If you're a non-resident Skeena lover, you have less than two weeks to voice opinion.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 12:12AM 
Is the sun setting on opportunities for non-resident Skeena anglers? Cam Miller photo.
The British Columbia Ministry of Environment (MOE) has spent the last year digesting non-resident angler input and has just released the “Phase II Consultation Report” on the Angling Management Plan.
Recommendations from those drafting the plan still include guided-only rivers, limited entry lotteries, time restrictions, and increased fees. Non-resident anglers have been given another narrow window of time in which to make themselves heard. They have an opportunity to let the Ministry of Environment and Tourism know what they think of this plan.
Generally speaking, the non-resident perspective on the AMP is this:
- Crowding is not a problem on the Skeena River System - the system is vast, and there are many options.
- As it stands today, the quality of the angling experience is excellent.
- The current non-resident licenses are high. For a non-resident to fish for a single day on a class 1 river, the license would cost $180. To fish for a week on a Class 1 river, and a week on a Class 2 river would cost $560 for a non-resident and $76 for a resident. To put this in perspective, a full fee commercial gillnet license costs $710.
- If any of the suggestions of the draft AMP are imposed, non-resident anglers will spend less time and money in BC.
If you're a non-resident angler that values the Skeena experience, you can help make a difference by following the steps at Steelhead Paradise to contact Environment and Tourism Ministries and share your thoughts. We understand that the decision will be made on November, 21st.
Reader Comments (12)
Generally speaking , this is a world class, destination fishery and needs to be managed like one. Crowding, illegal guiding and campers controlling sections of river are issues that need to be addressed. Things are going to change, NRA's have had a cheap ride for too long. If you think it is already too expensive take a look around the world, Norway, Russia, and even Quebec are at least double the price.
Hey Ronny, So you think all of the crowding, illegal guiding, camping are non-resident-aliens? Based on what study? This sham was put together by a hand full of locals and guides who think that anybody from outside their immediate area is an NRA. BC is a fairly big area, and residents flock to the banks of the Skeena and her tributaries every season. Anglers from Vancouver, Williams Lake, Victoria, Cache Creek and a hundred other cities, don't wear a sign stating they are residents. Most of the parking areas are full of BC plates, with the odd US vehicle.
And BC is one of the most expensive places in the world to fish. For what it costs me to fish for 2 weeks in BC I could spend 6 weeks in New Zealand, Argentina, Mexico, or even the good old USA.
A real shame this has come to this... No fish study,,,,, hell no real study at all.. Everyone is greedy it seems, and of course we NRA are not excluded from that statement.
Good Americans = The people who fish with Guides
Bad Americans = The people who would rather fish on their own.
Ronny, what a douche you are.
Sorry guys, I am a resident, and NRAs need to be controlled a little tighter. Northern BC is not your water. It's ours. And crowding may not seem like an issue to you, because you're used to fishing shoulder-up down there. Too much illegal guiding, and too many people. Both have a negative effect on my experience. BC should be more expensive. We have the best fishing. Period. If you don't want to pay, don't come to play. I would glady pay as much as you guys to fish my own water. If you think you deserve a cheap and easy ride to our waters, you are sorely mistaken. Don't even get me started on the d-bags that receive mail in Telkwa for six months so they can claim residency status...
Public water should be accessible for everyone not just locals or people with lots of money to throw down on fees and licenses.
Gready Canucks
Hey Kris, Sorry but i am not buying your story... If you knew of any NRA's that were faking their residency you'd turn them in. Just like all the illegal guides.. Anybody who hits the water with a friend and points to a riffle is an illegal guide to some of you. I've been coming up to the Skeena since the 70's and 99% of the BC residence are fantastic, but I've had the occasional issue. Mostly a non issue, but enough that I am aware that not all BC residence are happy to see us.
Most of the crowding I have experienced has been on the Kispiox, and a lot of it was from Guides. But the game has changed and these days the clients expectations are unrealistic. Combine that with paying a $1000 a day to fish and the Guides are under huge amounts of pressure to find that forty inch fish. They float around every corner hoping to find an open run, but somebody is in it. An NRA? Perhaps, but maybe its a resident from Price Rupert. who the hell knows?
Lack of access is a large contributor to the crowding issues as well.
Overall I have had great experiences in BC and have many great BC resident friends. Everyone has a different view it seems. If you own or work for a business that is supported by NRA DIY anglers, they want to to stay. if you are a guide, you'd want everyone to leave. Those born in the area feel as though their area gets invaded each year, and they seldom get to fish their favorite walk-in spots during high season. Obviously they'd like to have fewer anglers on the rivers.
This is not a new issue, but a couple of things have changed. First there is some big money at stake. Guiding operations charge between $5000 and $7000 for a weeks fishing. Lodge operations are worth a lot of money these days. The million dollar mark is not only unthinkable its more normal then not. The service industry that is supported by the NRA is already struggling, and if the recommendations are passed they will have larger financial issues. The resource itself is under attack from every angle. The wild fish are the foundation and have been completely overlooked.
Glad this will be over in a few weeks. Either way I plan to continue my annual trip north, and hope I am welcome.
Fishery Pimps gotta love them ..lol... I wish they would make it so expensive no would would og ..
It's not PUBLIC water, it's CANADIAN water. Pay up, or get out.
There are obviously good people, you are more than welcome to fish here. But we all know there are a lot of douches out there.
this is a funny situation , the canadian guides want this to be more expensive to keep people out .YOU ALL SIT HERE AND CALL EACH OTHER D_BAGS. You all sound like a bunch of cry babies . Not one of you looks for a solution to the problem . The best thing to do is issue licenses to people for certain times ,like they do when they issue hunting licenses for certain areas ,so you have to draw a permit for the area you fish .
The skeena water system is in trouble . Commercial fishermen are taking a hit there , the tribes are still gill netting ,and fish arent being managed very well .
You will put a bullet in the foot of the guides up there if this is implemented ,not to many canadians could afford to pay the price to fish ,so now you make the river and the fish for the rich only . Everyone deserves a chance to fish that system .You need to think about what you are doing before you up the fees because then you exclude alot of people . Make it so that residents and non residents have to put in for tags and a time period to fish the river to help control the over crowding .The chatter that some of you put on here calling people names and sounding like a bunch of kindergartners has to stop ,because you just dont get anywhere with that . Grow up guys !
I have been following this from the beginning 3 years ago and it now sounds like "Steelhead Health Care Reform". If only the US hadn't completely decimated its own world class steelhead rivers of the West coast, this probably wouldn't even be an issue. If the recommendations from the final phase II go into effect, it will still be possible to fish there and for only $100-$200 more per trip. Sure there will be restrictions on the number of days and certain areas will be more restrictive, but that is a fact of life these days. That is not outrageous and like some here have said is still cheap by some standards i.e. Quebec Atlantic Salmon. Look at the Dean, it has had an 8 day restriction with a lottery for some time now and people still seem to be able to go there, fish and have a great time. Sure it would be great if everyone could fish anywhere they wanted, never see another angler and catch huge fish all day long, but that is not a reality of modern times. Our world is in a situation with far too many people and growing at an alarming rate trying to utilize ever decreasing and degraded resources... this is just the tip of the iceberg...be thankful there are still steelhead in the rivers and you can fish at all.
"It's Canadian Water not Public Water" is just a plain idiotic and ignorant thing to say. I am sure you are just saying that to be controversial and try to piss off all of the people that come to fish "your" water....whatever.
First of all think of the big money lodges. They will stay in business and I don't think they really care about this plan. Most of them are fly-in or helicopter fishing and their clients won't blink an eye at the price hike on the licenses. They also do not feed the local economy, the NRA DIY fisherman do. In fact a US guy owns and runs the 2 main lodges on the Sustat, why don't you bitch at him? His company pretty much "owns" that river. By the time you were to hire a helicopter to fly you in dump you off to float out, it costs the same as the lodge. So they have that whole river to themselves for the whole season.
What you need to realize is that all the NRA help keep the infrastructure going in the Skeena River System area. All the local business owners in Smithers are fighting this AMP because they know that they will loose business and probably have to cut employees if less NRA DIY anglers come to the Skeena river system. Think about it, when I come there to fish I buy a license, buy booze and beer (which is un-godly expensive!), gas, shuttles, go to your restaurants and bars, stay at a hotel and buy groceries at the supermarket. I personally spent about 2 to 3 grand for the 10 days I was up there, and I was up there with three other people! That is a lot of business, and if you say that there are all these NRAs doing this for 3 - 4 months out of the year, I bet that is a BIG chunk of your local economy's business for the whole year, I know it is for mine. Living and working as a guide and outfitter in the Western US, most of my income comes from the 3 months of travel for families and fisherman in the summer and 2 months of hunters in the fall. We are battling the same thing with our NR hunting tags right now. They are very expensive for out of state hunters, $1,500. It has over doubled in the last 4 years and because of this, it has killed our hunting business and I dropped over 50% this year because no one wanted to pay that much to get a tag just to go hunting. Overall I would say that the hunting outfitting business in our area is down over 60% because of the price hike.
This is not factual info, only a guess, but I am assuming that Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and Utah get about 40% of their gross state income from the Outfitting (fishing and hunting), resort and hotel industries. It would make sense considering it is such a beautiful place with thousands rivers to fish, excellent public access to hunt and fish with a ton of national parks. I make a living off of it and I know thousands of people that do as well. Imagine what would happen if we raise NRA prices and restricted use on a lot of our river drainages? People would go out of business and loose jobs like crazy! It is already happening with the economy the way it is now anyway. Talk to the people in Smithers, they either work for the Railroad, for a logging company or in a local business. There are not to many job options there. What would happen if people started loosing work at the local businesses? This will happen and all the local economies will be hurt if you loose the NRA anglers........ maybe more of the unemployed locals will be fishing instead of working and the crowding will get even worse?
There is no doubt in my mind that the rivers are crowed here in the West, probably even more than BC. Salmon Fly season is stupid and crowded here and half the time they don't even pop off!!?!?! But you learn to live with it and find ways to get away from the crowds if you are good guide. The Skeena river drainage is probably at a different level and hard to get away from the crowds.
Canadians should be proud of their fishery, but not attack the NRA for the crowds. I am sure all of the attacks on this are just to get all the NRA's pissed and make stupid comments on this blog, but whatever. I am proud of what the Western US has to offer, it has the best places in the world to trout fish; but I don't go on about how the out of staters need to go home and get off my rivers because I know they help the economy and help me pay the bills.
Canadians, YOU NEED TO WORRY MORE ABOUT THE REAL ISSUE, THE FISHERY! If the price hike protects the fishery, than great. Yeah, yeah the rivers are overcrowded, but aren't they all in the world unless you have the $ to fly in somewhere? Look to what we did to the native steelhead in the Pac Northwest and California. I am embarrassed and ashamed we couldn't save it before all the hatchery fish got into the system and we killed all the native fish either buy bonking them sport fishing or killing them from commercial operations. You can continue to call us names, tell us that it is "Canadian water" not public water and go home, tell us we deserve to pay the high prices and you shouldn't have to pay anything.....BUT USE THE US'S PAST F*&K UPS IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST AND CALIFORNIA TO HELP UNDERSTAND WHICH IS MORE IMPORTANT, THE FISH....NOT YOU THE FISHERMAN. Without the fish you will loose the fisherman, the local economy and YOU will not be able to catch fish in "YOUR CANADIAN WATER" anymore.
^^ What he said. ^^
Listen to the man. He knows what he is talking about.
Hot Tuna over and out