LICENSES FOR HOOK AND LINE FISHING 



By T. S. Palmer 



Licenses for commercial fishing are so generally required 

 as to excite little comment, but the requirement of licenses 

 for angling or fishing with hook and line is comparatively 

 recent, and at present in an experimental stage. By many 

 persons the idea is not regarded with favor; some consider 

 it an interference with their constitutional rights and others 

 view it as an unnecessary and burdensome restriction. It 

 should be remembered, however, that licenses for hunting 

 game for sport as distinguished from market hunting 

 licenses have been gradually adopted during the last 15 

 years until at present they are required of residents in 34 

 states and 6 Canadian provinces, and in the case of non- 

 residents are required in all the states and all the Canadian 

 provinces. 



STATES REQUIRING HOOK AND LINE LICENSES 



At present at least 11 states, chiefly in the northern 

 Rocky Mountain and plains regions, have adopted some 

 form of angling license. One of the first of these states 

 was Nebraska which, in 1901 (chap. 36), required the same 

 license for fishing as for hunting either by residents or non- 

 residents. Idaho and Montana followed in 1905, but the 

 Montana license proved unpopular and was repealed at the 

 following session of the legislature only to be re-enacted in 

 1909. The 1 1 states which now have hook and line licenses, 

 with the dates of adoption of the law, are as follows: Ar- 

 kansas (1911), Colorado (1909), Idaho (1905), Minne- 

 sota (1911), Montana (1905), Nebraska (1901), Oregon 

 (1909), South Dakota (1911), Utah (1907), Wisconsin 

 (1909), and Wyoming (1911). 



Licenses in Arkansas, Colorado, Minnesota, South Da- 

 kota, Wisconsin and Wyoming are required only of non- 

 residents and those in Arkansas are local and limited to two 

 or three counties. 



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