Am I an all-knowing fortune-telling soothsayer or what? It was not too long ago, back in the Feb. 9 edition of The Rural Virginian that I wrote a piece titled “License Fees May Go Up.” In this article I warned that the Board of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) was poised to increase fees for our right to hunt and fish. It had announced that an across-the-board price increase was on the agenda and the complete list of price increases was posted to the http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/regulations/comment-funding/proposed-language/4VAC15-20-65.pdf.

For the most part, the proposed price increases were modest. Only $5 for most commonly purchased resident licenses, such as the statewide hunting license, the statewide freshwater fishing license or the statewide fresh/saltwater fishing license. Specialized additional permits, such as deer, bear and turkey, archery and muzzleloader, were also set to go up $5. Non-residents were the ones threatened with some real sticker shock. The proposed increases in out-of-state permits were astronomical. Some were upwards of 200 percent. Not good news for the myriad of businesses that rely heavily on the out of state sportsman dollar such as hotels, lodges and guide services.

But this did not occur and the non-residents whom the tourism industry is hoping will return this year to enjoy Virginia’s hunting and fishing opportunities will see fee increases in line with resident increases percentage wise. For example; the resident freshwater fishing license went from $18 to $23 and the non-resident counterpart increased from $36 to $47, both roughly a 28 percent increase. The list of new hunting and fishing license fees can be seen on the DGIF website at http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/licenses/fees/new/.

When you compare the price increases in the proposed amendment to those in the actual price increases there’s a peculiar detail that I can’t seem to rectify. The old prices listed in the proposed price increase back in the winter are all lower than the old prices listed in the actual price increase list. For instance, the proposed price of a resident fresh/saltwater license would increase from $29 to $34, an increase of $5. Now that the price increases have been announced the price of the resident fresh/saltwater fishing license has increased from $35 to $40, an increase of $5. So somehow there was a price increase between the time that the board proposed to increase prices and the actual price increases. The board claims that this is the first price increase since 2006. In researching my February article I discovered that the last increase took place before the 2007-08 hunting season so to say this is the first price increase since 2006 would be accurate. The new increases take effect on July 1 and sales of any hunting license that runs a full year from the date of purchase has been suspended until July 1. Most hunting licenses run from July 1 through June 30 so there’s no chance of purchasing a hunting license before the increase but if you still haven’t picked up your fishing license for this summer you’ve got a few days to get one. You’ll still have to pay the higher old price though.