Dear Members,
FWC has begun discussions surrounding what to do about out of state licenses and how they can increase funding with those licenses. They would like to increase the cost of both licenses that offer either a 3- or 7-day license. Plus, they have discussed potentially eliminating one to simplify their license sales system.
On top of this, we have been pushing and they seem receptive of potentially creating an out of state guide license for our state replicating close to what Louisiana already offers. This would mean folks who are not Florida residents, when they attempt to buy a guide license their only option would be a very expensive nonexempt guide license in the range of 2,500+ dollars. Plus, their guests would need to get licenses during their trips like our freshwater guides across the state.
On the note of freshwater guides, they have been suffering for a long time without the ability to buy a charter license that exempts their guests from needing a license. This means that when they have a charter, each of their guests must have their own license and currently that 3-day license is $17.99 in our state for out of state guests and the FWC wants to increase this.
Due to this conversation, they are desperately looking to be added to the saltwater guide option of buying a charter license that exempts our guests from needing a license. However, the issue is that FWC is looking to increase revenues and make our state a federally matched state that would maximize our federal funding and get the matched money were leaving on the table with the feds due to not selling enough licenses.
Florida guides deserve options, not a one size fits all solution.
Some folks around the state really want to see these federal funds match and are looking for ways to fully fund FWC and solve some issues that have been created lately with the lifetime license sales bankrupting the trust fund that funds FWC essentially.
Personally, I don’t think it’s any guide’s responsibility to worry about funding for a state agency that is part of a state government with a HUGE funding surplus. However, we have seen FWC come after the saltwater guide license exemption multiple years in a row with many different bills attempts to take away the ability for our guests to be exempted while fishing with us on our charter trips.
Due to this emergency need for funding for FWC (the reason they made out of state resident 3- and 7-day licenses unavailable online at the start of 2026) we have had some hard conversations around the FGA board. Most of these conversations were circular, contentious and ended in serious arguments, nearly fracturing our board.
However, we finally had a decent idea… an idea that many on our board started to see a possibility. Personally, I just want to see the businesses around the state reserve the right to choose. Meaning, I think we should as business owners have the authority to choose whether we want to purchase the privilege of exempting our guests or save a lot of money up front and have our guests nonexempt. This will allow businesses to choose if they want to help FWC with funding, help our state reach that full max, or if they want to have their guest exempt. We discussed the exempt license being a bit more than it is now, and the nonexempt license being as cheap as like $50 to entice the most potential participation by guides.
HOWEVER, WE WOULD ONLY support exploring this change if the FWC was willing to create a one-day license for $10 available to out-of-state residents. That would ALWAYS be available easily online.
So you as a business owner could choose to buy an exempt license that would be a little bit more up front but cover your guests all year, or you could save money and get the nonexempt license for $50 causing an FWC loss up front… but long run through the year, if you run 100 trips (easy math here guys) with an average of 4 guests that means FWC would get $10 x 400 guests or 4,000 dollars and then ALSO RECEIVE those federal match dollars making that even more valuable so the $50 up front for the nonexempt license could potentially be like $10 and FWC still is much more benefitted that if a guide opted to buy the more expensive exempt license that covers their guests all year.
It’s imperative that we reserve the right for guides to choose their path and choose how they want to run their businesses.
So in essence, we support a small increase in out of state license fees if FWC does the above so that our freshwater brothers could get a $50 license and their guests have the option for the $10 one day pass making their business operations much more smooth than they are now.
This plan would reserve business rights to choose exempt or not exempt, reserve that option to do exemptions, make out of state guides pay a higher entry, and help our freshwater guides statewide exponentially all while securing FWC funding and maxing out our federal funding match
This is an early attempt at beginning conversations, if you would like to discuss this, reach out to your local FGA regional director!
Tight lines,
Capt. Dylan Hubbard
President, Florida Guides Association
NOTE: Please check out the website occasionally. If you notice any issues, please contact our website team or me anytime!
My email is CaptHubbard@HubbardsMarina.com
