State Launch Fee's for Charter Operators.

[Yoda]

I would have to think that most if not all of us received a letter from a concession/Lease Manager, Mine came out of the Cheboygan office. We us one state launch in the spring so I was more that a little upset when she told me that It was going to cost me $200 a year to use state launches. One of the other charter operators us here just received a letter and his check returned.. I guess the State must have gotten a bit of heat over this one.. Anybody else hear of this program being stopped ?

[Capt. Mike]

Call Brenda at 231-597-0472 for more info.

[Yoda]

Got ahold of Brenda monday, Guess the stat in their wisdom desided not to make us pay the extra fee for using their launches

[Capt. Mike]

Got ahold of Brenda monday, Guess the stat in their wisdom desided not to make us pay the extra fee for using their launches

Did she say why they dropped it?

[Walleye Express]

My guess would be the flack they received from the charter guys who use state ramps. And from the many port cities Chamber of Commerce, for the blatant unfairness of charging charter boats an extra fee, when they are brining in out of state people who buy licenses, stay at local hotels/motels and eat at local restaurants. Or it may have been my letter to them (even though I port out of a marina) that I mentioned that I was but one more fee away this year from going postal.

[Capt. Mike]

Dan, Brenda told me that they felt the charter capt.'s with all the licensing we go thru, were already licensed to "lease" state lands.

But river guides still need to abide.

[Walleye Express]

Don't have to worry about that part, as long as Dow and Essexville don't sell or get their ramps confiscated by the state. Not a totally unheard of reality in this Obama era. I still think the whole idea is a crock of crap. As the people who buy licenses of all kind shrink in our state, the ones still pumping a little lifes blood into the system continue to get pimped out to balance the scales. If Homeland security don't put us all out of business the state eventually will. And you can only chop off so many limbs before the whole body dies.

[fishctchr]

We've had the discussion amongst some of the capts in Ludington that if they keep it up we should start selling a hat and shirt for $140 and take them fishing for free. Then it wouldn't technically be a charter so we could eliminate all the BS. I'm sure it wouldn't take long and there would be a new rule though.