New York fishing license sales drop

[jimski2]

My family has four lifetime licenses and I realized some days soon that we will regret this action. Our Albany legislators began this program to have more money to spend while they were in office and left the future administrations to deal with this loss of revenues.

 

 

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[lost a lure]

If you feel that bad about it you can go buy one every year.

[stoneam2006]

As a younger guy I notice many my age don't fish hunt or trap. Probably due to growing up with computers and video games instead of being outdoors. I would imagine that has more of an impact than the lifetime holders. IMO

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[David Podlesnik]

I think it's a cultural thing as your are drifting further away from the good things in life. Broken homes and electronic gadgets have taken their toll. We can only hope there's a turnaround.

[Sk8man]

I think exposure to the sport may hold the key. Many current and emergent parents who grew up with computers and video games may not be exposing their children to outdoor activities such as fishing and hunting, and may be more concerned with and involved in formal athletic events as more of a social thing for the parents as well as the kids. I entertained myself with solitary outdoor activities from early on and was exposed to fishing at 4 yrs old by my dad and grew up supporting my fishing habit as a kid by trapping muskrats, having a paper route, shoveling walks, raking leaves, mowing neighborhood lawns to get enough money to buy cheap fishing lures and equipment. How many kids do you think do this sort of thing anymore?

Edited October 19, 2017 by Sk8man

[MCF]

The population of the state(at least the upstate) has dropped over the past 40 years.

 

Broken up homes.

 

Anti-fishing and hunting groups.

 

General trend away from outdoor activities.

 

The decline of interest in it started 25 or 30 years ago, now we are seeing the result.

[jimski2]

Maybe the license numbers have fallen but the revenues went up as d my twelve year old granddaughter received her lifetime license on her birthday. $250 and now the fifth family lifetime license.


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[orangediablo]

Hunting and fishing takes a different mindset than what is common today.  Everything is instant and seemingly effortless.  Want information on something?  Google it.  20 years ago, you had to actually RESEARCH and READ to find the answer, not spend 2 seconds online.  Think of the age bracket that make up hunters and fisherman.  It mostly consists of an age group who had to actually work for what they wanted.  You can't just go out in the woods, pick a random tree and shoot a buck.  It takes effort, time and skill that takes years of experience (and a little luck) to get the deer you want.  Same with fishing.  Years of being on the water, learning, experimenting and once again, EFFORT.  I've been hunting and fishing since I was 10.  I've experienced both worlds where I had to look up information i wanted in encyclopedias and books and search for answers, up to today where I develop software to get a year's worth of data in a matter of seconds.  Like MCF stated about the decline of interest 25-30 years ago, what in that time frame was on the up and up?  The internet.  Leaving us where we are now with everything being instant and the loss of patience in the younger generation.  Perfect example...I told my friend's two boys (5 and 9) i would take them fishing, so we got the gear and headed out.  We were fishing all of 5 minutes and they were already on whatever electronic devices their mother had brought, stated fishing is boring because we hadn't caught anything yet and were pretty much done.  I understand the attention span at those ages, but......

/rant.

 

 Sorry for the long post.  Also, there is a second reason that attributes to the decline of hunting and fishing, the initial and continuing cost of getting into and maintaining these hobbies, but that's a whole other bag of worms I won't get into.

[JJBat150]

The internet.  Leaving us where we are now with everything being instant and the loss of patience in the younger generation.

 

Pretry much sums it up - how many TV shows or internet videos show 20 seconds of sitting & calling to lure in a trophy buck, or 2 casts to catch a monster bass or trout ? I'm 46 years old - to me, hunting & fishing isn't necessarily about the end result, it's about the time spent in nature away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Something I'm trying to teach my 2 daughters.

 

3 year age difference (19 & 16), but what a difference in the two and their ability to deal with the whole "instant gratification" of today's society.

 

 

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[Xxx]

I agree 100% with Aaron, these kids nowadays, have no interest in hunting or fishing. When I was a little pisser, we couldn't wait to go out side and play, cowboys & Indians. Had a big tractor tire filled with sand and dump trucks and bulldozers, made roads and towns. Got a little older I got my first BB gun, there wasn't 1 metal can in the garbage can that wasn't riddled full of holes, those older Daisy lever load were accurate, we then started shooting at the black walnuts that hung from the tree. At the ripe old age of 12 I took my hunters safety course, went right to the gun shop and my dad bought my first real deal licence. The fire houses were full of kids then. I took my daughters to the class I don't think there was 10 kids there. Also I trapped and the money I made I bought my first car, was my brothers college buddy. 1966 Mustang 289 4speed needed work so I remember to this day I payed $250.00 and drove it home. When I was trapping up at 4:30 peddled my bike down and back and made the bus at 7:00am. Hell these kids have no idea how much we had to do to make a buck. Now they sit the F'around on their phone and play video games. I saw this starting at my house and my wife and I put the breaks to that!! Now they are into sports at school and I take them to our gun club which I'm a member of and teach them the ways of safety first, with my old single shot. They love fishing, to me that's what matters!!.

[rbonnell1]

I couldn't agree more these kids need to get off the electronic devices and start getting back outdoors.

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[Firechief48]

23 hours ago, Sk8man said:

I think exposure to the sport may hold the key. Many current and emergent parents who grew up with computers and video games may not be exposing their children to outdoor activities such as fishing and hunting, and may be more concerned with and involved in formal athletic events as more of a social thing for the parents as well as the kids. I entertained myself with solitary outdoor activities from early on and was exposed to fishing at 4 yrs old by my dad and grew up supporting my fishing habit as a kid by trapping muskrats, having a paper route, shoveling walks, raking leaves, mowing neighborhood lawns to get enough money to buy cheap fishing lures and equipment. How many kids do you think do this sort of thing anymore?

 

Sk8man it sounds like you led my life. You couldn't be more right with this. 

Edited October 20, 2017 by Firechief48

[stoneam2006]

I think exposure to the sport may hold the key. Many current and emergent parents who grew up with computers and video games may not be exposing their children to outdoor activities such as fishing and hunting, and may be more concerned with and involved in formal athletic events as more of a social thing for the parents as well as the kids. I entertained myself with solitary outdoor activities from early on and was exposed to fishing at 4 yrs old by my dad and grew up supporting my fishing habit as a kid by trapping muskrats, having a paper route, shoveling walks, raking leaves, mowing neighborhood lawns to get enough money to buy cheap fishing lures and equipment. How many kids do you think do this sort of thing anymore?

This is how I grew up and am on a mission to make sure my kids do too. My boy is 7 and is on his 5th trapping line starting wensday. Has been fishing since he could walk. For me it's a lifestyle...an awesome one.

My best friend doesn't hint trap or fish really and part of my push for a bigger boat was the ability to take both our family's out and enjoy the great outdoors NY has to offer. We went out twice this season with our kids and I think I have him hooked. He is researching boat set ups with me and hopes to help me set it up for spring. Anything I can do to help get some kids off the couch and realize what the outdoors has to offer is a win in my book. There's a guy named Robby Gilbert who runs a trapping tv show and his motto is "keeping the tradition alive" it really is as simple as that. Who's going to care in 30 or 40 years what happens to our lakes or woods? Who's gonna make sure the Dec keeps pushing to make the outdoors a better place. If we don't encourage our kids to be outside the future will be lost the tradition will end. Not good

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[Sk8man]

[bandrus1]

You guys can stick with the "kids these days" line

 

I'm going with 

 

A. Less people living in upstate NY due to economy

 

B. Less people own land these days. Hunting (which for the most part means fishing also) takes a lot of money if you don't have connections. A lot of private land is being leased to help pay taxes and people are posting everything they own and really limiting the outdoor activities.

 

 

[Sk8man]

Ben it is not as simple as just one or two of these things ....it is ALL of it together.

[stoneam2006]

You guys can stick with the "kids these days" line
 
I'm going with 
 
A. Less people living in upstate NY due to economy
 
B. Less people own land these days. Hunting (which for the most part means fishing also) takes a lot of money if you don't have connections. A lot of private land is being leased to help pay taxes and people are posting everything they own and really limiting the outdoor activities.
 
 

I kind of agree but if there is one thing NY does right it is public access. We have some incredible tracts of land available to hunt and some great fishing available from state launches to stream access.

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[bandrus1]

Owning a boat is a lot of money commitment so launches are not for everybody and sure the stream access is nice but realisticly being an outdoorsman is a rather expensive hobby unless you know people. Bottom line is I think it is way more  economic and population upstate issue and not them damn kids and their video games

[Zbrink42]

People don't buy fishing licenses because there is nobody out asking for them. I have only seen the number of fisherman increase in local spots around the buffalo area, but haven't seen a warden in years.


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[Sk8man]

They check around here... especially while ice fishing and during the late Fall when you are supposed to be wearing a PFD.

A major factor in the decrease in fishing licenses is that these days there are so many competing interests out there for both time and money (e.g. golf....occurs during prime time fishing season).

Edited October 21, 2017 by Sk8man

[jimski2]

Our hunting access areas have been limited by the “cityots “ who purchased some roadside property and shooting is not allowed within 500 feet of their residence. Consider that a half a dozen these properties and a mile of road access is gone forever.


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[Silver Fox]

If anyone thinks that the kids interests (smartphones,gaming, ect.) have not changed, then your clueless. These kids aren't outside playing with their friends. Their heads are in a down position looking at their phones. Smartphones were first introduced in 2007 and once this generation gets a bit more older and the older ones start getting out of the sport, your going to see a huge difference. This is peanuts right now.

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[Xxx]

Your 100% correct Fox!! My daughters are going to turn 13 in February, they got their phones when they were 11 because they started playing softball and times were alway different as to when practice was over, soon they had their face in the phone and started to alienate themselves from general talk after school. I don't know if it's that we are older parents or what, but these kids know so much it's scary as to what they can do with that F'n phone. We saw the writing on the wall, there were so many social chat apps. We made them delete how many apps. they had. No more taking it to bed as they were up to all hrs. and not doing what we know they are capable of doing in school, if they get caught their phone goes away for a week. This year they played softball and then field hockey, now they went with their friends to a pumpkin patch to pick their pumpkin to carve out and put on the front porch. If you can afford a new phone and a plan, then there's lots to do out there other then sit on the phone all day. I've been there, saw it happen, and turned their focus towards the outdoors and they are  better kids now!! They are away from all BS. and negativity, girls are worse then guys with their little pissing matches, they don't need to be subjected to this day in and day out!! Believe me when I tell you it can happen to anyone no matter how good of a job you think your doing as a parent.

Edited October 21, 2017 by pap

[momay4000]

7 hours ago, jimski2 said:

Our hunting access areas have been limited by the “cityots “ who purchased some roadside property and shooting is not allowed within 500 feet of their residence. Consider that a half a dozen these properties and a mile of road access is gone forever.


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Care to clarify? What exactly is a cityot and why can't someone purchase roadside property? I must be missing something

[bandrus1]

2 hours ago, pap said:

Your 100% correct Fox!! My daughters are going to turn 13 in February, they got their phones when they were 11 because they started playing softball and times were alway different as to when practice was over, soon they had their face in the phone and started to alienate themselves from general talk after school. I don't know if it's that we are older parents or what, but these kids know so much it's scary as to what they can do with that F'n phone. We saw the writing on the wall, there were so many social chat apps. We made them delete how many apps. they had. No more taking it to bed as they were up to all hrs. and not doing what we know they are capable of doing in school, if they get caught their phone goes away for a week. This year they played softball and then field hockey, now they went with their friends to a pumpkin patch to pick their pumpkin to carve out and put on the front porch. If you can afford a new phone and a plan, then there's lots to do out there other then sit on the phone all day. I've been there, saw it happen, and turned their focus towards the outdoors and they are  better kids now!! They are away from all BS. and negativity, girls are worse then guys with their little pissing matches, they don't need to be subjected to this day in and day out!! Believe me when I tell you it can happen to anyone no matter how good of a job you think your doing as a parent.

 

 

Pap bud look at your post count. You average about 3 posts a day on this site alone lol...